Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Robert B. Parker's The Hangman's Sonnet (Jesse Stone) by Reed Farrel Coleman

I was convinced Reed wouldn't take the easy way out with this series and he doesn't disappoint. You see, it would have been easy to take the premise Robert B. Parker left him with and just tell the same story over and over again, never changing the character. Reed however manages to make Jesse Stone grow with each novel. I feel like Reed understands, knows, the character almost better than Parker himself did.
Struggling with alchohol and the death of his great love Jesse still manages to act as police chief, although his friends frequently need to cover his ass.
When a bulgary ends up in murder Jess investigates and becomes involved with the search for a missing master tape of a folk singer's biggest record.
For fans of Spenser (and who reading this blog isn't) there's also a cool short scene with the wisecracking PI that makes the book worth your purchase already.
There is absolutely a nice mystery within these pages that is wrapped up quite neatly. We see Jess clash with several authority figures and there's some wonderful characters walking around.  The highlight, however is how Jess moves on with his life and his struggles.
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2 comments:

  1. Jerry HouseNovember 22, 2017 at 7:32 AM

    I just finished reading this book and I agree in the most part. Coleman has taken Jesse Stone far beyond what Parker envisioned and has made Stone a deeper, more developed character. THE HANGMAN'S SONNET is a good but slightly flawed read. The McGuffin, at lest to me, was painstakingly obvious. Coleman uses a jarringly "tell, don't show" method in several spots in the books -- things that the editor inexplicably missed. Despite this, I recommend the book highly.

    (It's also interesting that, IMHO, the posthumous continuations of Parker's Spenser, Stone, and Cole and Hitch books all seem to outshine Parker's original works.)

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  2. jvdsteenNovember 22, 2017 at 7:51 AM

    Thanks for your comment, Jerry. Good insights! So great to ''meet'' another reader of my blog. If you want to keep up to date with the blog you can find us on Facebook, just search on "Sons of Spade".

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