Blind Spot by Reed Farrel Coleman ****

The copyright for Robert B. Parker's Blind Spot (A Jesse Stone Novel) by Reed Farrel Coleman belongs to The Estate of Robert B Parker, but more on that later.

 Jesse Stone, formerly of the LAPD, is a Chief of Police of a quaint Massachusetts coastal town named Paradise. The story opens with a murder and an abduction, but after it gets complicated. In an intricately plot mystery, at least a half-dozen intertwined plots interact and ultimately come together at the end.

The men are swimming in testosterone, and women sexy and responsive. Everyone drinks, mostly too much. The body count is in the single digits, and violence is limited.

In eighty-four four-page chapters Coleman keeps the story moving forward and the pages turning. Enjoyable light reading.

As promised ... what does it mean if the copyright date is four year after the copyright owner's death. The choices are endless, I guess, but consider 1) the completed work was discovered in the author's papers, 2) an incomplete work was discovered, or 3) this work is derivative of the author's published work.

I discard (1) because we have an author shown on the cover. Since there have been seven other similarly titled books published, I also discard (2). I imagine this book is work-for-hire and based on the style and charcters created by Robert B Parker during his lifetime (3).

Given the constraints of a deceased author and estate administration, I feel we get an interesting product. The plot is intricate, but the characters are flat. The main plot lines are nice tied up at the end, but several subplots are left open. Much like a super-hero comic book, one significant villain is allowed to escape to fight another day. I imagine the estate's hand in the managing the product development.

A good read, none the less.

I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway on July 16, 2014. I received my copy on August 1, 2014.