Pun Salad

The newest entry in Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone series showed up in paperback, an easy, quick, fun read.

Things start off by recycling a bad guy from a previous book in the series: Wilson Cromartie, aka "Crow", arrives back in Paradise (a thinly-disguised Marblehead, MA), sent on a mission by a South Florida gangster to find his (the gangster's) estranged wife and daughter. Crow's previous visit was years ago, and most of his illegal activities at that time have been rendered moot by the statute of limitations, and the surviving witnesses are unwilling to testify against him on the rest. So all Jesse can do is watch and wait.

Crow is (however) a bad guy with a code of honor: there are some things you just don't do, and if you say you're going to do something, you do it. That's not much, but it does lead to an interesting semi-alliance between Jesse and Crow when the business arrangement with the Florida hood breaks down.

There is also a subplot about a bunch of Hispanic kids bused into Paradise from nearby disadvantaged neighborhoods. A group of concerned citizens get ostensibly concerned about property values, but are really just bigots. Or is there more to it than that?