Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

9/14/14 Blind Spot, highlighting the late Robert B. Parker’s name, but written by Reef Farrel Coleman, is not a Jesse Stone novel, at least not in the Parker tradition. Mr. Coleman writes in his unique style which had led to several best sellers…but he is not Mr. Parker. In his novel, Mr. Coleman uses a highly detailed writing style to describe a Ponzi scheme by criminal elements and seemingly upright citizens to defraud investors. That style has none of the impact of that of Mr. Parker who, in a few words, created fascinating characters and plot elements. The brevity that Mr. Parker showed in his lean writing was one of the attractions to Jesse Stone, the police chief of Paradise, Massachusetts. Mr. Coleman, on the other hand, has a complex style, often repetitive, which takes a long time to say what Mr. Parker did in a line or two. That over-writing by Mr. Coleman may be due to his publisher demanding that the book run to the standard length for mystery novels: 300 – 400 pages, average…hence the repetition and excessive verbiage. Aside from the differences in writing styles, there are more serious issues. Mr. Coleman shows little understanding of the core characters in Jesse Stone’s life: Molly, Suitcase, and Stone himself. The banter, often with an underlying sexuality, respect, and friendship between Jesse and Molly, is gone; now it is strained and contrived. Molly has become little more than just another character in the office; in fact, now, Jesse refers to her as Crane. Suitcase has been relegated to a minor role; it is almost as though Mr. Coleman was given a list of characters to use in the novel and merely added them to give the illusion that they are important. When he is shot, Suitcase generates little concern; he could easily have been replaced by another of Jesse’s officers. There are other caricatures who move through the novel, including a bottom-feeding lawyer, Jesse’s state police friend, and a waitress who is abused by a violent biker until Jesse intervenes. Mr. Coleman also throws in a supposedly sadistic hired killer, referred to as Mr. Peepers, as a random element, hired by one of the investors in the Ponzi scheme to deal with those who had kidnapped his son and murdered his son’s girlfriend. This character is also underdeveloped, although written as being someone evil and dangerous Even the character of Gino Fish, high in the organized crime family in Boston, is another of those thrown in because Jesse had to contact a “hood” for help in stopping Mr. Peepers; Gino turns out to be a stereotype, rather than a genuinely evil presence. Most aggravating is Jesse selling out his moral code near the end. He saves his former girlfriend, but at what price; for the reader, it lays the foundation of a sequel to Blind Spot, featuring Mr. Peepers. Most inexplicable is how Mr. Coleman treats Jesse Stone. Jesse is now a drunk, an alcoholic who needs the bottle to plod through the day and survive the night. With the amount of drinking he does in the novel, Jesse should not be able to do his job with any degree of professionalism or concern for the safety of others. Jesse lost his job with the LA Police department because of his drinking; as Mr. Coleman writes him, Jesse should lose his job with the Paradise Falls Police Department. When Mr. Parker wrote about Jesse, he dealt with a sympathetic character who managed to gain control of his drinking as he gradually moved away from dependency upon booze. Mr. Coleman reversed that evolution of Jesse, turning him back into the practicing alcoholic. Another major issue in Blind Spot is the plot. Convoluted and twisted, with blatant sex during much of the action among four major characters, Mr. Coleman has managed to write what amounts, in some sections, to a "bodice ripper," rather than a Parker mystery. Jesse Stone becomes involved with a past love, then her friend who has underlying motives as an FBI agent to arrest the husband of Jesse's old girlfriend. Meanwhile, a former ballplayer friend of Jesse's who had married Jesse’s former girlfriend, is no longer satisfied with his wife; he lusts over Jesse’s current love interest. This lowers the story to that of an afternoon soap opera, rather than a taught mystery. Mr. Parker was able to suggest the underlying sexuality between characters without having to detail it in his novels. Mr. Coleman comes from the school of “show, not tell,” probably to draw in more readers. Removing the unnecessary sex scenes would, of course, reduce the length of the novel and would not have made the publisher especially happy. Beyond the above issues is that of the point of view in the novel. Mr. Parker tried to keep the point of view to that of Jesse Stone; Mr. Coleman constantly shifts his point of view, in the process confusing the reader and, basically, destroying the image that many readers have of Mr. Parker’s genius for creating tight, carefully scripted storylines that drew the reader in and carefully led him to the solving of the crime. On another note: Mr. Coleman has managed to lower the level of the Jesse Stone novels by including unnecessary obscenities. That seems to be the trend today: Throw in the F-bomb and a few others, mainly for some sort of shock value. But it doesn’t work in Blind Spot. The story should draw the reader in and move the interest along; foul language is just a gimmick, used by an increasing number of novelists, playwrights, and screenwriters when, apparently, they cannot find the words to elevate the content. Blind Spot is a week imitation of Robert B. Parker’s remarkable writing. His estate should give up trying to profit from that legacy, by cheapening it in the process of making a buck.