Stone Cold

In Stone Cold, Jesse Stone has a problem no officer of the law likes to face: dead bodies keep appearing, but clues do not. A man takes his dog out for a run on the beach, only to be discovered hours later with two holes in his chest. A woman drives her Volvo to the mall to do some grocery shopping, and is found dead, her body crumpled behind her loaded shopping cart. A commuter takes a shortcut home from the train, and never makes it back to his house.

Hunting down a serial killer is difficult and dangerous in any town, but in a town like Paradise, where the selectmen and the media add untold pressures, Jesse begins to feel the heat. Already walking an emotional tightrope, Jesse begins to stumble: he s spending too much time with the bottle and with his ex-wife neither of which helps him, or the case. And the harder these outside forces push against him, the more Jesse retreats into himself, convinced despite all the odds that it s up to him alone to stop the killing.

As tough, clear-eyed, and sardonic as Jesse Stone himself, this is the Grand Master working at the peak of his powers.