Robert B. Parker
Robert Brown Parker (1932-2010) was a New England soul with a Massachusetts heart and Boston blood. He had a mind patient enough to play the academic game (Colby College B.A., Boston University M.A. and Ph.D.). He taught at Northeaster University from 1971-1979, notching a full professorship in 1976. He was a Korean War veteran. His first novel was published in 1971. When he left academia for full-time writing in 1979 he had had five novels published about a private eye named Spenser.
By the time his life-long wife Joan (the model for Spenser’s love, Susan Silverman) found him dead at his writing table in 2010, he had written 39 Spenser novels, 9 novels featuring Jesse Stone (a L.A. cop who retires to a New England small town), 6 novels featuring Sunny Randall (a female private eye, ex-cop, Boston-based), and 4 Westerns about Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. An assortment of other books, including an authorized sequel to Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, rounded out his prolific career.
Parker rejuvenated the private eye literary field, one he loved and respected. He was a master of an ironic humor, economy of action, and an understated passionate drive in his protagonists. He had his literary jokes, but they were as often meant to puncture pretension as to wink at the reader.
After his death, Joan carried out Parker’s wishes (or his lack of territoriality) by arranging that his “properties” be continued by other writers who would respect the integrity of what he had created. I include those books here as well as Parker’s own addictive works.
DVD - Jesse Stone series starring Tom Selleck volume 1
DVD - Jesse Stone series starring Tom Selleck volume 1
"Death In Paradise": Emmy (R) and Golden Globe (R) Award winner Tom Selleck ("Three Men and a Baby" TV's "Magnum, P.I") returns as police chief Jesse Stone in another thrilling chapter in the "Stone cold" series, based on the best-selling Jesse Stone murder/mystery novels by Robert B. Parker. Settling into his role as the new Chief of Police in the town of Paradise, Massachusetts, Stone investigates the brutal murder of a trouble teenage girl found floating in a local lake. As Stone learns more about the girls' unhappy past, he beings to suspect that the affluent world of Boston might be involved and increasingly becomes obsessed with the case. Persistent and his determination to bring the killer to justice, Stone will do whatever it takes to finally solve this "Death In Paradise".
"No Remorse": Tom Selleck reprises his role as Jesse Stone, the anguished and relentless former Police Chief in the small town of Paradise, Massachusetts. While in self-imposed seclusion following his suspension from the Paradise Police Force, a mysterious series of related murders in nearby Boston draws stone back into the fold. Before long, he's following a crooked path that leads to none other than the city's most notorious crime boss, Gino Fish (William Sadler). Based upon characters created in best-selling author Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone books and co-starring William Devane and Kathy Baker, "Jesse Stone: No Remorse" is a trip to Paradise that you will not want to miss
"Thin Ice": "Thin Ice" is the fifth in the series of films starring Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone, the former Los Angeles homicide detective who starts his life over as police chief in Paradise, Massachusetts. Stone is shot while moonlighting on a Boston stakeout, leaving his friend fighting for his life and Stone out for justice. His rogue investigation to find the shooter leads him into Boston's shady underworld and into bed with a sexy Boston PD investigator (Leslie Hope, TV's "24"), who wants his head on a platter if he pursues the case. Meanwhile, Stone is approached by a broken-hearted mother (Camryn Manheim, TV's "The Practice") who is convinced her kidnapped son is still alive and living in Stone's town of Paradise. Soon Stone's career and his life are on the line as he races toward a twist ending you'll never see coming.
"Stone Cold": "Tom Selleck is perfect" ("The Hollywood Reporter") and Mimi Rogers sizzles in this eerie and riveting homage to the "Bogart-style" 1940s tough-guy film noire, brilliantly set in modern day. Selleck is Jesse Stone, a former L.A. homicide detective who left behind the big city and an ex-wife to become the police chief of the quiet New England fishing town of Paradise, Massachusetts. Stone's old habits die hard as he continues to indulge in his two favorite things scotch and women. When a series of murders take place, he's forced to face his own demons in order to solve the crimes.
Jesse Stone Collection: Volume 1 (DVD)