Jesse Stone (character)

Jesse Stone
Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone (DVD cover)
Created by	Robert B. Parker
Portrayed by	Tom Selleck
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Law enforcement officer
Title	Paradise, Massachusetts Police Chief
Spouse(s)	Jenn
Nationality	American

Jesse Stone is the lead character in a series of detective novels written by Robert B. Parker. They were among his last works, and the first series in which the novelist used the third-person narrative. The series consists of nine books, starting with Night Passage (1997) and ending with Split Image (2010), which Parker completed before his death in January 2010 but did not live to see published. The series was initially continued by Michael Brandman. In April 2014, Reed Farrel Coleman assumed the writing of the series. The novels have been adapted as nine TV films. The first eight films were commissioned by CBS, and aired from 2005 to 2012. A ninth film was picked up by the Hallmark Channel, and aired on October 18, 2015.

The character begins the series at about 35 years old. He is a former minor league baseball shortstop whose career was cut short by a shoulder injury. He was raised in Arizona and California. He was asked to resign from his job as a homicide detective for the LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division because of a drinking problem that began after his divorce from his beautiful wife, Jennifer. Showing up drunk to an interview for a job as police chief for the small town of Paradise, Massachusetts (loosely based on the real town of Marblehead, Massachusetts), Stone is hired because the corrupt president of the town board of selectmen thinks he will be easy to control. Stone quickly notices that the town has big league crimes, struggling with the mob, white supremacists, wildly errant wives and a triple homicide, and that his job will be more difficult than he expected. But, he proves up to the task, beginning with making a corruption case against the town council president and arresting him.