In this 9th book in the Jesse Stone series, the Police Chief investigates a couple of deaths while he takes his relationship with a private detective to the next level. The book can be read as a standalone.
*****
Police Chief Jesse Stone of Paradise, Massachusetts and Boston private investigator Sunny Randall seem ready to advance their nascent romance.
Both Sunny and Jesse have recovered from painful failed relationships and Jesse has almost overcome his drinking problem, so the time may be right.
While the cop and PI are getting closer, however, there's still work to do. Jesse has to deal with a couple of brutal murders and Sunny is hired to rescue a teenager from a cult.
As the story opens, mid-level mob enforcer Petrov Ognowski has been shot dead.
Jesse Stone and his team, Suitcase Simpson and Molly Crane, investigate.
For his part, Jesse interviews two local mob bosses named Reggie Galen and Knocko Moynihan. Jesse is surprised to learn that the ruffians live next door to one another and are married to gorgeous identical twins, Rebecca and Roberta.....who appear to be loyal loving wives.
Both gangsters claim to be retired, and their households appear to be happy and tranquil, but things may not be as they seem. That becomes clear when another death occurs.
Jesse now has two murders to investigate, and as he proceeds, Petrov Ognowski's father and wife show up - to learn who killed their loved one and to get revenge.
As the story unfolds, some characters exhibit rather raunchy behavior which - at one point - threatens to compromise Jesse himself. 😮 🙄🤨
Meanwhile, Sunny Randall has been hired by Mr. and Mrs. Markham, a wealthy, class-conscious couple who want their 18-year-old daughter Cheryl to be rescued from Paradise's 'Bond of Renewal' settlement.....which they think is a cult.
Sunny manages to speak to Cheryl, who claims she's happy, NOT in a cult, and NOT being coerced to stay.
Things take a dire turn, however, when Cheryl vanishes.
Eventually, dark secrets about the Bond of Renewal come to light, and Sunny enlists Jesse's help to set things right.
That's the gist of the plot, which is thin but engaging. In addition, fans who'd like to see Jesse get over his ex-wife Jenn - and get on with his life - will be pleased.
This book was published posthumously, after Robert B. Parker's death in 2010. The series has subsequently been continued by other writers.
Rating: 3 stars
Journalist Boze Hadleigh is the author of many books about LGBT culture, popular culture, and show business.
Author Boze Hadleigh
Some of Hadleigh's best known titles are: Hollwood Lesbians; Broadway Babylon; Bette David Speaks; Hollywood Babble On: Stars Gossip About Other Stars; and Celebrity Feuds!: The Cattiest Rows, Spats, and Tiffs Ever Recorded.
In this book Hadleigh uses quotes from people in and around the LGBTQ+ community to illuminate the quandary - past and present - of homosexuals in show business. The book gave me a better understanding of the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ people who may have to choose between personal fulfillment and high profile jobs.
Hadleigh's book is largely quotes, and I'll follow that pattern in my review.
In his introduction, Hadleigh says: "Non-gays in the alleged heartland view gay characters on a screen and hear of openly gay performers and assume gays are now equal to heterosexuals in Hollywood. If only. There's still a long way to go."
Hadleigh believes that gay people in the public eye have a responsibility to come out - to be role models for homosexual youngsters. He stresses: "The LGBT+ movie star who earns millions per film does owe something to truth and integrity and to less fortunate (gay) people like them. For one thing, LGBT+ teens still kill themselves at several times the rate of straight teens. Much of that reflects a lack of positive gay role models."
Hadleigh suggests that Hollywood has a large proportion of homosexuals because, "As gay or lesbian children growing up in heterosexual households we learn to act early, out of self-preservation. A bigger proportion of us consider [becoming] professional actors, partly because we're good at it....also because - so we imagine - it's glamorous and fun."
The book is divided into four sections which, in total, provide a glimpse of what it's like to be gay and subject to intense scrutiny. I'll include a number of quotes from each chapter, but keep in mind that the narrative includes many more quotes, and is significantly more inclusive......as well as tantalizingly gossipy. 😃
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Chapter One: Playing the Game
Hadleigh writes: "From the start, acting has been considered more or less a game.....After all, actors pretend, and the words they speak usually aren't their own....Unfortunately the game may sooner or later exert pressure to conform and pander to the masses in the quest for greater success, adulation, and payment."
"Most gay celebrities spend their time and energy - with publicists as their partners in crime - trying to keep the masses from getting the right idea." - Truman Capote
Truman Capote
"Marrying into the opposite sex convinces most of the public you're straight. Cary Grant did it five times. That made him five times more convincing to the average American. - semi-closeted columnist Liz Smith
Cary Grant
"The big game is making money. In show business that justifies just about everything, including living a very distorted and fearful life. Once you come out, you lose the fear and can relax and be yourself." - Ellen Page (Juno)
Ellen Page
"Most minorities have the shelter and protection of their families against the outside world of the cold or cruel majority. But gays are a minority within their own family....most runaway and homeless gay and lesbian teens didn't choose to leave home, they were kicked out." - Florence Henderson (The Brady Bunch)
Florence Henderson
"The irony is, in the old days there were no gay characters upon the screen. There are now, but if it's a major role, it's almost invariably enacted by a heterosexual - in Hollywood this is a requirement." - Sir John Gielgud
Sir John Gielgud
"Reiteration and familiarity make things and people and habits seem comfortable and acceptable. That's why the media has such a powerful effect. That's why for decades religious fundamentalists got government and media to ban mention and depiction of gay people in any medium." - novelist Gavin Lambert (Inside Daisy Clover)
Gavin Lambert
"They rarely acknowledge British influence. Americans have no idea how many of their TV shows originated here....An adaptation of our long-running 'Are You Being Served?' never materialized, partly because of Mr. Humphries, the gay character - the U.S. wanted to drop him or turn him black. Couldn't leave him as he was, nor would it occur to them to have him be gay AND black." - UK casting director Ingrid Gibson
Mr. Humphries (in front), played by John Inman
"As long as we have heterosexual males in charge of practically everything - politically, corporately, religiously, etc. - we will endure misogyny and homophobia. Don't count on them to change or evolve. We must change the system by replacing over half of them, because we, women of all sexualities plus gay men, are over half the population." - female producer J.D. Disalvatore
J.D. Disalvatore
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Chapter 2: Out and Outing
Hadleigh writes: "Outing was born to expose hypocritical bigots - usually politicians, preachers, and sometimes actors - who were secretly gay but publicly anti-gay, who fostered homophobia, enacted anti-gay laws, etc. People have always been fascinated by who's secretly gay in showbiz and rumors, usually true, eventually made their way into print."
"Rumor has it that [a young bi-ish actor], in his bid for more leading man parts, to bolster his straight credentials, paid a couple of females to publicly claim he acted inappropriately with them, sexually. I hope this isn't a new trend. But men in Hollywood are just that desperate." - gay activist Donna Red Wing
Donna Red Wing
"When you're in the closet you give away so many good and vital things. One thing you do keep is the fear of being ruined or blackmailed by almost anybody who finds out." Brandon Flynn (13 Reasons Why)
Brandon Flynn
"Public figures are role models and have responsibilities. GLBTQ youth need role models. The rate of gay teen suicide is obscenely higher than for straight teens. Nobody should kill themselves out of shame and because gay stars are too cowardly or greedy to come out of the closet." - George Michael, after coming out
George Michael
"In Hollywood women lose marketability and income when their sex appeal fades. Young, they can be sexually ambiguous. When they're older and want to remain leading ladies they require some opposite sex credentials. That's what started Kate Hepburn off with Spencer Tracey. But it still goes on. - female publicist Ronni Chasen
Ronni Chasen
"I wrote my book because when I grew up there was no such book, and if mine could help just one kid out there who's secretly gay then it's worth it." Broadway icon Tommy Tune
Tommy Tune
"I hated being outed. There was no dignity in it, and it made me feel powerless. But living a life in the closet is worse." - the former Chastity, now Chaz, Bono
Chastity Bono
Chaz Bono
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Chapter 3: Loving in Private
Hadleigh writes: "The lifestyles of the rich and famous have always intrigued the public, but until the last several decades their private lives were mostly guarded, by themselves and the media."
Of course this necessitated hiding liasons with same-sex partners.
"A very few, very expensive male escort services are reliable enough for the gay VIP. Even top politicians use these services.....including one Canadian prime minister and one California governor." - Dack Rambo (Dallas)
Dack Rambo
"The police know plenty about some stars' private lives but they don't tell unless a crime occurs." - Erich Segal, professor and novelist (Love Story)
Erich Segal
"A few stars are so worried about publicity on them getting out or they're so afraid of AIDS that their computers are their whole sex lives. Other gay stars keep their sex-rated DVDs at the house of a friend or relative they really trust so in case they die sudden-like the incriminating stuff won't be found in their own homes. What a way to live, eh?" - publicist Paul Bloch
Paul Bloch
"The average public has no idea how ordinary a gay man can be. They aren't all hairdressers, decorators, actors, etc. Gays are in every profession, from garbage collectors and sports to whatever's the opposite of flamboyant." - openly gay actor Cheyenne Jackson (American Horror Story)
Cheyenne Jackson
"I would love to be someone's lesbian crush." - Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
"Heterosexual men are surprisingly insecure...forever trying to make boys grow up to be 'straight', mostly through sports, endlessly screening male-female kisses and pairing off males and females starting at about age four....The hetero Establishment seems clueless that hetero boys will become hetero men regardless and that gay boys will become gay men despite all the propaganda and sports and shaming." - Charles Nelson Reilly
Charles Nelson Reilly
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Chapter 4: Dishing in Public
"The first million-dollar check to fight AIDS was given by a Japanese philanthropist. The second by American magazine publisher Malcolm Forbes, who recruited Elizabeth Taylor [to host AIDS fundraisers], to cloak his true sexuality." - Richard Wherrett, founding director of the Sydney Theatre Company
Richard Wherrett
"Show people are valued at a lower level than purely money people. Look at Jeffrey Epstein. Unlike most disgraced showbiz sexual abusers, straight or gay, as a level-three registered sex offender he remained socially acceptable, still mixing with VIPs in the arts, politics, film, and finance.....Had Epstein been gay, all the money in the world wouldn't have gotten him all those coveted invitations." - investment banker Ardavan Khodayari
Jeffrey Epstein
"Here's how the press works. Cary Grant fathers his first and only child in his sixties. The press is ecstatic: jeez, what a man! The press doesn't question why Grant never had one in his twenties, or his thirties, his forties, or fifties. No, because it's all about hiding homosexuality and extolling heterosexuality." - openly gay ICM agent Ed Limato
Ed Limato
"I feel sorrier for the black gay kids....it's more of a taboo than with the whites. I've read and I've heard mamas say they rather have a son in jail than a son that's a homosexual. So when you hear some black comic ripping gays apart it's really his way of saying he's not gay." - Charles Murphy (Eddie Murphy's brother)
Charles Murphy
"Too many gay men and lesbians - in fact too many women, period - retain some degree of internalized bigotry....of self-hate...from the propaganda everyone grew up with." - Dr. Ruth Westheimer
Dr. Ruth Westheimer
"It's time to live and let live." - Lynn Redgrave, daughter of a closeted gay actor
Lynn Redgrave
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It's clear that, though gay people are more accepted than they were in the past, there's still a ways to go. No one should be made to feel unwanted or embarrassed because of who they are.
Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Boze Hadleigh), and the publisher (Riverdale Avenue Books) for a copy of the book.
Rating: 3.5 stars
This book interweaves three storylines involving three families in England.
Single mother Alice Lake is a streaked blonde who looks weary but attractive. Alice lives in a beachhouse in the seaside town of Ridinghouse Bay, Yorkshire with her three dogs and three children, all of whom have different fathers.
Alice is a good person at heart, but - because of her freewheeling lifestyle - tends to hook up with the wrong men and has a 'rap sheet' with child protective services. Alice is trying to do better now, and is helped in this endeavor by her best friend Derry Dynes.
Still, when Alice sees a forlorn rain-soaked man sitting on the beach near her house, she can't help but offer assistance. The man - who's nice-looking and well-dressed - has amnesia, and Alice offers him a temporary home in her guest cottage while they try to unravel his identity.
Alice's little daughter names the man 'Frank', and Frank is soon almost a member of the Lake household.
*****
Meanwhile, in a London suburb, a beautiful Ukranian newlywed named Lily is worried about her husband Carl Monrose.
After texting that he was on his way home from work, Carl didn't return, and has been incommunicado ever since. Lily makes a missing persons report, but the police are rather indifferent until they discover that Carl's passport is a fake.
Lily is bewildered by the revelation, but loves and trusts her husband. Moreover, she isn't about to rely on the lethargic cops, and - with the help of Carl's work acquaintance - launches her own investigation into her husband's disappearance.
*****
The above two plotlines, which take place in the present, alternate with an event that occurred over twenty years ago, in 1993. The Ross family - mom Pam, dad Tony, 15-year-old Kristy, and 17-year-old Gray - are on their annual vacation in Ridinghouse Bay, Yorkshire - where they rent the same cottage every year.
This year, Kristy - who's matured into a very pretty girl - attracts the eye of 19-year-old Mark Tate, who's visiting an aunt in the area.
Mark is handsome and seems personable, and - with the permission of her parents - Kristy starts to spend a lot of time with him. Gray, however, is suspicious of the new acquaintance and tries to put Kristy off him.....with good reason, as things turn out.
The characters in the novel are interesting and well-rounded, and their behavior is (mostly) believable. In my opinion Pam and Tony were too casual about their daughter seeing Mark, who was overly aggressive from the get-go....but I understand that the author had to move the story along.
Readers will undoubtedly speculate about how the plotlines relate to each other, and they'll probably be wrong. 🙂 I don't want to give away spoilers so I'll just say that things come together in a dramatic, well-wrought, and satisfying fashion.
I enjoyed the book and recommend it to mystery fans.
Rating: 3 stars
