When I finished Colorblind, the previous book in this series, I wasn't sure how much I liked the "new" police chief of small-town Paradise. After all, Jesse Stone had sold his spacious coastal home and moved into a condo, discovered a grown son he never knew he had, given up booze and (gasp!) answered questions with more than two words. Not that I want anyone to bang around alone in a dusty old mansion or be a drunk, mind you, but those less-than-perfect aspects did make for a unique personality that I'd come to love over many years (this is the 18th in the series started by the late, great Robert B. Parker).And I must admit, over the first several chapters of this one, my doubts continued; the whole thing seemed to get off to a rather slow start (if nothing else, I got a bit weary of all the references to Jesse's not drinking anymore). But about a third of the way through, things started to get much more interesting. Jesse, it seems, isn't the only thing that's changed; vandalism, gangs, graffiti and drugs have crept into town to wreak havoc in the relatively close-knit community not far from Boston. And sure enough, the story takes a dark turn with the death of a teenage girl - an overdose. No one wants to believe she'd been an addict for some time, but once that was established as fact, efforts turn to finding who sold her the drugs with, of course, the hope that the arrest will lead to identifying others farther up the supply chain.
But as we all know, there's many a slip; just as Jesse and his department cohorts Molly Crane and "Suitcase" Simpson figure out who provided the girl with the lethal drugs, that figure turns up dead as well. And it gets worse; apparently, a drug ring has moved to town, so Jesse must use every trick in his bag - including his unlikely friendship with a local mobster - to get to the bottom (or more accurately, the top) of things. As if that challenge isn't enough to knock him off the wagon, he finds himself grappling with emotional upheavals on a personal level that threaten to provide the final shove.
By the end, though, I decided that Jesse is still a guy with whom I'd love to share a burger and beer (or in his case, lemonade). Put another way, this is another entertaining entry in the series and I'm already looking forward to the 19th. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this one.
Robert B. Parker's The Bitterest Pill by Reed Farrel Coleman (G.P. Putnam's Sons, September 2019); 368 pp.
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