Night and day

Review by Booklist Review

Paradise, Massachusetts, has seen its share of crime since Jesse Stone became the police chief, and as officer Molly Crane observes, it seems more like Sodom and Gomorrah every day. This time trouble erupts when middle-school principal Betsy Ingersoll does a panty check of her female students before an after-school dance she was checking suitability, according to the unrepentant Mrs. Ingersoll. After Jesse and Molly have dispersed the irate parents, the questions of motive and potential charges remain at issue. It doesn't help that Mr. Ingersoll is the managing partner of Boston's most influential legal firm. There's also the matter of a peeping tom calling himself the Night Hawk in letters to Stone who has escalated from just looking to home invasion and photographing his nude victims. The key to the Night Hawk's identity may lie somewhere within Paradise's wife-swapping, swinging-couples scene. Stone, who continues to struggle with his drinking and his obsession with his manipulative ex-wife, is the most engaging of Parker's post-Spenser contemporary protagonists Everett Hitch and Virgil Cole from the author's two recent westerns are equally appealing. This is a solid, though lightly plotted mystery, but the dialogue is spot on, and the professional chemistry between Stone and his small force is its own reason to read the series.--Lukowsky, Wes Copyright 2008 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In bestseller Parker's fluffy eighth Jesse Stone novel (after Stranger in Paradise), the Paradise, Mass., police chief almost effortlessly performs his laconic magic to restore order and right wrongs. When Betsy Ingersoll, the junior high school principal, decides to conduct a check of girls' undies before an eighth-grade dance, it may or may not have been a crime, but it certainly provokes a firestorm of protests. Then there's a Peeping Tom calling himself the Night Hawk, whose activities escalate from watching to home invasions. In addition, the legal activities of a group of adults calling themselves the Paradise Free Swingers are badly affecting two children. Jesse's ex-wife, Jenn, and his deputies, Molly Crane and "Suit" Simpson, lend support. With a few bold strokes, Parker sketches characters and plot, then uses long stretches of his trademark pithy dialogue to carry the story briskly forward. The result may not provide much of a meal, but it's certainly an enjoyable snack. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Police chief Jesse Stone (Stranger in Paradise, 2008, etc.) must have put the fear of God into would-be killers in his little town of Paradise. Now he's reduced to hunting down a Peeping Tom. Someone calling himself the Night Hawk has graduated from spying on middle-aged brunettes as they disrobe for the night to confronting them in their homes with a gun and ski mask and forcing them to undress for photography sessions. The home invasions are no laughing matter for the terrified victims, of course, but their most notable feature is that the Night Hawk's helpless obsession with collecting more and more pictures of women he's never touched reminds Jesse of his own obsession with his ex-wife Jenn, a TV reporter who uses him to provide sex, affection and reassurance when she's not off in New York sleeping her way up the broadcast ladder. At length Jesse's 12-member force links the Night Hawk to the Paradise Free Swingers and to Betsy Ingersoll, a junior-high principal who's been a person of interest ever since she lifted the skirts of the 13-year-olds at a school dance to make sure their underwear was modest. When Betsy, who's protected by a husband who manages the biggest law firm in Massachusetts, claims she's been the Night Hawk's latest victim, Jesse's eighth and slightest case heats up, though barely to the point of serial felony. The usual navel-gazing is fleshed out with sage reflections about the psychology of voyeurs, though no mention is made of readers who love the frisson of second-hand crime. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dedication   Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52 Chapter 53 Chapter 54 Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Chapter 57 Chapter 58 Chapter 59 Chapter 60 Chapter 61 Chapter 62 Chapter 63 Chapter 64 Chapter 65 Chapter 66 Chapter 67 Chapter 68 Chapter 69 Chapter 70 Chapter 71 Chapter 72 Chapter 73 Chapter 74 THE SPENSER NOVELS Rough Weather Now & Then Hundred-Dollar Baby School Days Cold Service Bad Business Back Story Widow's Walk Potshot Hugger Mugger Hush Money Sudden Mischief Small Vices Chance Thin Air Walking Shadow Paper Doll Double Deuce Pastime Stardust Playmates Crimson Joy Pale Kings and Princes Taming a Sea-Horse A Catskill Eagle Valediction The Widening Gyre Ceremony A Savage Place Early Autumn Looking for Rachel Wallace The Judas Goat Promised Land Mortal Stakes God Save the Child The Godwulf Manuscript   THE JESSE STONE NOVELS Stranger in Paradise High Profile Sea Change Stone Cold Death in Paradise Trouble in Paradise Night Passage     THE SUNNY RANDALL NOVELS Spare Change Blue Screen Melancholy Baby Shrink Rap Perish Twice Family Honor     ALSO BY ROBERT B. PARKER Resolution Appaloosa Double Play Gunman's Rhapsody All Our Yesterdays A Year at the Races (with Joan H. Parker) Perchance to Dream Poodle Springs (with Raymond Chandler) Love and Glory Wilderness Three Weeks in Spring (with Joan H. Parker) Training with Weights (with John R. Marsh) G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS Publishers Since 1838 Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa   Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England   Copyright © 2009 by Robert B. Parker All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions. Published simultaneously in Canada   Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data   Parker, Robert B., date. Night and day / Robert B. Parker. p. cm. eISBN : 978-1-101-01605-3 1. Police chiefs--Massachusetts--Fiction. 2. Sex crimes-- Investigation--Fiction. 3. Voyeurism--Fiction. I. Title. PS3566.A686N53 2009b 2008054245 813'.54--dc22       This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.   While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content. For Joan: Only you beneath the moon and under the sun. 1 JESSE STONE sat in his office at the Paradise police station, looking at the sign painted on the pebbled-glass window of his office door. From the inside it read FEIHC , or it would have, if the letters hadn't been backward. He tried pronouncing the word, decided he couldn't, and stopped thinking about it. On his desk was a glamour head shot of his ex-wife. He looked at it for a time, and decided not to think about that, either. Molly Crane came from the front desk and opened the door. "Suit just called in," she said. "There's some kind of disturbance at the junior high school and he thinks you and I ought to come down." "Girls involved?" Jesse said. "That's why he wants me," Molly said. "I understand," Jesse said. "But why does he want me?" "You're the chief of police," Molly said. "Everybody wants you." Jesse glanced at Jenn's picture again. "Oh," Jesse said. "Yeah." Jesse stood, and clipped his gun to his belt. "Though you sure don't dress like a chief," Molly said. Jesse was wearing a uniform shirt, blue jeans, Nikes, a dark blue Paradise police baseball hat, and a badge that said Chief . He tapped the badge. "I do where it counts," he said. "Who's on the desk?" "Steve," Molly said. "Okay," Jesse said. "You drive. No siren." "Oh, damn," Molly said. "I never get to use the siren." "Maybe when you make sergeant," Jesse said. There were two Paradise police cruisers parked outside of the junior high school. "Who's in the other cruiser," Jesse said as they got out of the car. "Eddie Cox," Molly said. "He and Suit have seven to eleven this week." They walked into the school lobby, where a thick mill of parents was being held at bay by two Paradise cops. Most of the parents were mothers, with a scatter of fathers looking oddly out of place. When Jesse came in they all swarmed toward him, many of them speaking to him loudly. "You're the chief of police, are you gonna do something?" "I want that woman arrested!" "She's a goddamned child molester!" "What are you going to do about this?" "Do you know what she did?" "Did they tell you what happened here?" Jesse ignored them. He said to Molly, "Keep them here." Then he pointed at Suit and jerked his head down the hallway. Excerpted from Night and Day by Robert B. Parker All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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