(2010)Last Jesse Stone novel before author's death. Actually the Sunny Randall secondary story is much more interesting the Stone's as she tries to resolve a family's split over the teenage girl joining what the parent's think is a cult which actually gives her a much more meaningful life than her parents. Stone's is a forgettable murder to be solved involving local mobsters.From BooklistPetrov Ognowski is dead. A bullet bounced around inside his skull for about six hours before ?Suit? Simpson, a patrol officer in the small Massachusetts town of Paradise, found the body. Petrov worked for Reggie Galen, one of two crime bosses who call Paradise home. The other, Knocko Moynihan, lives across the street from Galen. Suit's boss, chief of police Jesse Stone, finally has occasion to find out why two onetime rivals choose to be neighbors. (Seems they married twin sisters, Rebecca and Roberta, known as the Bang Bang Twins in high school.) Reggie and Knocko are shocked about Petrov's fate but give Jesse no help with the case. In the meantime, Jesse, still hurting from the latest breakup with his ex-wife, is helping old friend, private detective Sunny Randall, star of her own series, track down a teenager who has moved in with a New Age commune. The three nonconverging plotlines are linked tenuously by one theme: the search for love¥the two mobsters with their Bang Bang twins; the teenager, denied affection from her rigidly aristocratic parents, with her commune cohorts; and Jesse and Sunny with each other. And the crimes? The commune is more creepy than comfy, and the Bang Bang Twins may have set in motion a series of events that will lead to violence. Parker's ninth Jesse Stone novel finds the series in slight decline. The plotlines are thinÂ¥hence the need for threeÂ¥but the dialogue is sharp, and the Jesse-Sunny romance has possibilities. --Wes Lukowsky

Synopsis: '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, 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. 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.
Stress 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 of her own, she goes to Jesse for help. As their professional and personal relationships become intertwined, Jesse and Sunny realize that they have much in common with both their victims and their suspects - and with each other.' From book jacket.

Review: Just weird throughout. ( )

First edition as new

The last Jesse Stone novel, although presumably Parker did not intend it to be. I've been saving it, knowing there wouldn't be anymore since Parker is no longer with us. But I've been dipping into things that don't grab me lately, and I knew this one wouldn't be a disappointment. Jesse needs to solve the murder of mobster who has "retired" to Paradise to live alongside his brother-in-law; their wives are identical twins with some odd recreational habits. Sunny Randall is in this one, too, hired to retrieve a rich couple's 18-year-old daughter from a spiritual colony they think is a cult, but which seems innocent enough to Sunny. The plot moves right along, as does Jesse's self-exploration. Without spoiling anything, I will say that Parker left our friends in a place I can live with.
Review written in 2010, before Michael Brandon and Reed Farrel Coleman took over the character and I gave up reading about him.

Split Image is the last Jesse Stone book that Robert B. Parker wrote before his death in Jan. of 2010. It was published the month after he died but appears to be pure Parker. Five or so Jesse Stone books have been published since his death by writers under license from his estate. I am not sure if I want to read those or not. The one continuation novel I started just didn't have Parker's touch with dialog and I put it down.

In this final the usual Paradise and Boston characters appear. Everybody but Spenser and Hawk and the bad guys have a strong Boston underworld connection. Jesse Stone's "how can I miss you when you won't go away" ex wife Jenn doesn't appear in this book. That was an unexpected change.

Who done it? Was it the interchangeable twin wives of the two mobsters who lived in side by side manisons by the water? The underlings and body guards of the mobsters or some other rival gangs. What was the spiritual cult in town doing at the same time, did that connect to the murders somehow. Read it and see. ( )