High Profile (Jesse Stone)

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When a bullet-ridden body is found hanging from a tree in a public park in Paradise, Massachusetts, Police Chief Jesse Stone is called in to investigate the death. When he finds out the body is that of controversial talk show host Walter Weeks and that there was a second murder of someone close to Weeks, Jesse wants to solve the case quickly before the national media gets too much involved. He is also trying to help his ex-wife, Jenn, who claims she was raped. Jesse has plenty of suspects in the Weeks case and as he struggles to untangle the messy case he is also trying to untangle the messy relationship he has with Jenn and wonders just what his relationship with Sunny Randall is.

Although I usually enjoy reading Robert Parker's books, "High Profile" just didn't do it for me. All of his usual elements are in the book - his pitch perfect depiction of Boston and a story driven mostly by witty dialogue (if only I could think up comebacks as quickly as each character in the book does). The mystery aspects are okay - the plot of who killed the victims and why is interesting but not developed enough. Instead, most of the book is about Jesse and his complicated relationship not only with his ex-wife Jenn but Sunny Randall. Jesse spends way too much time dwelling over his relationship with Jenn and far too little time investigating the case. This might have been forgivable except for the fact that Jenn is one of the most unlikable characters I've come across in a book and it is hard to understand why Jesse is continually drawn to her. Sunny's character isn't much better as she is involved in a similarly conflicted relationship with her ex-husband Richie. Finally, when Parker does get back to the mystery of Weeks murder, while there are some nice plot twists, the scene where Jesse confronts the murderer ends in a totally unbelievable way.

"High Profile" is not one of Robert Parker's better books.

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