Robert B. Parker's Debt to Pay

July 4, 2016
Coleman isn’t afraid to alter the status quo in his taut third continuation of Parker’s series featuring small-town police chief Jesse Stone (after 2015’s The Devil Wins). Jesse, who rebounded from losing his job with the LAPD because of his alcoholism, has found a comfortable landing spot in Paradise, Mass., and has reached the point where he feels confident that he can remain sober. But that resolve is tested by two intertwined developments that challenge his personal and professional life. His ex-wife, Jenn, is about to get married, and Jesse, who has found a new love in ex-FBI agent Diana Evans, hopes the ceremony will give him closure for a difficult relationship. And the man known as Mr. Peepers, “part serial killer, part assassin, part terrorist,” has resurfaced to torment Jesse. Mr. Peepers’s threat to murder Jenn sets up a complex cat and mouse game that will keep readers turning pages en route to an appropriate conclusion, which offers numerous possibilities for the next book. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM Partners.

July 1, 2016
Paradise police chief Jesse Stone is obliged to repay a debt he incurred to Boston mobster Gino Fish in the most precious coin of all.When Gino helped put Jesse in touch with the contract killer they call Mr. Peepers two volumes back (The Devil Wins, 2015, etc.), Jesse agreed that he owed Gino a favor. It's too late for Gino to call in the debt now that he's been shot to death, apparently by his own hand. But Vinnie Morris, who was Gino's right arm before he branched out on his own, reminds Jesse that the debt didn't die with Gino. So Jesse dutifully reviews the evidence in the case and soon establishes that the murder/suicide scenario in which Gino stabbed his receptionist/lover Drew Kaiser to death before shooting himself was choreographed by none other than Mr. Peepers. The hit man has clearly gone rogue, counting coup against Gino and Jesse, and it's anybody's guess where he'll strike next. Is his target Jesse himself, his ex-FBI girlfriend, Diana Evans, or his ex-wife, Jenn, now preparing to wed wealthy businessman Hale Hunsicker in Dallas? Or could he be aiming at Suitcase Simpson, the Paradise cop who wounded him with a lucky shot, or Molly Crane, the fellow officer he just doesn't like? Jesse jets back and forth from Massachusetts to Texas trying to guess his tormentor's next move, but it's obvious that someone will have to pay a heavy price in the end.The variety of tempting targets juices what's at heart just another game of cat and mouse, making Coleman's third impersonation of Robert B. Parker his best to date.

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August 1, 2016
Mr. Peepers, the sadistic professional assassin who loves his job, is back to collect the debt he feels he's owed from Jesse Stone, the police chief of Paradise, Massachusetts, who foiled one of Peepers' jobs and wounded him in the process. Though Peepers escaped, he is compelled to exact revenge by doing damage to those close to Jessehis ex-wife, Jenn, and his deputies, Suit and Molly. Peepers then ups the ante by leaving a series of clues designed to let Jesse know he's coming. Will he strike at Jenn's upcoming wedding in Texas, or are Peepers' targets really Suit and Molly? Coleman, a three-time Shamus winner, crafts a suspenseful, clever thriller that moves at breakneck speed, but it doesn't quite feel like a Jesse Stone novel. Rather, it's a psycho-killer story layered over with the characters Robert B. Parker created. But there's nothing wrong with that, except possibly for Parker purists.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

April 1, 2016

Distracted by his ex-wife's impending marriage to a slick real estate tycoon and worried about his own relationship with former FBI agent Diana Evans, Jesse Stone is caught off guard when a leading Boston crime boss is murdered. His top suspect: a crazed assassin named Mr. Peepers. Once again, three-time Shamus winner Coleman brings us Robert B. Parker's stalwart hero.

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