Split Image (Jesse Stone)

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Author: Robert B. Parker
Creator: James Naughton
Publisher: Random House Audio
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$32.00~~
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Seller: whiteflamebooks
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

57 reviews
Sales Rank: 271646

Format: Audiobook, Unabridged
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 4
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 5.9 x 5.1 x 1.2

ISBN: 0739357484
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780739357484
ASIN: 0739357484

Publication Date: February 23, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Features:

•	ISBN13: 9780739357484
•	Condition: New
•	Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Also Available In:

•	Kindle Edition - Split Image
•	Paperback - Split Image (Jesse Stone)
•	Hardcover - Split Image (LARGE PRINT)
•	Kindle Edition - Split Image
•	Audible Audio Edition - Split Image
•	Hardcover - Split Image (Thorndike Press Large Print Core Series)
•	Kindle Edition - Split Image
•	Hardcover - Split Image (Jesse Stone, No. 9)

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
The body in the trunk was just the beginning.

Turns out the stiff was a foot soldier for local tough guy Reggie Galen, now enjoying a comfortable “retirement” with his beautiful wife, Rebecca, in the nicest part of Paradise. Living next door are Knocko Moynihan and his wife, Robbie, who also happens to be Rebecca’s twin. But what initially appears to be a low-level mob hit takes on new meaning when a high-ranking crime figure is found dead on Paradise Beach.

Stressed by the case, his failed relationship with his ex-wife, and his ongoing battle with the bottle, Jesse needs something to keep him from spinning out of control. When private investigator Sunny Randall comes into town on a case, she asks for Jesse’s help. As their professional and personal relationships become intertwined, both Jesse and Sunny realize that they have much in common with both their victims and their suspects—and with each other.

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 1-5 of 57

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Quick -- but not very satisfying -- read July 10, 2010
Noneofyourbiz (Oak Park, IL)
Reading this after Dr. Parker's passing makes it difficult to review. It's hard to separate the book from the poignancy of the event. Robert Parker was a prolific craftsman, a writer who entertained me for so long and I hold many of his characters close to my heart.

But unfortunately Split Image is not a very good book.

Most of my issues come from the addition of Sunny Randall to a Jesse Stone story. While I like both characters, and have hopes that they can make one another happy, in this book her presence is an annoying distraction.

First of all, her relationship with Susan Silverman made me uncomfortable. What's with the girl-crush? Even after the shrink explains to Sunny why she's so fixated on Silverman's clothes and make up and manner, it's not abated. One wonders why Parker devoted so much space to Sunny's adolescent adoration, and whether somehow Spenser was going to be introduced to some future Sunny story which, unfortunately, we'll never get to see.

I also can't believe that in 21st century Massachusettes, especially among young people like the girl Sunny and Spike try to help, that Spike's homosexuality is even an issue, much less the fascinating curiosity it's presented as here.

And last, there's a scene in this book, where Jesse meets with the women of the religious cult and asks them what's up, that feels like a virtual lift from an earlier story about a Paradise swingers' club.

If you're a fan of either series, you'll want to read this book. Otherwise, I don't think there's much to recommend it.

5 out of 5 stars

Split Image July 9, 2010
Bruce A. Lane
As always Robert Parker writes a good story. Robert Parker will be missed, and with him, his characters.

2 out of 5 stars

Eh!! June 27, 2010
William G. Straub (Silver Spring, MD)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Somehow when Parker teams Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall together, it stops being a great read. The story was so, so and the ending was just that. The book ended. I love the Jesse Stone books and have never read any Sunny Randall. Maybe I should get a Sunny Randall book to see what it is like, b/c the two of them just did not "make it" for me. I want to sincerely thank Robert Parker for all the great hours of reading that he has given me for many, many years. Fantastic author and may he rest in eternal peace and his family has my deep condolences. Wonderful author just missed on this one.

3 out of 5 stars

Families June 25, 2010
Mary E. Sibley (Carneys Point, NJ USA)
What does Jesse Stone know about a communal religious group in Paradise Sunny Randall is asking. Suitcase finds a car registered to Petrov Ognowski. There is a dead body in that Cadillac SUV. The police (Jesse) are interested in the death and the PI (Sunny) is interested in the religious organization, but Paradise isn't that big. ME is a medical examiner report. The city isn't Paradise for everyone. There is another dead person.

Sunny's clients in the religion matter dismiss her. Split image may apply to the twin wives of mobsters living in Paradise. Jesse learns the girl in the religious group, the focus of Sunny's attention, is missing. It is fun to read about Massachusetts and Boston and people having lunch at Locke-Ober. This is a braided story with two plot lines, (again a kind of split image).

The book is a good one. It has been reported the late Robert Parker left manuscripts on his desk.

5 out of 5 stars

Over 277 Enjoyable Pages June 8, 2010
Bookreporter.com (New York, New York)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

There always has been something very satisfying about finishing a new Robert B. Parker novel, all of which are so complete and satisfying. But alas, there is a sadness that accompanies the last page of SPLIT IMAGE, the first book released since his death in January. Indeed, while I am sure it was not done intentionally, the novel reads like a valediction for the two non-Spenser protagonists created in the 1990s: Jesse Stone, the chief of police for a small Massachusetts town, and Sunny Randall, the female private eye from Boston.

SPLIT IMAGE is also one of those titles that perfectly reflects what the book is about. Years ago, the late, great mystery author Ed McBain told me that he always tried to get titles that worked on multiple levels. So, for instance, ICE could be something you fall on in the winter, but it could also be slang for stolen diamonds or killing somebody. In SPLIT IMAGE, Jesse and Sunny, who had a brief affair in Beverly Hills many years ago, find themselves involved in two perplexing but unrelated cases in Paradise. Jesse's case starts when a soldier for a retired mobster is bumped off, and he soon finds that the mobster just happens to live next door to another mobster, one who is not so retired. They are not rivals as far as anybody knows. As a matter of fact, they are both married to sisters who are identical twins, hence a "split image."

Meanwhile, Sunny has been hired by the parents of a young woman who has run off to join a quasi-religious group in a town called "The Renewal." The group seems harmless enough, but they just might have a split image of their own --- and it could be far more sinister. Sunny is stifled when the young woman is apparently willing and happy to stay with the group while her parents are considerably shady and ready to break the law.

The genius of Robert B. Parker is that he was far more than a mystery writer. These books work on different levels. Indeed, as another great mystery writer, Lawrence Block, pointed out to me, Parker was writing romance rather than realism. The Stone and Randall books are not police procedurals or "whodunits" in the traditional sense. They are about deeply flawed protagonists searching for something greater than their lives and incapable of being anything other than knights-errant.

Chief Stone is a functioning alcoholic; he says in this book, "I made chief because the selectman at the time wanted a drunk they could control." And his problem with alcohol in the series stems from the torch he has carried for his ex-wife, Jenn. Unlike earlier books, Jenn does not make an appearance here. But when Jesse interviews the mobsters and meets their loving, attentive identical wives, he goes on a bender and ends up "passed out from strong drink." His faithful aid, Molly, covers up for him.

Sunny has had problems of her own in the past with her love for ex-husband Richie, who is now remarried and has a child. Sunny is far more in control than Jesse when she comes to him for help with her case. In fact, she goes around using the name "Stone" as an alias in her undercover work, perhaps trying it on for size like a young girl in love might do. She tells Jesse, "I think more highly of you than you think of yourself."

Again with the split image reference, Parker shows us two characters who are the split image of one another, circling carefully around, nursing their past wounds and looking for a possible new start. And as with the Spenser novels, there are multiple visits to the psychologist's and therapist's office in this book, with Sunny's shrink being none other than the love of Spenser's life, Dr. Susan Silverman. Fictional Boston, it turns out, is a small world indeed.

Has any mystery writer ever referred to modern psychiatry and analysis more than Parker? This is yet another thing that differentiates Parker from the hard-boiled, noir authors on which he did his doctoral dissertation. In noir, the protagonists can identify and even bravely battle their internal demons. But fate has destined them to fail, even if it is ultimately a heroic failure. Classic noir is existential to the core. Parker was far too optimistic to be a noir writer, and perhaps that was the secret of his success. Readers liked Spenser, Jesse and Sunny; they wanted them to succeed and wanted to believe that happy endings were still possible.

If SPLIT IMAGE is the last time we will read about Jesse and Sunny, readers will not be disappointed or saddened by the ending as this just might be the best of the Jesse Stone novels. And it is certainly Parker at his best, with 67 tightly written chapters spread over 277 enjoyable pages. As a novelist, I have been constantly amazed over the years by his ability to write cinematic, character-driven chapters of just four pages each. As a writer, that is not easy to do. The narrative discipline required to do that is remarkable. Robert B. Parker was able to do it every time out. Read SPLIT IMAGE, and you will see that we have lost a great writer. But the work lives on forever.

Showing reviews 1-5 of 57

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