Thursday, October 01, 2015

Review: "Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins: A Jesse Stone Novel" by Reed Farrel Coleman

“You know what I think, Chief Stone?”
“What’s that?”
“Most of the time he loses, but sometimes the devil wins.” (Page 243)


It isn’t a point Police Chief Jesse Stone can argue. First with the LAPD and now with the Paradise PD, Stone has seen things that prove to him that evil does exist in the world whether or not one wants to specifically ascribe such things to the devil. It is especially true currently with the discovery of the recent bodies in Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins.

The Nor’easter that struck Paradise, Massachusetts was a hard storm. It did damage around the area including causing the partial collapse of an old abandoned factory building on Trench Alley. This is an area of town that does not fit the picture post card idea of a scenic New England town and won’t any time soon. It is an area of decay featuring old and long abandoned warehouse buildings that in their day provided jobs and now serve to be last resort refuge for the homeless, drug users, and others.

In checking out the collapse, Office Molly Crane found a body. A body that near as she could tell in the few minutes she was surveying the scene had not been there long. She didn’t get to look at the scene much before the Fire Department folks arrived and she was ordered out of the building. Good thing to as minutes after Jesse Stone arrives on site and is briefed by Crane, more of the building collapses.

When, days later, Molly and Jesse are finally allowed back into the building they discover that the body is not alone. Two other bodies, dead for years, are also present. Two skeletons that, based on what little are left, appear to be childhood friends of Molly Crane. Two young teen friends who vanished without a trace years ago.

With Suit still recovering from recent events and limited to desk duty and Molly nowhere near the top of her game due to her close proximity to the case, it is up to Jesse Stone to figure out what happened and how everything is connected. He also has to stop a killer or killers bent on tying up their last few loose ends.

Author Reed Farrel Coleman’s latest effort in the Jesse Stone series is another good one. This read finds Jesse finally at home in Paradise (after all it has been ten years) and at peace with his drinking. In several other areas he is not remotely at peace and the guilt over those situations drives him as he works to solve the murders in a town that doesn’t want to deal with its own shameful past. Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins is another good one as Red Farrell Coleman makes it all work from start to twisted and surprising finish.



Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins: A Jesse Stone Novel
Reed Farrel Coleman
Thorndike Press (Gale Cengage Learning)
September 2015
ISBN# 978-1-4104-8027-9
LARGE PRINT Hardback (also available in regular print hardback, e-book, and audio formats)
490 Pages
$37.99


Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Public Library System who do not care if my review is objective or not and just want their books and movies back on time and undamaged.


Kevin R. Tipple ©2015

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