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.
[1] In April 2014, Reed Farrel Coleman assumed the writing of the series,[2] which was subsequently continued by Mike Lupica.
[5] 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.
Stone quickly notices that the town has big league crimes, struggling with the mob, wildly errant wives and a triple homicide, and that his job will be more difficult than he expected.
[7] The series chronicles Stone's cases as chief of the Paradise Police Department, as well as his struggles with alcohol and his complicated relationship with his ex-wife Jenn.
He develops a good working relationship and friendship with the State Police Homicide Commander, Captain Healy.
Parker, comparing Stone to Spenser, the protagonist of his first series and the one for which he was best known, said, "Jesse is a much more damaged individual who is coming to terms with himself as he goes along.
"[5] There is some overlap of characters with the Spenser books, notably with Healy and Sunny Randall, and (in Night and Day) indirectly with Susan Silverman.
By Robert B. Parker: By Michael Brandman: By Reed Farrel Coleman By Mike Lupica CBS (and later the Hallmark Channel) adapted the novels as a series of movie specials starring Tom Selleck in the title role; the first was aired in 2005 and the most recent in 2015.
The premise begins when the town council forced Jesse Stone out of his job as the Paradise Chief of Police.
The author, Robert B. Parker, said that he found the Jesse Stone films the most accurate television adaptations of his novels.
They said the film attracted older viewers, and CBS is moving away from movies and specials in favor of shorter duration TV series.