A Jesse Stone Novel

· · ·
Latest release: September 6, 2022
Series
18
Audiobooks

About this audiobook series

Robert B. Parker and his legendary Spenser series have long been considered the ne plus ultra of detective fiction.  But the critics' praise for Jesse Stone's debut in Night Passage proved there was room for addition to the Parker literary canon.  "A novel as fresh as it is bold...Parker's sentences flow with as much wit, grace and assurance as ever, and Stone is a complex and consistently interesting new protagonist.  His speedy return will be welcome." (Newsday)

Stiles Island is a wealthy and exclusive enclave separated by a bridge from the Massachusetts coast town of Paradise.  James Macklin sees Stiles Island as the ultimate investment opportunity: all he needs to do is invade the island, blow the bridge, and loot the island.  To realize his investment, Macklin, along with his devoted girlfriend, Faye, assembles a crew of fellow ex-cons--all experts in their fields--including Wilson Cromartie, a fearsome Apache.  James Macklin is a bad man--a very bad man.  And Wilson Cromartie, known as Crow, is even worse.  

As Macklin plans his crime, Paradise Police Chief Jesse Stone has his hands full.  He faces romantic entanglements in triplicate: his ex-wife, Jenn, is in the Paradise jail for assault, he's begun a new relationship with a Stiles Island realtor named Marcy Campbell, and he's still sorting out his feelings for attorney Abby Taylor.  When Macklin's attack on Stiles Island is set in motion, both Marcy and Abby are put in jeopardy.  As the casualties mount, it's up to Jesse to keep both women from harm.  
Trouble in Paradise
Book 2 · Jul 2000 ·
0.0
Robert B. Parker and his legendary Spenser series have long been considered the ne plus ultra of detective fiction.  But the critics' praise for Jesse Stone's debut in Night Passage proved there was room for addition to the Parker literary canon.  "A novel as fresh as it is bold...Parker's sentences flow with as much wit, grace and assurance as ever, and Stone is a complex and consistently interesting new protagonist.  His speedy return will be welcome." (Newsday)

Stiles Island is a wealthy and exclusive enclave separated by a bridge from the Massachusetts coast town of Paradise.  James Macklin sees Stiles Island as the ultimate investment opportunity: all he needs to do is invade the island, blow the bridge, and loot the island.  To realize his investment, Macklin, along with his devoted girlfriend, Faye, assembles a crew of fellow ex-cons--all experts in their fields--including Wilson Cromartie, a fearsome Apache.  James Macklin is a bad man--a very bad man.  And Wilson Cromartie, known as Crow, is even worse.  

As Macklin plans his crime, Paradise Police Chief Jesse Stone has his hands full.  He faces romantic entanglements in triplicate: his ex-wife, Jenn, is in the Paradise jail for assault, he's begun a new relationship with a Stiles Island realtor named Marcy Campbell, and he's still sorting out his feelings for attorney Abby Taylor.  When Macklin's attack on Stiles Island is set in motion, both Marcy and Abby are put in jeopardy.  As the casualties mount, it's up to Jesse to keep both women from harm.  
Sea Change
Book 5 · Feb 2006 ·
0.0
A battered body washes ashore in Paradise, Massachusetts, during the town's biggest event - Race Week. Jesse's investigation takes him to Florida, and back, while his private life takes him back to his ex-wife.
High Profile
Book 6 · Feb 2007 ·
5.0
When the body of controversial talk-show host Walton Weeks is discovered hanging from a tree on the outskirts of Paradise, police chief Jesse Stone finds himself at the center of a highly public case. When another dead body–that of a young woman–is discovered just a few days later, the pressure to solve the crimes becomes almost unbearable.
Two victims in less than a week should provide a host of clues, but all Jesse runs into are dead ends. Yet what may be the most disturbing aspect of these murders is the fact that no one seems to care–not a single one of Weeks’s ex-wives, not the family of the girl. And when the medical examiner reveals a heartbreaking link between the two departed souls, the mystery only deepens. Forced to delve into a world of stormy relationships, Jesse soon comes to realize that knowing whom to trust is indeed a matter of life and death.
Stranger in Paradise
Book 7 · Feb 2008 ·
5.0
The last time Jesse Stone, police chief of Paradise, Massachusetts, saw Wilson "Crow" Cromartie, the Apache hit man was racing away in a speedboat after executing one of the most lucrative and deadly heists in the town's history. Crow managed to escape with a boatload of cash, never to be seen again. Until now.

When Crow shows up in Jesse's office some ten years after the crime, it's not to turn himself in. Crow is on another job, and this time he's asking for Jesse's help--by asking him to stay out of the way. Crow's mission is simple: find young Amber Francisco and bring her back to her father Louis, in Florida. It should be an easy payday for a pro like Crow, but there are complications. Amber, now living in squalor with her mother, Fiona, is mixed up with members of a Latino gang. And when Louis orders Crow to kill Fiona before heading back to Amber, he can't follow through. Crow may be a bad guy, but he doesn't kill women. It's up to Jessie to provide protection.

Meanwhile, Jesse's on-again, off-again relationship with ex-wife Jenn picks up steam as she investigates the gang problem for her TV station. As she and Jesse dig deeper, the danger escalates. The life of a teenage girl hangs in the balance, and saving Amber could be the miracle Jesse and Jenn need for themselves, too.
Night and Day
Book 8 · Feb 2009 ·
5.0
Police chief Jesse Stone has received his share of unusual calls, but none can top the one from the local junior high school. When reports of lewd conduct by the school’s principal, Betsy Ingersoll, filter into the station, Jesse is faced with a particularly delicate situation. Jesse, of course, would like nothing more than to see the prim, peculiar Ingersoll punished. But Betsy Ingersoll is married to the managing partner of the biggest law firm in the state, and Jay Ingersoll wants the matter buried. And he is used to getting what he wants.

At the same time, the women of Paradise are being threatened by a tormented voyeur, dubbed “The Night Hawk,” who’s been scouring suburban neighborhoods as evening falls. Initially he’s content to simply peer through windows, but as pressure builds, he becomes more reckless, entering homes, forcing his victims to strip at gunpoint, then photographing them at their most vulnerable. And according to the notes he’s sending, he’s not satisfied to stop there. It’s up to Jesse to catch the Night Hawk, before it’s too late.
Split Image
Book 9 · Feb 2010 ·
4.0
The body in the trunk was just the beginning.
           
Turns out the stiff was a foot soldier for local tough guy Reggie Galen, now enjoying a comfortable “retirement” with his beautiful wife, Rebecca, in the nicest part of Paradise. Living next door are Knocko Moynihan and his wife, Robbie, who also happens to be Rebecca’s twin. But what initially appears to be a low-level mob hit takes on new meaning when a high-ranking crime figure is found dead on Paradise Beach.
           
Stressed by the case, his failed relationship with his ex-wife, and his ongoing battle with the bottle, Jesse needs something to keep him from spinning out of control. When private investigator Sunny Randall comes into town on a case, she asks for Jesse’s help. As their professional and personal relationships become intertwined, both Jesse and Sunny realize that they have much in common with both their victims and their suspects—and with each other.
Robert B. Parker's Killing the Blues: A Jesse Stone Novel
Book 10 · Sep 2011 ·
5.0
The Jesse Stone stories continue even after Robert B. Parker’s passing with Killing the Blues.  In this novel, Jesse Stone is faced with what begins as a rash of stolen cars and escalates into arson and murder as Stone uncovers how deep this crime wave really goes.  All the while, Paradise, Massachusetts is preparing for summer tourism with the help of event planner Alexis Richardson, and she and Stone become involved in a steamy affair.
Robert B. Parker's Fool Me Twice: A Jesse Stone Novel
Book 11 · Sep 2012 ·
4.4
Autumn in Paradise, Massachusetts, is usually an idyllic time—but not this year. A Hollywood movie company has come to town, and brought with it a huge cast, crew, and a troubled star. Marisol Hinton is very beautiful, reasonably talented, and scared out of her wits that her estranged husband’s jealousy might take a dangerous turn. When she becomes the subject of a death threat, Jesse and the rest of the Paradise police department go on high alert. 
     And when Jesse witnesses a horrifying collision caused by a distracted teenage driver, the political repercussions of her arrest bring him into conflict with the local selectmen, the DA, and some people with very deep pockets. There’s murder in the air, and Jesse’s reputation as an uncompromising defender of the law—and his life—are on the line.
Robert B. Parker's Damned If You Do: A Jesse Stone Novel
Book 12 · Sep 2013 ·
5.0
The woman on the bed was barely out of her teens. She wasn’t exactly beautiful, but she’d tried to make the most of her looks. And now, alone in a seedy beachfront motel, she was dead.

Paradise Police Chief Jesse Stone doesn’t know her name. Whoever she is, she didn’t deserve to die. Jesse starts digging, only to find himself caught in the crosshairs of a bitter turf war between two ruthless pimps. And more blood will spill before it’s over.
Robert B. Parker's Blind Spot
Book 13 · Sep 2014 ·
4.0
Police Chief Jesse Stone is back in the remarkable new installment of the New York Times–bestselling series.
 
It’s been a long time since Jesse Stone left L.A., and still longer since the tragic injury that ruined his chances for a major league baseball career. When Jesse is invited to a reunion of his old Triple-A team at a hip New York city hotel, he is forced to grapple with his memories and regrets over what might have been.

Jesse left more behind him than unresolved feelings about the play that ended his baseball career. The darkly sensuous Kayla, his former girlfriend and current wife of an old teammate is there in New York, too. As is Kayla’s friend, Dee, an otherworldly beauty with secret regrets of her own. But Jesse’s time at the reunion is cut short when, in Paradise, a young woman is found murdered and her boyfriend, a son of one of the town’s most prominent families, is missing and presumed kidnapped.

Though seemingly coincidental, there is a connection between the reunion and the crimes back in Paradise. As Jesse, Molly, and Suit hunt for the killer and for the missing son, it becomes clear that one of Jesse’s old teammates is intimately involved in the crimes. That there are deadly forces working below the surface and just beyond the edge of their vision. Sometimes, that’s where the danger comes from, and where real evil lurks. Not out in the light—but in your blind spot.
Robert B. Parker's The Devil Wins
Book 14 · Sep 2015 ·
5.0

A Nor’easter blows into Paradise and churns up the past—in the stunning new addition to Robert B. Parker’s New York Times–bestselling series featuring Police Chief Jesse Stone.
 
In the wake of a huge storm, three bodies are discovered in the rubble of an abandoned factory building in an industrial part of Paradise known as The Swap. One body, a man’s, wrapped in a blue tarp, is only hours old. But found within feet of that body are the skeletal remains of two teenage girls who had gone missing during a Fourth of July celebration twenty-five years earlier. Not only does that crime predate Jesse Stone’s arrival in Paradise, but the dead girls were close friends of Jesse’s right hand, Officer Molly Crane. And things become even more complicated when one of the dead girls’ mothers returns to Paradise to bury her daughter and is promptly murdered. It’s up to Police Chief Jesse Stone to pull away the veil of the past to see how all the murders are connected.

Robert B. Parker's Debt to Pay
Book 15 · Sep 2016 ·
4.8
*New York Times bestseller*

The brilliant new novel in Robert B. Parker’s New York Times–bestselling series featuring police chief Jesse Stone. 


All is quiet in Paradise, except for a spate of innocuous vandalism. Good thing, too, because Jesse Stone is preoccupied with the women in his life, both past and present. As his ex-wife, Jenn, is about to marry a Dallas real-estate tycoon, Jesse isn’t too sure his relationship with former FBI agent Diana Evans is built to last. But those concerns get put on the back burner when a major Boston crime boss is brutally murdered. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Jesse suspects it’s the work of Mr. Peepers, a psychotic assassin who has caused trouble for Jesse in the past.

Peepers has long promised revenge against the Mob, Jesse, and Suit for their roles in foiling one of his hits—and against Jenn as well. And though Jesse and Jenn have long parted ways, Jesse still feels responsible for her safety. Jesse and Diana head to Dallas for the wedding and, along with the tycoon’s security team, try to stop Peepers before the bill comes due. With Peepers toying with the authorities as to when and where he’ll strike, Jesse is up against the wall. Still, there’s a debt to pay and blood to be spilled to satisfy it. But whose blood, and just how much?
Robert B. Parker's The Hangman's Sonnet
Book 16 · Sep 2017 ·
0.0
The stellar new novel in Robert B. Parker's New York Times bestselling series featuring Paradise police chief Jesse Stone.

Jesse Stone, still reeling from the murder of his fiancée by crazed assassin Mr. Peepers, must keep his emotions in check long enough to get through the wedding day of his loyal protégé, Suitcase Simpson. The morning of the wedding, Jesse learns that a gala 75th birthday party is to be held for folk singer Terry Jester. Jester, once the equal of Bob Dylan, has spent the last forty years in seclusion after the mysterious disappearance of the master recording tape of his magnum opus, The Hangman's Sonnet.

That same morning, an elderly Paradise woman dies while her house is being ransacked. What are the thieves looking for? And what's the connection to Terry Jester and the mysterious missing tape? Jesse's investigation is hampered by hostile politicians and a growing trail of blood and bodies, forcing him to solicit the help of mobster Vinnie Morris and a certain Boston area PI named Spenser. While the town fathers pressure him to avoid a PR nightmare, Jesse must connect the cases before the bodies pile up further.
Robert B. Parker's Colorblind
Book 17 · Sep 2018 ·
5.0
Police chief Jesse Stone returns in the newest novel in Robert B. Parker's New York Times--bestselling series, and his newest case hits right at the heart of the Paradise police force.

Jesse Stone is back on the job after a stint in rehab, and the road to recovery is immediately made bumpy by a series of disturbing and apparently racially motivated crimes, beginning with the murder of an African American woman. Then, Jesse's own deputy Alisha--the first black woman hired by the Paradise police force--becomes the target of a sophisticated frame-up. As he and his team work tirelessly to unravel the truth, he has to wonder if this is just one part of an even grander plot, one with an end game more destructive than any of them can imagine.

At the same time, a mysterious young man named Cole Slayton rolls into town with a chip on his shoulder and a problem with authority--namely, Jesse. Yet, something about the angry twenty-something appeals to Jesse, and he takes Cole under his wing. But there's more to him than meets the eye, and his secrets might change Jesse's life forever.
Robert B. Parker's The Bitterest Pill
Book 18 · Sep 2019 ·
5.0
The opioid epidemic has reached Paradise, and Police Chief Jesse Stone must rush to stop the devastation in the latest thriller in Robert B. Parker's New York Times-bestselling series.

When a popular high school cheerleader dies of a suspected heroin overdose, it becomes clear that the opioid epidemic has spread even to the idyllic town of Paradise. It will be up to police chief Jesse Stone to unravel the supply chain and unmask the criminals behind it, and the investigation has a clear epicenter: Paradise High School. Home of the town's best and brightest future leaders and its most vulnerable down-and-out teens, it's a rich and bottomless market for dealers out of Boston looking to expand into the suburbs.

But when it comes to drugs, the very people Jesse is trying to protect are often those with the most to lose. As he digs deeper into the case, he finds himself battling self-interested administrators, reluctant teachers, distrustful schoolkids, and overprotective parents . . . and at the end of the line are the true bad guys, the ones with a lucrative business they'd kill to protect.
Robert B. Parker's Fool's Paradise
Book 19 · Sep 2020 ·
4.8
When an unknown man is found murdered in Paradise, Jesse Stone will have his hands full finding out who he was--and what he was seeking.

When a body is discovered at the lake in Paradise, Police Chief Jesse Stone is surprised to find he recognizes the murder victim--the man had been at the same AA meeting as Jesse the evening before. But otherwise, Jesse has no clue as to the man's identity. He isn't a local, nor does he have ID on him, nor does any neighboring state have a reported missing person matching his description. Their single lead is from a taxi company that recalls dropping off the mysterious stranger outside the gate at the mansion of one of the wealthiest families in town. . . .

Meanwhile, after Jesse survives a hail of gunfire on his home, he wonders if it could be related to the murder. When both Molly Crane and Suitcase Simpson also become targets, it's clear someone has an ax to grind against the entire Paradise PD.
Robert B. Parker's Stone's Throw
Book 20 · Sep 2021 ·
5.0
Paradise is rocked by the mayor's untimely death in the latest novel starring police chief Jesse Stone.

The town of Paradise receives a tragic shock when the mayor is discovered dead, his body lying in a shallow grave on a property on the lake. It's ostensibly suicide, but Jesse's has his doubts . . . especially because the piece of land where the man was found is the subject of a contentious and dodgy land deal.

Two powerful moguls are fighting over the right to buy and develop the prime piece of real estate, and one of them has brought in a hired gun, an old adversary of Jesse’s: Wilson Cromartie, aka Crow. Meanwhile, the town council is debating if they want to sacrifice Paradise’s stately character for the economic boost of a glitzy new development. Tempers are running hot, and as the deaths begin to mount, it’s increasingly clear that the mayor may have standing in the wrong person’s way.
Robert B. Parker's Fallout
Book 21 · Sep 2022 ·
4.7
When two seemingly unconnected mysterious deaths occur on his watch, police chief Jesse Stone must pull out all the stops to unravel the truth and stop a killer from striking again.

The small town of Paradise is devastated when a star high-school baseball player is found dead at the bottom of a bluff just a day after winning the team’s biggest game. For Jesse, the loss is doubly difficult—the teen was the nephew of his colleague, Suitcase Simpson, and Jesse had been coaching the young shortstop. As he searches for answers about how the boy died and why, he is stonewalled at every turn, and it seems that someone is determined to keep him from digging further.

Jesse suddenly must divide his attention between two cases after the shocking murder of former Paradise police chief, Charlie Farrell. Before his death, Farrell had been looking into a series of scam calls that preyed upon the elderly. But how do these “ghost calls” connect to his murder? When threats—and gunshots—appear on Jesse’s own doorstep, the race to find answers is on. Both old and new enemies come into play, and in the end, Jesse and his team must discover the common factor between the two deaths in order to prevent a third.