ROBERT B. PARKER'S FALLOUT

5 stars out of 5

Two deaths too close to home have Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief and recovering alcoholic Jesse Stone ready to fall off the wagon in this, the 21st book in this series. The first, a high school baseball star and nephew of Jesse's right-hand man, "Suitcase" Simpson, started Jesse's downhill spiral; the next to go, retired police chief and Jesse's close friend Charlie Farrell, put a glass in one hand and a bottle of Scotch in the other.

Such unexpected deaths are never easy on those left behind, but in both of these cases, they were unexplainable, at least on the surface. The teenager, for whom everyone had high hopes for a stellar career in baseball, is a possible suicide. But with such a wonderful future such a near certainty, why on earth would he kill himself? Clearly, Charlie was murdered; but what is the motive? The only thing the man was doing right before his death was looking into a string of phone calls to some of the town's elderly residents trying to separate them from their money. Even if he'd found out who was making the calls, would it have upset the perpetrator enough to commit murder?

Most of the action follows Jesse and his team, which includes series regulars Molly, Healy, Crow and Jesse's therapist Dix, as they try to find loose ends and tie them up. It also touches on Jesse's struggle with his own inner demons as well as his relationships, former, current and ongoing, with on-again, off-again main squeeze Sunny Randell and a few well-known mobsters. It even puts Jesse square in the middle of current events, trying to learn the ins and outs of cryptocurrency (good luck with that - I certainly haven't figured it out yet).

It is, all told, another stellar entry in a favorite series. I heartily thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy. Keep 'em coming!

Robert B. Parker's Fallout by Mike Lupica (G.P. Putnam's Sons, September 2022); 365 pp.