Robert B. Parker's The Bitterest Pill
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The opioid epidemic has reached Paradise, and Police Chief Jesse Stone must rush to stop the devastation in the latest thriller in Robert B. Parker's New York Times-bestselling series.
When a popular high school cheerleader dies of a suspected heroin overdose, it becomes clear that the opioid epidemic has spread even to the idyllic town of Paradise. It will be up to police chief Jesse Stone to unravel the supply chain and unmask the criminals behind it, and the investigation has a clear epicenter: Paradise High School. Home of the town's best and brightest future leaders and its most vulnerable down-and-out teens, it's a rich and bottomless market for dealers out of Boston looking to expand into the suburbs.
But when it comes to drugs, the very people Jesse is trying to protect are often those with the most to lose. As he digs deeper into the case, he finds himself battling self-interested administrators, reluctant teachers, distrustful schoolkids, and overprotective parents . . . and at the end of the line are the true bad guys, the ones with a lucrative business they'd kill to protect.
Praise for the Jesse Stone series
'Exceptional... Coleman stays faithful to the spirit of Parker's characters without sticking to the status quo' - Publishers Weekly
'The sixth novel by Coleman in the Jesse Stone series, based on characters created by Robert B. Parker, may be his best' - Booklist
Reed Farrel Coleman
Reed Farrel Coleman (b. 1956) is a mystery author best known for creating the Moe Prager series. Under his own name and the pen name Tony Spinosa, he has published fourteen novels, beginning with Life Goes Sleeping (1991), which introduced the three-volume Dylan Klein series. In 2001, Coleman published Walking the Perfect Square, a gritty story about Moe Prager, a retired New York cop who becomes embroiled in the hunt for a missing college student. Since then, he has written six more novels starring Prager, most recently Hurt Machine (2011). Coleman has won three Shamus awards in the best detective novel category, and has been nominated twice for Edgar awards. His short fiction has been published widely, most recently in the collection Long Island Noir (2012). Coleman lives with his family on Long Island, where he teaches writing classes at Hofstra University.
More by Reed Farrel Coleman
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