Split Image, by Robert B. Parker
Mar. 16th, 2010 07:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aRobert B. Parker died about a month before the publication of what will presumably be his final Jesse Stone novel, Split Image. Readers immediately bemoaned the fact that they'd never get to know the final fate of Jesse and of Sunny Randall, not understanding that in publishing-world there are inevitably a few books in the pipeline--including this one, which was then already running off printing presses, here in the US.
The mystery is of Split Image is OK. The characters are great. Pretty much standard for both.
I was also really pleased to see that despite the fact that the book is labeled "A Jesse Stone Novel", it's really "A Jesse Stone & Sunny Randall Novel". They each have their own mystery to solve, and though Stone's gets a bit more attention, Randall's is more emotionally true.
Even better, Stone & Randall make some pretty definitive decisions on their on-again, off-again relationship.
I'm sad that Parker isn't writing any more, that this is probably the final story of Stone and of Randall. But, I'm very pleased with its ending, which is Jesse saying, "What an auspicious start." I don't think you could have had a better ending for Parker's other detective.
And word is that there are two more Spenser novels in the pipeline, plus one more western. I haven't read any of Parker's westerns yet, but I expect I'll start soon, as they now lie among the scant dozen novels by Parker (most of them standalones) that I have not read.
The mystery is of Split Image is OK. The characters are great. Pretty much standard for both.
I was also really pleased to see that despite the fact that the book is labeled "A Jesse Stone Novel", it's really "A Jesse Stone & Sunny Randall Novel". They each have their own mystery to solve, and though Stone's gets a bit more attention, Randall's is more emotionally true.
Even better, Stone & Randall make some pretty definitive decisions on their on-again, off-again relationship.
I'm sad that Parker isn't writing any more, that this is probably the final story of Stone and of Randall. But, I'm very pleased with its ending, which is Jesse saying, "What an auspicious start." I don't think you could have had a better ending for Parker's other detective.
And word is that there are two more Spenser novels in the pipeline, plus one more western. I haven't read any of Parker's westerns yet, but I expect I'll start soon, as they now lie among the scant dozen novels by Parker (most of them standalones) that I have not read.