Jesse Stone (character)

Jesse Stone (character)

Jesse Stone is the lead character in a series of detective novels initially written by Robert B. Parker. They were among his last works, and the first series in which the novelist used the third-person narrative. The series consists of nine books, starting with Night Passage (1997) and ending with Split Image (2010), which Parker completed before his death in January 2010 but did not live to see published. The series has been continued by Michael Brandman.

The Jesse Stone character starts out at about 35 years old. A former minor league baseball shortstop, who injures the shoulder of his throwing arm, he was raised in Arizona and California. Having been dumped by his beautiful wife (actress Jennifer Stone), he was asked to resign from his job as a homicide detective for the LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division because of a drinking problem that begins after his divorce. Showing up drunk to an interview for a job as police chief for the small town of Paradise, Massachusetts (loosely based on the real town of Swampscott, Massachusetts), he is inexplicably hired, because the corrupt president of the town board of selectmen (town council) thinks he will be easy to control. He quickly notices that the town is rife with big league crimes, the mob, white supremacists, wildly errant wives and a triple homicide. Stone knows this job will be more difficult than he anticipated. But Stone proves up to the task and makes a corruption case against the town council president and arrests him. The series chronicles Stone's cases as chief of the Paradise Police Department as well as his struggles with alcohol and his complicated relationship with his ex-wife. He is respected and well liked by the police officers in the town police department. He has a good working relationship and friendship with the State Police Homicide Commander, Captain Healy.

The character of Jesse Stone, a deeply troubled man, was a departure for the author. Parker, comparing Stone to Spenser, the protagonist of his first series and the one for which he was best known, said, "Jesse is a much more damaged individual who is coming to terms with himself as he goes along..."

Read more about Jesse Stone (character):  Novels, Television Adaptations

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