Review of "Fool’s Paradise," by Mike Lupica

 Review of

Fool’s Paradise, by Mike Lupica, ISBN 9780525542100

Five out of five stars

The best Jesse Stone after Parker

 The defining characteristic that makes the Robert B. Parker books so good is the quality of the dialog. Snappy, succinct, to the point and humorous. This is without question the best novel featuring the Parker characters that was not authored by Parker.

 Jesse Stone has finally established reasonable control over his desires for alcohol and attends an AA meeting in a church. While there, he meets a man called Paul for the first time. Shortly after that, Paul’s body is found in the water, shot in the head in a manner that is conclusive for murder. With no identification on the body, it is difficult for Jesse and his crew to establish anything in the way of background. The first clue leads them to the home of a very wealthy local family.

 There are three main plot threads in this book. The first is the investigation of the murder of Paul, the second is the targeting of members of the Paradise Police Department by unknown assailant(s) and the third is the rekindling of the romance between Jesse and Sunny Randall. All three are handled very well, Sunny comes to Paradise when some backup protection is needed.

 A great novel where the two criminal investigations are kept separate, yet are intertwined, this is a book that could have been written by Parker. Presented with an anonymous segment with no data that can be used to establish a position in the sequence, it would be impossible to determine the author.