Robert B. Parker’s Blind Spot: A Jesse Stone Novel

Shamus Award winner Coleman, best known for his Moe Prager series (The Hollow Girl, etc.), successfully emulates the tone and style of the late Robert B. Parker’s nine Jesse Stone novels, though readers should be prepared for a cookie-cutter crime thriller with some additional backstory. Stone once hoped to play major league baseball until an accident ended his dream. Now Vic Prado, the Triple-A teammate whose throw led to Stone’s injuries, has convened a team reunion in New York City. Stone is disturbed to hear that Prado may have made the throw on purpose, but before he can probe the truth of that claim, he must rush home to Paradise, Mass., where a gunman has abducted Benjamin Salter, a wealthy college kid, and shot the boy’s girlfriend. Stone takes the law into his own hands as necessary, but is surprisingly blasé when a bad decision leads to a serious assault. Agent: Helen Brann, Helen Brann Agency. (Sept.)