Split Image
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Product Description
Family tree ties prove deadly in the brilliant new Jesse Stone novel from New York Times-bestselling leader Robert B. Parker.
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 wife, 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. But what initially appears to be a low-level mob hit takes on new meaning when a high-status crime figure is establish dead on Paradise Beach.
Stressed 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, she questions for Jesse’s help. As their professional and personal relationships become intertwined, both Jesse and Sunny realize that they have much in common with both their victims and their suspects-and with each additional.
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First off, I was very sad to learn of Parker’s passing. I’ve read at least half of his books, and this did not dissapoint. Due to few pages and lots of white space = fleeting read time, I’m glad I got most of his books from the library. In any event, I shall miss future offerings from him. I especially liked the recent “Western” books.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Master detective writer Robert B. Parker, recently deceased, known for the Spenser series, westerns, and the silent, disturbed Chief of Police Jesse Stone, of Tom Selleck fame for you television buffs, has written an energetic tale with plenty of action, adventure, and entertainment. Jesse Stone once again ferrets out the truth, ending the crime and corruption, and in his own way, righting the wrongs. In the process he discovers like and recognizes his own failings.
Robert B. Parker, Ph.D., using a terse, no-nonsense style of writing, has had an illustrious career in the mystery/detective genre, dabbling most recently into Westerns with fantastic success. His prose is direct, his dialog realistic, and his events precise, lacking the unnecessary speechifying of excess description. Not unlike Hemingway or Graham Greene, Parker prolongs the vital facets of the tale and reduces the superfluous, allowing the reader to use his imagination. This makes for page-turning books and satisfactory conclusions. Every book is fun with a hidden depth for human improvement.
In Split Image, we have two parallel tales running simultaneously. The main tale deals with “retired” criminals, two murders, and a pair of twins who have the personal values of barn cats. Finding a body in the trunk of a car followed by the murder of one of the retired criminals, fearless but recovering alcoholic Jesse Stone sets out to end the corruption and solve the murders. In the midst of this tale, we encounter Private Investigator Sunny Randall seeking to protect an 18 year ancient girl from her parents and from the weird religious order where she currently resides. Various fights, sexual exploits, wit, and understatement surround the events and we are comfortable cheering for the winners and hissing the losers. This makes for a fun, enjoyable ride from the beginning to the end that includes a couple of psycho-therapy sessions for added interest.
Lacking falling into the trap of appearing preachy, Split Image has veiled moral lessons scattered throughout it. Blending this concept with concise plotting adds to the entertainment and educational value of the book. The odd practice of leaving out words in dialog, results in conversation that is both realistic and direct. This book, like most of Parker’s books has a decidedly “male” perspective and although fun and goal-oriented, would perhaps gain from a small more sensitivity and emotional description. On the additional hand, maybe that would detract from the essential charm of the book.
Highly recommended for readers of mysteries, detective novels, thrillers, and Jesse Stone fans. Robert Parker will be missed.
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
This was Robert Parker’s last book. Very fittingly it was a excellent one. Crisp,clean dialogue that was his trademark. Parker fans will read this book independent of this review. New fans should do so too. I am sad that we will never meet Chollo, Junior, Hawk, Healy, Belsen, Tony Marcuso, the gorgeous Susan Silverman, Sunny Randall, or Spenser ever again. A lifestyle has passed, a comfortable read in front of the fire has gone. My condolences to the Parker family tree on his death.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Robert B. Parker’s books are a delight to read. His wit is engaging, his dialogue, although repetitious, is clever and sharp, and his characters are full of life, familiar and likable. It is a joy to read about them even if nothing happens, and how much more when there is drama and suspense, as there is here.
Jesse Stone, chief of police in the ironically-named Paradise, is confronted by a murder of a gangster’s enforcer, by the killing of a crime lord, by gorgeous twin wives of two gangsters who need to solve their psychological inadequacies by dressing alike and by having sex with the same man, by angst over his unreciprocated like with his ex-wife, by his sexual attraction to Sunny Randall and by his sometime over-use of alcohol to dampen his angst.
Sunny Randall, the lovely private eye, suffering from her own inner struggles and frustrations over her own unreciprocated like with her ex- spouse and by her long term sexual attraction to Jesse Stone, is back in Paradise attempting to save a rich couple’s daughter from the clutches of a fundamentalist Christian cult. But is it a cult? And are the parents really looking out for their daughter’s welfare? Will Sunny switch sides?
It is appealing to read about two very likable and very strong and intelligent facts who fight against evil, such as Stone and Randall, who are to some extent crushed by the evil of their debilitating sexual hang-ups. Parker offers no psychoanalysis of his characters, but it is entertaining to watch their actions and reactions and make up our own minds. Ironically, we read of the “split image” of the twins and also of the dual conflicting drives of Stone and Randall.
I wrote a to some extent humorous tribute when I heard of Parker’s death. I thought he, having a healthy appreciation of life and a strong sense of humor, would appreciate it. I reflect it is worth repeating some of it.
Robert B. Parker, the leader of the Spenser and additional books, died on Monday, January 18, 2010. Then, for the first time since 1949, on Tuesday, January 19, on Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday, no one showed up at his grave to deposit the traditional three red roses and raise the toast to the father of mystery writing. This occurred here on planet. But in heaven, yes in heaven, it was very different.
God, who likes a excellent mystery, was at the gate to greet Robert, and Edgar was with him. There must have been a thousand angels lined up to the right and to the left of heaven’s gate, in a spirited adoring line to get Robert’s autograph.
Heaven, the angel’s knew, would be a more appealing place with both Parker and Poe there. Parker, in fact, had entered heaven with one of Poe’s books, for like the angels, he was looking forwards to an appealing eternity.
Poe gestured to Parker and offered him a glass of cognac to celebrate Parker’s arrival and to mark Poe’s birthday. For, you see, it was Poe himself that came to his grave on his birthdays. He would place three roses on his grave to remember the three of his tales that he liked best. Then he would toast himself, as a excellent writer should, on his successes.
That’s why no visitor came to Poe’s grave on January 19, 2010. Poe was celebrating in heaven. So were the angels. So was God. So was Parker. And there was joy that day in heaven, “evermore.”
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
As we all know the talented leader Robert B. Parker passed away recently so this is the ninth and final (unless some publisher pulls some unfinished manuscript out of a drawer and publishes it… which based on the leader’s declining product in recent years let’s hope not.) installment of the Jesse Stone series. As usual the town of Paradise has more than one crime landing on stoic Chief Of Police Stone’s desk simultaneously. One… as per the normal Parker-Stone template includes a young individual… in this case it is eighteen-year-ancient Cheryl DeMarco… who according to her snobbish, parents may be being held against her will and being “brainwashed” at a local tiny religious group called “The Bond Of Renewal”. The Renewal Group is known for their Christian beliefs… like and peace… no alcohol or drugs… and sex with the person you like. At this point… another Parker serialized character, private detective Sunny Randall enters the picture when Cheryl’s parents hire her to look into her daughter’s situation. At this point in time the reader has high hopes for this novel because as Jesse and Sunny place a match to with a mutual attraction… veteran Parker fans can be heard yelling out their window to the world beyond… “YIPPEE! WE’RE FINALLY DONE WITH THAT OVER ANALYZED DOWNER JESSE’S EX-WIFE JENN!!”
I admit I (and you) celebrated too soon. When you get to page twelve (equivalent to page five in “human pages” that have longer than three-inch sentences and don’t have half of every fourth or fifth page blank ) the ghostly-devilish image of Jenn is back. And it is back throughout the book. She echo’s through Jesse’s sessions with Dix the child psychiatrist who is even less boisterous than Jesse… but he gets paid more… and makes more devious body movements as a replacement for. It is there when Jesse gets drunk and talks to Ozzie Smith’s picture… it is there when he is amorous with Sunny.
The second and third crimes in quaint small Paradise are two murders. One is Petrov Ognowski a “slugger” (hit man) establish dead in the trunk of a car on the side of the road. The second is (here comes the best name in the book) “KNOCKO MOYNIHAN” a “retired” gangster who lives next door to fellow “retired” gangster Reggie Galen… and they are further linked by the fact that they married identical twin sisters the Bangston girls. Jesse’s detective work uncovers the fact that the Bangston twins have been known as “THE BANG-BANG TWINS” since high school and for excellent reason. It seems they not only dress alike… but they do everything together… and therein lies most of the irreverence in the rest of the tale. But just when you’re enjoying the tale additional than the detours into *JENN-OBLIVION*… Sunny goes to her own shrink… (sorry to say right) Dr. Susan Silverman… and since Spenser isn’t here to bubble over with effusive compliments for the ever annoying Susan… Sunny does: “YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL OF COURSE, SUNNY SAID: BUT YOU ARE ALSO THE MOST PERFECTLY PULLED-TOGETHER WOMAN I’VE EVER SEEN.”… and one fleeting page later… the information that every person in the world who has ever read more than one Spenser book has heard a thousand times too many… *SUSAN IS A HARVARD Ph.D*.
So as a diminutive… potentially enjoyable tale… is buried by the *DUELING-BUZZ-KILLS* Jenn and Susan… Jesse drunkenly babbles: “THOUGHT I WAS THROUGH WORRYING ABOUT IT… JENN’S HISTORY… THOUGHT I WAS PAST THAT… GUESS I’M NOT… MAYBE I CAN DRINK IT INTO SUBMISSION.” “HE DRANK SOME MORE.”
And later on after he summarizes: “I ONLY DRINK UNDER TWO CIRCUMSTANCES: WHEN I’M HAPPY AND WHEN I’M NOT.” Jenn and Susan are enough to drive any potential reader to drink!
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5