From Publishers Weekly
It's taken four novels, but finally Parker's Jesse Stone series has produced a book as good as top-drawer Spenser. This outing finds the laconic, troubled cop tackling three problems: to capture the pair of serial killers who are murdering random victims in small-town Paradise, Mass., where Stone is chief of police; to bring to justice the three high-school students who gang-raped a younger schoolmate; and to come to terms with his love of both alcohol and his ex-wife, Jenn. The serial killers, revealed early to the reader and soon enough to Stone, are a married yuppie pair who taunt Stone, whom they take as a dumb hick cop, as he collects evidence to bring them down; his pursuit of them leads them to kill someone close to him, then to target Stone himself, and eventually to an emotionally cathartic climax in Toronto, where the killers have fled. That story line serves as a fine little police procedural, but Parker is at his max here when following the rape plot, especially in scenes in which Stone, in his cool, compassionate way, tries to help the besieged victim as best he can. Meanwhile, under intense media attention and pressure from town elders for the ongoing serial killings, Stone works his way toward an understanding of the roles that booze and Jenn play in his life. Told in third-person prose that's a model of economy, with sharp action sequences, deep yet unobtrusive character exploration and none of the cuteness that can mar the Spenser novels, this is prime Parker, testament to why he was named a Grand Master at the 2002 Edgar Awards.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Stone Cold is Parker's fourth novel to feature former Los Angeles cop Jesse Stone, now serving as police chief in suburban Paradise, on the Boston North Shore. Stone is just as tough and nearly as incorruptible as Spenser, the hero of more than thirty Parker novels. But Stone carries plenty of baggage along with his police shield: an ex-wife whom he can't let go, attachments that he can't hold onto, and a bottle that he can't put down. Narrator Robert Forster interprets Stone as a tarnished knight, making him both wise and wizened as he investigates a high school gang rape and tries to track down a bizarre team of serial thrill-killers before they track him down. Forster reads the book in a Midwestern drawl that fits neither LA nor Massachusetts, but he serves up Parker's hard writing with an appropriate punch that won't leave the listener cold. S.E.S. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone is an addictive personality. Booze cost him his job as a homicide detective with the LAPD, and after that blew up, he traveled across the country to be near his ex-wife, television journalist Jenn. He refuses to believe it's over between them, and she doesn't help with her come-hither, leave-me-alone mood swings. But the qualities making his personal life hell also make him a good cop. You don't want Jesse to get you in his sights if you're a criminal. The baddies in this case are a couple who target their victims based on looks, stalk them, and kill them with two simultaneous shots from identical .22 caliber pistols. While hunting the psychos, Jesse is also after three middle-class juvenile predators who raped a classmate. Stone is much like Parker's Spenser, but with self-doubt overriding self-confidence. That formula worked fine in the first two Stone novels, but this one is less successful. Too much dime-store psychology between Stone and his Zen therapist; too much love-for-the-ages blather between Stone and his ex; and too much squad-room violence between Stone and his prisoners. Stone is a worthy character, but this is not the novel to make the case. But that doesn't mean Parker's fans won't want the chance to decide for themselves. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
Tony and Brianna Lincoln just moved into Paradise, but friendly they aren't. In fact, these urbane thrill killers are knocking off the neighbors one by one, and Jesse Stone is next.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Somber yet always inviting, the fourth novel in Parker's Jesse Stone series -- featuring a former LAPD cop drummed out for drinking who now serves as police chief in the small town of Paradise, Massachusetts -- is filled with all the wit, action, and insight we've come to expect from this proficient author.

This time out, Jesse not only continues his battle with the bottle but must also solve a case concerning a husband-and-wife team of serial killers stalking random victims for the simple thrill of it. Even off-duty, Jesse has plenty of problems, as he attempts to sort out his love life (he's got at least four revolving lovers) and to make peace with his consuming feelings for his rather insensitive ex-wife.

The smooth prose in Stone Cold is engaging and assured, emphasizing sentiment as much as hip, tough-guy violence. Parker is in excellent form here, providing keen understanding into the best and worst of the human condition, as characters struggle with their own obsessions. As in his beloved Spenser novels, Parker uses clever repartee to underscore moral conflict and the quest for righteousness. Stone Cold demonstrates again that the bestselling author's greatest narrative skill is his ability to fully realize the nature of regret, infatuation, and love in a perilous world. Tom Piccirilli

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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 store to do some grocery shopping, and is then 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 feels considerable heat. Already walking an emotional tightrope, he stumbles; 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.

FROM THE CRITICS

The Washington Post

Parker adroitly manages to keep the suspense quotient high in this tale, even though readers will be pretty secure in the knowledge that Jesse (who is after all the hero of this series) is never in any real danger. While he's playing cat and mouse with the Lincolns, he also manages to exact frontier justice from a trio of high school hoodlums who've raped a teenaged girl. To boot, Jesse even makes progress here in his relationship with his ex-wife, Jenn. The body count in Stone Cold is higher than in most of Parker's other mysteries, but then so are the therapeutic breakthroughs. — Maureen Corrigan

The New York Times

If Spenser is the invincible knight, the timeless hero of American detective fiction, then Jesse Stone...is the flawed hero of the moment, a man whose deficiencies define his humanity.—Marilyn Stasio

Publishers Weekly

It's taken four novels, but finally Parker's Jesse Stone series has produced a book as good as top-drawer Spenser. This outing finds the laconic, troubled cop tackling three problems: to capture the pair of serial killers who are murdering random victims in small-town Paradise, Mass., where Stone is chief of police; to bring to justice the three high-school students who gang-raped a younger schoolmate; and to come to terms with his love of both alcohol and his ex-wife, Jenn. The serial killers, revealed early to the reader and soon enough to Stone, are a married yuppie pair who taunt Stone, whom they take as a dumb hick cop, as he collects evidence to bring them down; his pursuit of them leads them to kill someone close to him, then to target Stone himself, and eventually to an emotionally cathartic climax in Toronto, where the killers have fled. That story line serves as a fine little police procedural, but Parker is at his max here when following the rape plot, especially in scenes in which Stone, in his cool, compassionate way, tries to help the besieged victim as best he can. Meanwhile, under intense media attention and pressure from town elders for the ongoing serial killings, Stone works his way toward an understanding of the roles that booze and Jenn play in his life. Told in third-person prose that's a model of economy, with sharp action sequences, deep yet unobtrusive character exploration and none of the cuteness that can mar the Spenser novels, this is prime Parker, testament to why he was named a Grand Master at the 2002 Edgar Awards. (On sale Sept. 29) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

This is the fourth book in Parker's "Jesse Stone" series, and it is the best. As the police chief in the small town of Paradise, a fictional suburb of Boston, Jesse has been developing throughout the series, and his personality is by now well defined. Here we find Jesse battling a pair of serial killers whose victims are always random, although the modus operandi is always the same. At the start, we are left in the dark about the killers, but, in an interesting twist, halfway through the book their identities are revealed, and the story becomes a game of cat and mouse. Almost another full plot line concerns Jesse's problems with his ex-wife (whom he still loves) and complications with his girlfriends. These deepen his melancholic state, as well as his battle to stay alcohol-free. Like Spenser, Parker's most famous creation, Jesse is known for his clever repartee, but his personality is darker and more troubled. Highly recommended for public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/03.]-Fred M. Gervat, Concordia Coll. Lib., Bronxville, NY Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews