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While Stone still occasionally ruminates on his drinking problem and his crushing divorce, he is a lot more active here than in his debut, Night Passage. In fact, one might argue that this is more of a straight action novel told as only Parker could tell it, with sociological asides (some of his comments on the rich would undoubtedly please F. Scott Fitzgerald), sly glimpses of human monsters (the pecking order of bad guys), and the fascinating planning that goes into pulling off a caper of this magnitude.

The cinematic intercutting works beautifully and sets up the final confrontation with a nice inevitability. And since Parker is never without some second-act surprises, there are enough plot twists in the middle to keep you slapping those pages back. Parker's got the knack, and it seems he's never going to lose it.

The rich man's community is set up well, too. Although Parker doesn't seem crazy about rich folk in general, they are sketched honestly. He resists cheap shots and parody, which a number of recent bestsellers have indulged in too readily. Yes, there are a lot of nasty rich people, but I could name you a longlistof rather nasty poor people, too.

One has the sense that Parker needed Jesse Stone not so much for his career — which is running along quite nicely, thank you — but to keep himself from suffering series-itis. When you sit at the writing machine everyday, you get tired of using the same muscles. Although one may find similarities between Spenser and Stone, the series are sufficiently different to please both reader and Parker alike. I'd forgotten, for instance, how deft his third-person can be, especially in describing action. The opening of Wilderness, for example, is extraordinary in the simple way it sets up and foreshadows everything that will follow. One sees this again in his mainstream novel All Our Yesterdays, where he uses short chapters in the way silent-film directors used fade-ups and fade-downs.

Trouble in Paradise is one of those books that both men and women will like. Stone is a more believable character (for me) than Spenser, and the people he meets (good and bad) are more familiar to me than the typical cast of a Spenser novel. I think Parker's really on to something with these Stone books. These are damned exciting books, and Stone is a memorable and likable hero.

Oh, yes — and there's a character named Suitcase Simpson. Now how can you dislike a book with a guy named Suitcase?

——Ed Gorman

Ed Gorman's latest novels include Cold Blue Midnight, now available in paperback, Harlot's Moon and Black River Falls, the latter of which "proves Gorman's mastery of the pure suspense novel," says Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. ABC-TV has optioned the novel as a movie. He is also the editor of Mystery Scene Magazine, which Stephen King calls "indispensable" for mystery readers.

Entertainment Weekly

Publishers Weekly

The crime line is the stronger of the two, traced in prose as lean as any Parker has wrought, a grand little caper tale in its own right as Macklin collects a rogue's gallery of accomplices, isolates Stiles Island by dynamiting its bridge and harbor, then preys upon its inhabitants. Stone's romantic entanglements, particularly his troubled relationship with his ex-wife, add texture to the novel and are notably less sentimental than the amours of his Spenser stories. They manifest at times in a histrionic way, however -- as when the ex assaults a woman trying to get Stone fired -- that retards the surge of the crime story.

Stone remains a magnetic character, as silent as Spenser is chatty but equally strong, though likely too enigmatic at this juncture to engender the sort of reader affection that Spenser enjoys. Parker fans and all who love muscular crime writing will appreciate this tale, as the Boston-based crime master once again shows how to do it well, and with style.

Entertainment Weekly

Kirkus Reviews

Generously borrowing earlier capers, everywhere from Hammett's The Gutting of Couffignal to Sanders's The Anderson Tapes, Macklin, who seems more excited to be planning the score than to be counting the take, methodically gathers his troops (a crooked sailor, a crackerjack electrician, an explosives expert, and a killer) and prepares for an all-day assault on Stiles Island. Meantime, a couple of tell-tale clues (as in the amusing episode when Macklin, suitably disguised as a prospective buyer on Stiles Island, pays a visit to Jesse to check him out, and the two men compete in a race, as it were) put Jesse onto the gang with satisfyingly predictable results. All right, it's no Asphalt Jungle. But Parker writes so economically—even the women this time out have caught Jesse's terseness—that he almost has you believing this old, old story is happening for the first time.