Fans often feel uneasy when the creator of a popular character ventures into new turf, and sometimes their trepidation is justified. But readers of Robert B. Parker's immensely popular Spenser series can breathe a sigh of relief: while Night Passage doesn't feature Spenser, his usual gang of associates, or a Boston setting, it's vintage Parker--fast, witty, suspenseful, and engaging. Told in short, crisp chapters, it's the story of Jesse Stone, a 34-year-old ex-cop who just lost his L.A. policeman's job and his marriage due to a drinking problem. The book opens as Stone leaves California for his new job as chief of police in the picturesque town of Paradise, Massachusetts. But Paradise isn't as placid as it seems--in fact, it's a festering mass of petty corruption, right-wing militia, sexual scandal, and bad guys who favor strong-arm tactics. Night Passage boasts a delicious, classic setup: the lone lawman, new in town, must make his stand to clean the place up. Stone has been picked for the job because the town fathers figured he'd be weak and malleable; as he gradually pulls himself together, it turns out they have a surprise in store. Stone's qualities may remind you of Spenser's--he's taciturn, fearless, good-looking, and compassionate--and in the end the plot's pleasing complexities get resolved a bit simply. But Robert B. Parker is in fine form in Night Passage, with his smart-aleck wit under control and his prose at its economical best. Spenser fans and Parker neophytes alike will find plenty to enjoy here. And the setting is, after all, not far from Boston--dare we hope for a Spenser-Stone meeting in future books?

From Library Journal
The creator of the famed Spenser novels introduces a new detective series.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Entertainment Weekly
Not for nothing is Parker regarded as the reigning champion of the American tough-guy detective novel, heavyweight division. Over a 25-year career, the man has rarely composed a bad sentence or an inert paragraph. His 30th novel, which features brand-new protagonist Jesse Stone, a disgraced former Los Angeles cop with a drinking problem, proves no exception.

The New York Times Book Review, Marilyn Stasio
What can the 35-year-old Jesse Stone do that the ageless and presumably immutable Spenser can't? That's the question that keeps nagging as you read Night Passage, Robert B. Parker's strong first entry in a projected series about an alcoholic homicide detective struggling to rebuild his ruined life.

From AudioFile
In NIGHT PASSAGE, the corrupt city fathers of a Massachusetts town hire Jesse Stone as police chief because his bad record as an L.A. cop suggests that he will discharge his duties in the ineffectual way they need to continue their nefarious deeds. Jesse has far more character and capability than they give him credit for. The second volume continues Jesse's well-plotted adventures among the vividly drawn characters. Richard Masur gives an Apollonian reading of the narrative and nice impersonations of the characters. Y.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Jesse Stone's career as an LAPD homicide detective is over, as is his marriage, thanks largely to booze. The good news is that Paradise, Massachusetts, needs a police chief. What Stone doesn't know is that city father Hasty Hathaway and acting chief Lou Burke are looking for a pushover to put in charge, and they figure a lush might do nicely. They pick the wrong lush. Stone drinks too much, but he doesn't push easily. Soon he has tangled with Paradise's leading thug, Jo Jo Genest, and is becoming curious about the local militia outfit, to which most of the town's leading citizens belong. The new chief's suspicions about the town intensify when he learns that his predecessor has been murdered in remote Wyoming. As Stone's first major case plays out, he balances still-considerable feelings for his ex-wife against the nascent affair he's having with a local lawyer. The new series by the creator of the hugely successful Spenser books has a great deal going for it: an empathetic, painfully flawed protagonist; an atmospheric small-town setting rife with corruption; and a whole new set of fascinating secondary characters. Parker is a true craftsman, and he's also extremely versatile, as he's proved in the past with his mainstream fiction and with his little-known classic, Wilderness (1979), and as he now proves again with this fine new series. Wes Lukowsky

From Kirkus Reviews
After 24 Spenser titles (Small Vices, p. 90, etc.), Parker branches out with this tale of Jesse Stone, who's eased out of LAPD Homicide by his divorce-driven drinking, then hired by the sharp town fathers of Paradise, Mass., to replace Chief Tom Carson, who found out a little too much about Paradise. And there's lots to find out, because Board of Selectmen chair Hasty Hathaway--whose credentials also include heading Freedom's Horsemen, the local Aryan supremacist militia--is in bed with organized crime guys from Boston. Hasty's also in bed with Tammy Portugal (though you can hardly blame him: Mrs. Hasty is getting nasty with everybody in town but him); and when Tammy threatens to go public with their affair unless Hasty makes an honest woman of her, the stage is set for a no-holds-barred confrontation between Hasty, his crime connections (especially his fix-it man, body-builder Jo Jo Genest), his crooked cops, and Freedom's Horsemen (on one side) and taciturn loner Jesse (on the other). Longtime Spenser fans, who have been enjoying the clipped phone dialogue between Jesse and his ex, will be smacking their lips. But then, suddenly, everything's too easy. Jesse gets his drinking under control and makes key friends in Paradise. His force closes ranks behind him. The big-time mobsters get busy fighting among themselves. Jo Jo crumbles. Freedom's Horsemen implode. Don't even ask about Hasty. You can always rely on Parker for some great talk and great scenes. But you'll have to wait for later entries in this new series for a great story. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Jesse Stone, the protagonist of Night Passage, is separated from Parker's Spenser by more than a first name. A former L.A. homicide cop with a drinking problem, a broken marriage, and some lost dreams, Stone has just been hired to be police chief of the small Massachusetts town of Paradise. The Paradise power brokers are sure surprised when Stone not only doesn't look the other way at various goings-on but also starts looking into such matters as money laundering, militia activities, and murder. Unlike Spenser, who arrived fully formed in 1974, Stone has some pieces damaged or missing, giving Parker plenty to work with in future entries.

—Nancy Pate

FROM THE PUBLISHER

After a busted marriage kicks his drinking problem into overdrive and the LAPD unceremoniously dumps him, the thirty-five-year-old 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.

FROM THE CRITICS

Newsday

Parker's sentences flow with as much wit, grace and assurance as ever, and Stone is a complex and consistently interesting new protagonist.

Publishers Weekly

Great series characters can wind up tyrannizing their creators, who often seek relief in secondary series heroes. But Professor Challenger didn't save Conan Doyle from Holmes, Tiger Mann never put the kibosh on Spillane's Mike Hammer and Jesse Stone, though a finely wrought protagonist, won't keep Parker's fans from clamoring for ever more Spenser stories. Parker writes of Stone, an alcoholic cop booted out of L.A. Homicide only to be offered a job as police chief of a small Massachusetts town, in the third person, and his plotting suffers from the resultant multiple viewpoints. With Parker playing nearly all his cards face-up, there's little mystery and no suspense as Jesse uncovers, then foils, a murderous conspiracy on the part of a town official and his white-power militia. Also, many of the supporting characters, the official, his bully of a sidekick, a couple of mobsters and a burned-out teen whom Jesse befriends, will seem, though crisply carved, too familiar to Spenser devotees. And so will Jesse, for although alluringly moody and silent, he is, like Spenser, a tough man of honor who gets the job done. What's less predictable here are the complex, expertly shaded relationships, especially romantic, as Jesse flails and fails at loving both his ex-wife and his new girlfriend. The most powerful romance here, though, is between Parker and the written word. He has employed the third person before, most notably in Wilderness and the cop saga All Our Yesterdays. Still, his doing so is sufficiently rare that it is exceedingly satisfying to watch this prose master lay down his cool, clean lines from outside someone's skin.

Library Journal

The creator of the famed Spenser novels introduces a new detective series.

Kirkus Reviews

After 24 Spenser titles (Small Vices, etc.), Parker branches out with this tale of Jesse Stone, who's eased out of LAPD Homicide by his divorce-driven drinking, then hired by the sharp town fathers of Paradise, Mass., to replace Chief Tom Carson, who found out a little too much about Paradise. And there's lots to find out, because Board of Selectmen chair Hasty Hathaway—whose credentials also include heading Freedom's Horsemen, the local Aryan supremacist militia—is in bed with organized crime guys from Boston. Hasty's also in bed with Tammy Portugal (though you can hardly blame him: Mrs. Hasty is getting nasty with everybody in town but him); and when Tammy threatens to go public with their affair unless Hasty makes an honest woman of her, the stage is set for a no-holds-barred confrontation between Hasty, his crime connections (especially his fix-it man, body-builder Jo Jo Genest), his crooked cops, and Freedom's Horsemen (on one side) and taciturn loner Jesse (on the other). Longtime Spenser fans, who have been enjoying the clipped phone dialogue between Jesse and his ex, will be smacking their lips. But then, suddenly, everything's too easy. Jesse gets his drinking under control and makes key friends in Paradise. His force closes ranks behind him. The big-time mobsters get busy fighting among themselves. Jo Jo crumbles. Freedom's Horsemen implode. Don't even ask about Hasty.

You can always rely on Parker for some great talk and great scenes. But you'll have to wait for later entries in this new series for a great story.