Split Image (Jesse Stone Novels Book 9)

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 love 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 love with her former husband 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 interesting to read about two very likable and very strong and intelligent figures who fight against evil, such as Stone and Randall, who are somewhat 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 somewhat humorous eulogy 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 think it is worth repeating some of it.Robert B. Parker, the author of the Spenser and other 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 earth. But in heaven, yes in heaven, it was very different.God, who loves a good 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 interesting 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 forward to an interesting 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 stories that he liked best. Then he would toast himself, as a good 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."

"Split Image", the final "Jesse Stone" thriller, can be more accurately described as a "Jesse Stone & Sunny Randall" thriller, as both Robert B. Parker protagonists are in it about equally. It's a fun, engaging story- stories, actually, as Jesse and Sunny are working separate cases- but there's really nothing you haven't seen before: Jesse investigates two murders that initially look like mob hits, but soon learns that intimate doings closer to home might have played a part in the crimes; Sunny looks into the case of a runaway girl, and- not surprisingly- finds family dysfunction at the heart of the matter.In other words, the dark underbellies of marriage and family life once again are the real culprits here. Don't worry, I won't get more specific, but let's just say that we've been down this path before. This time, the results are perfectly fine, but don't deliver the resonance and subtlety of similar Parker plots like the ones in "Paper Doll", "Early Autumn", and a few other entries with strong family elements. There's lots of sex, though, both of the healthy and strange varieties.Two particular sequences made me roll my eyes a bit. Both Jesse and Sunny experience "breakthroughs" with their psychiatrists, and I wasn't totally sold on what they learned. Jesse now believes that his own controlling nature is what caused his ex-wife Jenn to cheat, and Sunny comes to believe it was her fear of being turned into her weak, accepting mother that made her drive her strong husband away. So much for the idea of Jenn relentlessly cheating because of selfishness and career ambitions and Sunny leaving her husband because he was too controlling. Those were the general ideas put forth in earlier novels, and they seemed to make sense at the time. But I guess anything is open to re-examination.In the end, "Split Image" is the usual fast, engaging, and smart Parker read, and so you certainly shouldn't avoid it if you've been onboard this long. I just wish this last Parker-penned "Jesse Stone" novel was a little more sharp and memorable. But that's okay. Dr. Parker had given us so many great books over the years that one would be a cad to complain about the ones that are merely "pretty good".

I have been a fan of Parker's books for what feels like (and almost certainly has been) decades. It's tragic that this is his last book, not because I'm sad there will be no more, but because it is easily the worst Robert B Parker book I have ever read. For a long time, Parker got away with writing novellas that his publishers cleverly packaged to look like novels. To his credit, he packed so much into them that I almost never minded. This book is ordinary in the extreme. The plotting is pedestrian and the characterisation lame, and the boring repeated returns to Jesse Stone's emotional problems and their recurring drinking elements are numbingly over-stated. Not one, but both protagonists take us into long turn-the-page-to-get-to-something-interesting episodes with their respective shrinks. And the satisfying climax so characteristic of Parker when he is on form? It's not there. Twin two plot lines don't so much as go out with a bang as they surrender whining. I only give this two stars, instead of one, out of long-running loyalty to the author, but in truth, some of the books put out by other authors since Parker's death (in a shameless example of a mercenary estate in cahoots with an equally greedy publisher) are far better than this rather turgid tale.

When I reviewed Rough Westher here in October 2009 I regretted that the dialogue, typically smart and amusing though it was, no longer distinguished the characters: the good lines were distributed evenly. Sadly, Split Image takes that failing a stage further. We are in Jesse Stone, Sunny Randall territory but the dialogue - well, take this example:'"I need to get it organised in my own head," Jesse said. "Is sexual intercourse acceptable in the meantime?"'"It is," Sunny said.'"Oh, good," Jesse said."'Sunny stood up and smiled at him. "Enough with the love talk," she said. "Off with the clothes."'That could just as readily have featured Spenser and Susan Silverman, which seems a pity.Still, those of us whose devotion to Parker goes back decades are sadly aware that the posthumous titles are drying up; we will take Split Image for what it is. And that in itself isn't easy to define. Jesse and Sunny are engaged in two separate story lines; the couple belong together in this book because both are emerging from divorce and looking at the possibility of life together. Meanwhile, they are separately consulting their shrinks - Susan, indeed, is talking to Dr Silverman. As if one spill-over from Spenserdom isn't enough, Rita Fiore makes an appearance.Newcomers to Parker would do well to go back to the beginning and work through the complete oeuvre; by the time they get to Split Image for a second time they will have joined the rest of us whose critical faculties were suspended long ago. This one is flawed undeniably but only by the late author's own remarkable standards.

Mr Parker is a masterful writer. This book was full of all the wonderful things that make the Jesse Stone books so brilliant. The locality, the Jesse Stone team, all the characters - just such a wonderful book that you cannot put down.

Love them all and completely hooked on Jesse Stone. Robert B.Parker is a brilliant writer and takes you in a few words to small town USA.I have now read them all and wish there were more but alas Mr Parker has died. I am now going on to read everything else he has written.Must add that I watched all the Jesse Stone TV shows and they were good too but different to the books in that the books leave more to the imagination. Great stuff!

In good condition