Robert B. Parker’s Fool Me Twice: A Jesse Stone Novel

Brandman once again smoothly channels Robert B. Parker (1932–2010) in his second Jesse Stone novel (after 2011’s Robert B. Parker’s Killing the Blues), though Stone’s muted reaction to several dramatic events will strike some readers as inappropriate. Stone, the police chief of usually tranquil Paradise, Mass., personally witnesses a near-fatal car accident caused by 17-year-old Courtney Cassiday texting while driving. When Courtney’s powerful parents stymie his attempts to make serious charges against her stick, he stakes out the girl in the expectation that she’ll break the law again. Meanwhile, several Paradise residents report falsely inflated charges on their water bills—and violence threatens when a big-budget movie shoot comes to town, complete with a megastar who’s afraid her estranged husband is out to kill her. More is less as the unrelated story lines compete with each other for depth, even if the larger-than-life lead is able to take them all in stride. Agent: Helen Brann, Helen Brann Agency. (Sept.)