Jesse Stone (character)

The Jesse Stone novels are a series of detective novels written by Robert B. Parker, featuring his fictional creation Jesse Stone. They are among his most recent works, and the first series in which the novelist uses the third-person narrative. There are eight books to date beginning with Night Passage (1997) continuing through Night and Day (2009).

The Jesse Stone character, starts out at about thirty-five years old, is a departure for Parker in that he is a deeply troubled man. A former minor league baseball shortstop, who injures his throwing arm, he was raised in Arizona and California.^[1] Having been dumped by his beautiful actress wife (actress Jennifer Stone), he was sacked from his job as a homicide detective for the LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division because of a drinking problem.^[2] Showing up drunk to an interview for a job as police chief for a small town of Paradise, Massachusetts (loosely based on the real town of Marblehead, Massachusetts), he is inexplicably hired. He quickly notices that the town is rife with big league crimes — the mob, white supremacists, wildly errant wives and a triple homicide. Stone knows this job will be more difficult than he anticipated. From Parker, comparing Stone to Spenser: "Jesse is a much more damaged individual who is coming to terms with himself as he goes along,..."^[1]

Novels

• Night Passage (22 September 1997)
• Trouble in Paradise (21 September 1998)
• Death In Paradise (1 October 2001)
  • Back Story (10 March 2003) - a Spenser novel that includes Stone
• Stone Cold (1 October 2003)
• Sea Change (7 February 2006) - mentions Spenser albeit not by name
  • Blue Screen (13 June 2006) - a Sunny Randall novel that includes Stone
  • Spare Change (5 June 2007) - a Sunny Randall novel that mentions Stone
• High Profile (6 February 2007)
• Stranger In Paradise (2008)
• Night and Day (2009)

Television adaptations

CBS has made the Jesse Stone novels into a series of movie specials starring Tom Selleck in the title role. The movies begin out of sequence with the original books but stay relatively true to storylines and character with exceptions made mostly for network viewing palatability. Tom Selleck plays the character almost as straight from the novels as possible. In real life, Selleck is much older (early sixties vs late thirties in the books) than Stone. The author has stated that he finds the Jesse Stone movies the most accurate portrayal of his books on TV, even going so far on his blog to say "Tom nails the character." ^[3]

Other regular characters have included: Viola Davis as Molly Crane, Kohl Sudduth as Luther "Suitcase" Simpson, and Vito Rezza as Anthony D'Angelo (as fellow members of the Paradise Police Department). The character of Anthony D'Angelo was no longer a member of that department at the time the 5th movie "Thin Ice" begins, and the character of Molly Crane was not mentioned as an active member of that department either, also effective at the beginning of "Thin Ice". Kathy Baker (from Picket Fences) reprises her role as Rose Gammon. Stephen McHattie appears in some of the movies as Captain Healy of the state police and likewise William Devane as Dr. Dix. Robert Harmon has directed all of the movies, and Jeff Beal has provided the original music.

Filmography

• 2. Jesse Stone: Night Passage (15 January 2006) a prequel to Stone Cold
• 1. Stone Cold (20 February 2005)
• 3. Jesse Stone: Death In Paradise (30 April 2006)
• 4. Jesse Stone: Sea Change (22 May 2007)
• 5 Jesse Stone: Thin Ice (1 March 2009) written by Parker, but not based on an existing novel
• 6 Jesse Stone: No Remorse (2009) Production is underway in Halifax, Nova Scotia

References

External links

• Jesse Stone page at Robert Parker's website
• Megan Walsh-Boyle interview with Tom Selleck - TV Guide - May 2007
• Bullets & Beer website - (With list of all of Parker's novels, including Jesse Stone)
• Jesse Stone: Thin Ice at the Internet Movie Database