Fool Me Twice

July 30, 2012
Brandman once again smoothly channels Robert B. Parker (1932–2010) in his second Jesse Stone novel (after 2011’s Robert B. Parker’s Killing the Blues), though Stone’s muted reaction to several dramatic events will strike some readers as inappropriate. Stone, the police chief of usually tranquil Paradise, Mass., personally witnesses a near-fatal car accident caused by 17-year-old Courtney Cassiday texting while driving. When Courtney’s powerful parents stymie his attempts to make serious charges against her stick, he stakes out the girl in the expectation that she’ll break the law again. Meanwhile, several Paradise residents report falsely inflated charges on their water bills—and violence threatens when a big-budget movie shoot comes to town, complete with a megastar who’s afraid her estranged husband is out to kill her. More is less as the unrelated story lines compete with each other for depth, even if the larger-than-life lead is able to take them all in stride. Agent: Helen Brann, Helen Brann Agency.

September 1, 2012
Autumn brings a major new headache for Jesse Stone, police chief of that summer hot spot, Paradise, Mass., along with two supporting headaches. One of the cases seems so modest it's hardly worth mentioning. Busybody spinster Belva Radford and nursery owner Renzo Lazzeri insist they're being charged more money on their water bill even though their consumption hasn't changed. But when Jesse mildly confronts meter reader Oscar LaBrea and his diminutive boss, William J. Goodwin, they shut up and lawyer up. The second case is annoying but routine. After spoiled debutante Courtney Cassidy's texting causes a serious auto accident, Jesse keeps citing her for other phoning-while-driving violations, and her wealthy parents keep shielding her from their consequences--until a judge gives her six months' community service at the police station. The meatiest case revolves around starlet Marisol Hinton, in town to shoot A Taste of Arsenic, who tells Jesse she's scared of her drugged-up estranged husband, nothingburger actor Ryan Rooney. In between bedtime rounds with the film's line producer, Frances Greenberg, Jesse persuades Frankie to hire his friend Wilson "Crow" Cromartie as Marisol's bodyguard. When trouble predictably arrives, Crow plays a refreshingly unexpected role. Though one of the three cases shows Jesse at his most annoyingly sensitive, the other two both reveal welcome and unexpected complications. Not bad for Brandman, who's only on his second installment of the Paradise franchise (Robert B. Parker's Killing the Blues, 2011).

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April 1, 2012

Paradise, MA, is no paradise for Marisol Hinton, who's there to film a movie even as she anguishes over the unrelenting jealousy of her estranged husband. Then she receives a death threat, and Jesse Stone swings into action. Brandman wrote 2011's best-selling Robert B. Parker's Killing the Blues and has written and/or produced a bunch of Parker adaptations for CBS.

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