#killing the blues

Jesse Stone #10

by Michael Brandman

This is Michael Brandman’s first book in his attempt to carry on Parker’s series featuring Paradise Police Chief Jesse Stone.

One would expect Brandman to continue in the direction in which Parker has taken his lead characters.  Instead, Brandman moves Jesse Stone out of his condo and into a rental cottage in a different area of town and sends Stone’s serious girlfriend away to Europe. Also, the dialogue between Chief Stone and his officers isn’t quite right.  Officer Molly Crane has developed a different personality and her relationship with Chief Stone is now confrontational instead of good-humored. Everything is just a bit off.  And he repeats an entire scene, word-for-word, 30 pages later.  Did anyone edit this?

I’ve concluded that Michael Brandman may be a perfectly fine screenwriter, but he is no Robert B. Parker, and so I won’t be reading any more of the Jesse Stone series.