(2009)Latest Jesse Stone novel and another very good one. Only took a couple days to read as the story really moved along. NO dead bodies except at the very end. Jesse tries to locate a peeping tom who goes to the next step and accosts women in their homes to have them strip then takes pictures of them. ( Booklist)Paradise, Massachusetts, has seen its share of crime since Jesse Stone became the police chief, and as officer Molly Crane observes, it seems more like Sodom and Gomorrah every day. This time trouble erupts when middle-school principal Betsy Ingersoll does a panty check of her female students before an after-school dance¥she was checking ?suitability,? according to the unrepentant Mrs. Ingersoll. After Jesse and Molly have dispersed the irate parents, the questions of motive and potential charges remain at issue. It doesn't help that Mr. Ingersoll is the managing partner of Boston's most influential legal firm. There's also the matter of a peeping tomÂ¥calling himself the Night Hawk in letters to StoneÂ¥who has escalated from just looking to home invasion and photographing his nude victims. The key to the Night Hawk's identity may lie somewhere within Paradise's wife-swapping, swinging-couples scene. Stone, who continues to struggle with his drinking and his obsession with his manipulative ex-wife, is the most engaging of Parker's post-Spenser contemporary protagonistsÂ¥Everett Hitch and Virgil Cole from the author's two recent westerns are equally appealing. This is a solid, though lightly plotted mystery, but the dialogue is spot on, and the professional chemistry between Stone and his small force is its own reason to read the series. --Wes Lukowsky

Synopsis: 'Police chief Jesse Stone has received his share of unusual calls, but none can top the one from the local junior high school. When reports of lewd conduct by the school's principal, Betsy Ingersoll, filter into the station, Jesse is faced with a particularly delicate situation. Ingersoll claims she was protecting the propriety of her students when she inspected each girl's undergarments in the locker room. Jesse, of course, would like nothing more than to see the prim, peculiar Ingersoll punished. But Betsy Ingersoll is married to the managing partner of the biggest law firm in the state, and Jay Ingersoll wants the matter buried. And he is used to getting what he wants.
At the same time, the women of Paradise are being threatened by a tormented voyeur, dubbed "The Night Hawk," who's been scouring suburban neighborhoods as evening falls. Initially he's content to simply peer through windows, but as pressure builds, he becomes more reckless, entering homes, forcing his victims to strip at gunpoint, the photographing them at their most vulnerable. And according to the notes he's sending, he's not satisfied to stop there. It's up to Jesse to catch the Night Hawk, before it's too late.' From the book jacket.

Review: Good story with interesting characters. I'm beginning to see a trend that weird people need psychiatric therapy. Jenn is finally gone! ( )

First edition very fine price clipped

This is the 2nd to last Jesse Stone mystery actually written by Robert B. Parker. Other authors have continued with the Jesse Stone series under license from Parker's estate. I tried to read one of those written in the style of RBP books but nobody could do Parker's dialog except Parker himself. Parker died in 2010. This story is about a peeping tom who escalates into other things. It also continues Jesse Stone's mostly off again relationship with his ex-wife Jenn the TV weather girl/actress/reporter. Jesse Stone's relationship with his ex-wife reminds me of the Dan Hick's song "How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away"? The other members of the Paradise, Massachusetts small police department appear including Luther "Suitcase" Simpson and Molly the only woman on the force. Several characters from the Spencer stories also spill over into Day and Night, including MA State Police Lt. Heally and Attorney Rita Fiore.

2021 book #28. 2009. Small town police chief Jesse Stone deals with the escalating behavior of a peeping tom. 8th in the series but 1st I read. Liked it enough I'll look up the rest of the series. Tom Selleck played this character is a series of TV movies.