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Robert B. Parker

Night Passage (Jesse Stone Novels) Paperback – July 1, 2001

by Robert B. Parker (Author)

3,844 ratings

Book 1 of 21: Jesse Stone Novels

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Robert B. Parker introduces readers to police chief Jesse Stone in the first novel in the beloved mystery series—a New York Times bestseller.

After a busted marriage kicks his drinking problem into overdrive and the LAPD unceremoniously dumps him, thirty-five-year-old Jesse Stone’s future looks bleak. So he’s shocked when a small Massachusetts town called Paradise recruits him as police chief. He can’t help wondering if this job is a genuine chance to start over, the kind of offer he can’t refuse.

Once on board, Jesse doesn’t have to look for trouble in Paradise: it comes to him. For what is on the surface a quiet New England community quickly proves to be a crucible of political and moral corruption—replete with triple homicide, tight Boston mob ties, flamboyantly errant spouses, maddened militiamen and a psychopath-about-town who has fixed his violent sights on the new lawman. Against all this, Jesse stands utterly alone, with no one to trust—even he and the woman he’s seeing are like ships passing in the night. He finds he must test his mettle and powers of command to emerge a local hero—or the deadest of dupes.

Print length

432 pages
Language

English
Publisher

G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication date

July 1, 2001
Dimensions

4.25 x 0.94 x 7.5 inches
ISBN-10

9780425183960
ISBN-13

978-0425183960
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Popular Highlights in this book

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You need to be able to hear the truth, he thought. You can’t hear the truth, you got nowhere to start.
Highlighted by 87 Kindle readers
Jo Jo Genest first got into the money business through a guy named Fusco that he met at the gym in Somerville.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Night Passage

“Parker’s sentences flow with as much wit, grace and assurance as ever, and Stone is a complex and consistently interesting new protagonist.”—Newsday

“Parker has always been a master of razor-sharp and witty dialogue, hard-driving suspense and memorable characterization. His Jesse Stone series promises to match if not excel the Spenser novels. Night Passage is a stunning debut.”—Houston Chronicle

“Vintage Parker.”—The Denver Post

“A page-turner...the protagonist is a believable, full-blooded man of Hemingwayesque dimensions. Full of action, spiced with fast-moving introspection.”—Forbes

“A winner.”—The Boston Globe

“You can always rely on Parker for some great talk and great scenes.”—Kirkus Reviews

More Praise for Robert B. Parker

“If weight is to be given to prolific output as well as to literary excellence, it would be no stretch to claim that America’s greatest mystery writer is Robert B. Parker.”—The New York Sun

About the Author

Robert B. Parker was the author of seventy books, including the legendary Spenser detective series, the novels featuring Police Chief Jesse Stone, and the acclaimed Virgil Cole–Everett Hitch westerns, as well as the Sunny Randall novels. Winner of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award and long considered the undisputed dean of American crime fiction, he died in January 2010.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0425183963
Publisher ‏ : ‎ G.P. Putnam's Sons (July 1, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780425183960
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0425183960
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.25 x 0.94 x 7.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #15,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,081 in Police Procedurals (Books)
- #2,742 in Suspense Thrillers
- #7,126 in Genre Literature & Fiction

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3,844 ratings

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Robert B. Parker

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Robert B. Parker (1932-2010) has long been acknowledged as the dean of American crime fiction. His novel featuring the wise-cracking, street-smart Boston private-eye Spenser earned him a devoted following and reams of critical acclaim, typified by R.W.B. Lewis' comment, "We are witnessing one of the great series in the history of the American detective story" (The New York Times Book Review). In June and October of 2005, Parker had national bestsellers with APPALOOSA and SCHOOL DAYS, and continued his winning streak in February of 2006 with his latest Jesse Stone novel, SEA CHANGE.

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Parker attended Colby College in Maine, served with the Army in Korea, and then completed a Ph.D. in English at Boston University. He married his wife Joan in 1956; they raised two sons, David and Daniel. Together the Parkers founded Pearl Productions, a Boston-based independent film company named after their short-haired pointer, Pearl, who has also been featured in many of Parker's novels.

Parker began writing his Spenser novels in 1971 while teaching at Boston's Northeastern University. Little did he suspect then that his witty, literate prose and psychological insights would make him keeper-of-the-flame of America's rich tradition of detective fiction. Parker's fictional Spenser inspired the ABC-TV series Spenser: For Hire. In February 2005, CBS-TV broadcast its highly-rated adaptation of the Jesse Stone novel Stone Cold, which featured Tom Selleck in the lead role as Parker's small-town police chief. The second CBS movie, Night Passage, also scored high ratings, and the third, Death in Paradise, aired on April 30, 2006.

Parker was named Grand Master of the 2002 Edgar Awards by the Mystery Writers of America, an honor shared with earlier masters such as Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen.

Parker died on January 19, 2010, at the age of 77.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

3,844 global ratings

5 star		63%
4 star		28%
3 star		7%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Ted Kozikowski

Alcohol driven detective in new position of Chief in Paradise

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 7, 2023

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Very pleased with this transaction. The writer has kept my interest with this action-packed novel throughout the writing with the intermingling of character's development into current positions of the community they serve as well as the ultimate destruction of bad guys and girls.

One person found this helpful

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Janaj

Cut book sheath

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 10, 2023

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The book is is good condition. The cover sheath had two slits where it look like it was cut with a razor blade.

One person found this helpful

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Mountain Cat Mom

Good into

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 30, 2022

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I like this because I'd always liked the times we saw Jesse Stone in the show on TV & it gave me a good intro to how he got to Paradise & his relationship with his ex-wife & the town, etc. My spouse always really liked it when we saw it on TV.

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Stick with Selleck

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 8, 2018

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I read this novel primarily because I am a big fan of the Tom Selleck "Jesse Stone" television movie series, and I have a certain grudging respect for Robert Parker, who at his best is a terrific mystery novelist. However, after a strong opening (a characteristic of most Parker novels), I found this story to be considerably inferior to the television adaptation, and replete with the flaws that ruin too many of Parker's works. In the end, it seems, Parker just can't help himself from going back to the same old well, and never mind how dry it may be.

When I was in graduate school, one of my instructors pointed out that Parker had started the "Jesse Stone" series in part due to criticisms of his much more famous "Spencer" series, which, after some years, had become quite cartoonish. I say "cartoonish" the sense that in Spencer's early novels, the private detective is very much a work in progress, learning and growing and making mistakes, whereas by the later books he is an unchanging monument to manliness who does not even age even though decades have passed since his maiden story. If I understand things correctly, Parker intended Jesse Stone to be less of a "Mary Sue" or "born perfect" character, and wanted him defined as much by his failings and flaws as his heroic qualities. And indeed, this is the way Selleck portrays Jesse Stone on television: a deeply flawed and troubled man, cracked right through his center by alcoholism and divorce, but tough enough and dedicated to do his job anyway. Unfortunately the novel does not live up to its potential in this regard.

NIGHT PASSAGE is the story of Jesse Stone, a young, hotshot LAPD detective brought low by a nasty divorce and a subsequent descent into alcoholism. Out of a job as well as a marriage, he is hired by a small New England town called Paradise to serve as its chief of police. Stone does not immediately realize he has not been hired in spite of his alcoholism, but because of it: the town's Selectman (basically the mayor), Hasty Hathaway, is laundering money and is also the leader of a radical, white-nationalist militia called Freedom's Horsemen. He also arranged the murder of the previous chief when he tumbled to Hasty's extra-curricular activities, via his henchman, the muscle-bound thug Jo Jo Genest. So: Hasty has every reason for wanting Stone to be as useless as he initially appears. Stone, however, proves to be a high-functioning alcoholic, and gradually begins to take up the threads of evidence which link Hathaway to Genest and Genest to Gino Fish, a Boston mob boss who figures in the "Spencer" series as well, who makes a deal with Hathaway to supply arms for his militia group. Much of the story turns on Cissy Hathaway, the unfaithful wife of Hasty, whose sexual peccadillos form a kind of web on which all these disparate mysteries hang. At the same time, Jesse juggles a relationship with a local A.D.A. and continues communication with his unstable ex-wife, all the while trying to establish himself in this strange new town.

I was disappointed in this book for a number of reasons. First, Jesse's age. I would have much preferred a middle-aged or even late middle-age cop to a handsome, fit young stud. Jesse seems entirely too sure of himself for a man who found out his actress wife was balling her agent, and subsequently can't leave the house without a quart of Black Label in his belly. Stone could hardly have been a cop more than five years by the time this story opens, yet he acts in such a way as to project a lifetime of police experience, and I didn't buy it at all. What's more, Parker is unable to prevent himself from strengthening Stone at the expense of his principal antagonists, Hathaway and Genest. This follows a long tradition of his in which the hero must be tougher, harder, and manlier than anyone else in the story. It may make for good fantasy-fulfillment from Parker and his readership, but it also slashes all the tension which would ordinarily take place in confrontations. Parker never learned, or perhaps forgot, that a hero is only as strong as his villain, and (consequently), the stronger the villain, the greater the heights to which the hero must rise. In fact, not only is Hathway - Genest weak in comparison to Stone, they are also somewhat pathetic in comparison to Gino Fish. In short, they just don't make the grade as bad guys, which sabotages the drama from the gitgo. Nor did I find Stone to be particularly likeable as a protagonist.

The book is further undermined by the militia story, which the producers of the TV version of "Night Passage" wisely left out in favor of the more conventional mob/money-laundering plot. It was an interesting angle for Parker to explore, but it doesn't really work, because -- once again -- he can't refrain from portraying the militia as a group of cowardly, bumbling oafs.

I believe that Parker's motives in starting the "Stone" series were good, and as I said, his habit of coming strong out of the gate with his novels made it easy to believe he had succeeded here once again. But in the end, he either couldn't or wouldn't escape the conventions that made "Spencer" in his later years such a tough pill to swallow. I'm afraid I'll be sticking to the TV movies from here on in. That's the Jesse Stone I can relate to.

13 people found this helpful

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Charles van Buren

Good mystery and police work

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 23, 2022

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This first volume in the Jesse Stone series is a well written, engrossing mystery. The characters are well developed with Stone being a sympathetic character despite his personal problems.

The problem I had with the novel is its portrayal of a militia group as large, well -organized, obedient to its leader and willing to engage in violence to pursue a rather silly, unrealistic goal. I have no experience with militia groups but I do know a bit about the Ku Klux Klan in the late 1960's - early 1970's. Most members of one of the more active Klaverns in central Mississippi back in the bad old days didn't even bother to show up for regular meetings or pay their dues. If I remember correctly there were less than a dozen regulars at the weekly meetings. Of those only a handful were willing to engage in violence or any serious lawbreaking. I find it hard to believe that a militia group in Paradise, Massachusetts would be much different. But that probably will not bother most readers who can enjoy the book without skepticism.

3 people found this helpful

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Greggorio!

A TOWN MEETS ITS DESTINY!!!!!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 17, 2013

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Reading NIGHT PASSAGE has been a fascinating experience. The majority of the Robert B Parker novels that I have enjoyed over the last three years have been from the hugely enjoyable Spenser series. As we know, NIGHT PASSAGE is the first in the Jesse Stone series and i have learnt that the two characters are not completely dissimilar. One (Spenser) is a private eye, and Stone sits on the other side of the law, doing essentially the same thing. But with less freedom. There is even a passage early on in the book in which Stone copies a thought that Spenser uses quite frequently word for word. The context is even the same.

One however, can not continue to compare the two any further at this stage as Spenser is infinitely more advanced than Stone. We are just getting to know the man, his weaknesses, his strengths, his morals, personal beliefs etc. And we are just getting to know the town of Paradise. Which, as it turns out, is not quite the innocent little haven town that its name might suggest.

Jesse Stone the cop, or the man, is not witty, or literate. He is not romantic. He is flawed. He is a drunk. He is, however, man enough to know this, and admit to it. He is also deeply committed to the office of town sheriff and everything that it represents. Which is good for the townsfolk of Paradise, and bad news for the troublemakers.

It turns out that the men in control of the town of Paradise are corrupt and led by one who is borderline delusional and not afraid to hurt people (or even worse) to get what they want. Jesse arrives in town and his experienced eyes see Paradise for the bent place that it is. He sees his new job, however, as a chance for redemption, and is determined to fix the mess the town is in, or die trying.

The book is a wonderful introduction to the Jesse Stone series of novels. A classic whodunit which contains sub mysteries, with one or two that are admittedly a little easy to solve. By the end, however, Stone saves the day, and the town, and finds himself on the path to self salvation as well.

3 people found this helpful

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P R J Matthews

excellent read hard to put down

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 2, 2018

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My wife and I have recently watched the series on TV featuring Tom Selleck as Jessie Stone so I got this first novel to see if we got more background to the reason behind his move from West to East coast USA. I wasn't disappointed it was a great read and apart from a couple of differences from the film I recon that Mr Selleck played Jessie to a T. Will get the next story in order when I have caught up with reading all my recent purchases.
P R Matthews

7 people found this helpful

Crystal

Jesse Stone

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 19, 2021

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I actually enjoyed this book. Fast pace, easy to read, strong characters and suspenseful. I was not sure what to expect because I don't usually read this genre. There was violence, crime, sex and swearing. There was tension as bad guys did more and more, assuming that the new police chief was their puppet.
I don't think that this is really a woman's novel but it was a good read. I expect that readership is mostly male. If you like a police story with great characters and creepy bad guys, then this is great for you.

One person found this helpful

Jl Adcock

Excellent opener to the Jesse Stone series

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 19, 2017

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Washed-up LA cop Jesse Stone turns his back on his failed marriage and heads east to Paradise in the opening novel of Parker's Jesse Stone series. What could have been a story full of cliches featuring an alcoholic cop on the skids is honed into something rather excellent. Parker makes the craft of writing look ridiculously easy; the spare prose and witty, believable dialogue moves the story along at a cracking pace. There is also a sense of stillness and space amongst the action. The plot is almost Western-like, with Stone riding into town and uncovering dark deeds in small town America that leads to murder and deceit on a grand scale. With a pitch perfect finale, Parker leaves the reader wanting more. Impressive stuff from a master of the genre.

6 people found this helpful

L F.

I prefer the film.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 23, 2019

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I bought the book as I'd really enjoyed the film featuring Tom Selleck, and wanted to compare the two.
I'm afraid that imho the film wins hands down.
I only finished reading it because I was comparing it with the film, to see how faithful that was to the original - I probably wouldn't have finished it, if it had been a stand alone purchase. Which tells you how good the writing seemed to me.
In the film, Selleck is physically much bigger and older than the book character and his portrayal is much better for it - he brings gravitas and experience absent in the book. Thankfully, the mob hitman Jo Jo Genest becomes Jo Genest in the film, and although a musclebound thug in the book his film portrayal as a psycopath of normal size by Stephen Baldwin is far more nuanced and interesting. I wondered why the Irishwoman Molly Crane in the book, was portrayed as a black woman in the film - this was a change I didn't think was for the better.

Redhenry

Loved it!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 7, 2014

Verified Purchase

I'd been aware of the Jesse Stone books for a long time, and had seen a couple of the TV films with the superb Tom Selleck. Spenser, though, was my guy. Witty and light-hearted in tone but punctuated by little jewels of descriptive prose. Also, Spenser, Hawk, Susan and the rest of the cast have become my friends over the years and I must have read some of the books five times. How could another series of stories compete? I watched another Jesse Stone film last weekend though and started to notice the things I liked about Spenser appearing in the Jesse Stone story. Yes, it's a TV adaptation but the snappy, economical dialogue was there, as was the real concern for ordinary people. I bought this first Jesse Stone immediately on the Kindle. Stone is as good a character as Spenser and probably easier to identify with for most people. The dialogue sparkles, the supporting cast are already developing their 'leitmotif' trademarks and the sense of place is delightful. There is a similar mix of booze, sex and violence but as with the Spenser books, Stone cares about people who are sidelined, ignored or downtrodden and there's the same idea that he is going to do the right thing regardless of the toes he steps on. I was also delighted to see a few of the minor characters from Spenserworld appearing in this story, such as Healy, the homicide commander, plus Gino Fish and Vinnie Morris. I've never come across an author who can do as much with a short sentence as Bob Parker and I am delighted to have a few more of his wonderful stories to discover.

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