Scarred for life by a brutal father, Joe Trona found a safe haven and a loving childhood in the home of the couple who adopted him. Now he spends his days as a deputy for the Orange County sheriff's department and his nights as a driver and aide to Will Trona, the influential politician who rescued him from the Hillside Children's Home. An expert in firearms and the martial arts, Joe has been backing Will up for a long time.
Parker's many fans met Merci Rayborn, the Orange County homicide investigator, in The Blue Hour, and will be happy to renew their acquaintance with her in Red Light. Although she's still mourning the death of her former partner Tim Hess, who fathered her 2-year-old son, her relationship with fellow cop Mike McNally is progressing nicely, and so is her career on the force.
Parker's third thriller is a powerful, unforgettable story of murder and corruption told in prose as sparkling and tough as any devotee of the hard-boiled tradition could wish, a tale that fulfills all the promise of his smash debut, Laguna Heat. After a brief and unpleasant stay in a Mexican jail, ex-cop Jim Weir returns to Newport Beach, Calif., for a joyful reunion with his mother and his sister, Ann, both activists in a campaign to stop rapacious developers from destroying their city.
When a woman's partially decomposed body washes ashore in Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone is forced into a case far more difficult than it initially appears. Identifying the woman is just the first step in what proves to be an emotionally charged investigation. Florence Horvath was an attractive, recently divorced heiress from Florida; she also had a penchant for steamy sex and was an enthusiastic participant in a video depicting the same.
Things are getting strange in Paradise, Massachusetts. Police Chief Jesse Stone is called to the junior high school when reports of lewd conduct by the school's principal, Betsy Ingersoll, filter into the station. Ingersoll claims she was protecting the propriety of her students when she inspected each girl's undergarments in the locker room. Jesse would like nothing more than to see Ingersoll punished, but her high-powered attorney husband stands in the way.
