Robert B. Parker

One could argue that best-selling mystery novelist Robert B. Parker has exquisite timing. Just as another season is getting underway, he's bringing out another in his popular series featuring former baseball prodigy and current small-town police chief Jesse Stone.

Growing up, I loved baseball as much as reading. As it worked out, I was a better reader than hitter. But, I still follow the game, and readers of this blog can expect occasional baseball-related posts. Right now, I have a request in for a copy of Odd Man Out, a new memoir of one young pitcher's short minor-league career (recently excerpted in Sports Illustrated.) Stay tuned for a future review.

But for today, here's my review of Parker's latest mystery:

NIGHT AND DAY, by Robert B. Parker. Putnam's, $25.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-399-15541-3

This is the eighth Jesse Stone novel—and more than half-a-hundred overall—for the prolific Robert B. Parker.

Stone, a former minor league baseball prospect and Los Angeles Robbery Homicide detective, is police chief of a 12-man department in small-town Paradise, Mass. Chief Stone's personal life is a mess: he drinks too much; talks to a poster of baseball great Ozzie Smith; and sees a shrink about his obsession with his ex-wife, a television personality whose "M.O. is to sleep with men who can advance her career."

Things are getting a little bizarre at work too. First, Betsy Ingersoll, the principal of the local junior high, creates a firestorm of protest when she conducts "the great thong search" before a school dance. The parents are outraged and demand action. It doesn't help Jesse's investigation that the principal's husband is a prominent Boston attorney.

Meanwhile, a Peeping Tom who calls himself the "Night Hawk" is at large in usually-bucolic Paradise. Soon enough—and against the odds—the incidents escalate from peeping to home invasion. At gunpoint, the voyeur forces women to undress and takes nude pictures of them.

If that's not enough, Jesse discovers the existence of a local swingers club that might be linked to the crimes. All in a day's work for our laconic hero who races to uncover the perpetrator before someone gets hurt.

After a long career, Parker remains a dependable author. NIGHT AND DAY is just the latest in a long line of first-rate mysteries.

QUOTABLE

"Baseball was the most important thing that didn't matter that he'd ever known."

"God is undoubtedly an ironist."

"Lots of women like to be looked at. If they'd just admit it."

"Police work is boring to describe."

"You sure you don't want another one of these doughnuts? It's cop food. You're a cop."