This was a fair second entry in the new series by Robert Parker about ex-L.A. homicide cop turned small town police chief, but it was far from as good as it could have been. The good news is that, for the most part, Jesse hasn�t changed much. He�s still tough, still quietly self confident, still plays his cards very close to his chest and is still teetering on the edge of alcoholism, but holding his own through sheer will power. The supporting cast is still good, characters from the Spencer series Mr. Parker also writes are still making appearances and the bad guys in Trouble In Paradise are even more formidable then in Jesse�s first outing. The primary plot deals with a gang of professional criminals planning to isolate the upper class part of Paradise, a small island complete with shops and its own bank, from the rest of the town so they can rob it. While the idea of trying to rob an entire town was pretty far-fetched two of the bad guys, who reminded me of Spenser and Hawk gone bad, were interesting and made it fun. The best part of the book though was the secondary story of Jesse dealing with a group of upper class juvenile delinquents that burn down a gay couple�s home. Jesse�s maneuvering to get these spoiled rich kids the help they need to get straightened out was much more entertaining and believable then the story about the professional criminals.The bad news is Mr. Parker has pushed Jesse into the same sort of obsessed, self pitying wretch over his ex-wife that he pushed Spenser into, to the ruin of Spenser�s series, when Spenser�s lady love left him. No matter how tough you are a ruined relationship can hurt, it can even be devastating, but it�s difficult to believe, or stomach for that matter, that someone with Jesse�s strength of character would degrade himself as badly as Jesse did in Trouble In Paradise. Another unbelievable point for Trouble In Paradise is that the men and women in this book fall into bed with each other so often and so fast that Trouble In Paradise began to seem like a second rate soap opera. Maybe there�s something in the water in the town of Paradise (and maybe that�s why they named the town Paradise to begin with), but everybody there seems to be sleeping with everybody else. Illicit sexual affairs in Paradise aren�t just casual; they almost seem mandatory. To his credit Mr. Parker does acknowledge how silly this is by making it a source of humor when Jesse�s deputies tease him about his multiple sexual encounters, but so many people having casual sex in these days of Aids seemed ludicrous; not titillating. One things for sure though about the small town of Paradise, Mayberry it ain�t.
This series has enormous potential, but would be better served by focusing on Jesse dealing with the sort of problems, juvenile delinquency, marital violence and drug abuse, that would be more believable in a town such as Paradise. And for this series, or any of Mr. Parker�s books, to be as good as they can be then Mr. Parker has got to let his characters deal with their broken hearts better.
Average Grade: B
