[Jesse Stone 18] • Robert B. Parker's the Bitterest Pill

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.

 **

Review

“Exceptional…Coleman stays faithful to the spirit of Parker’s characters without sticking to the status quo.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)“The sixth novel by Coleman in the Jesse Stone series, based on characters created by Robert B. Parker, may be his best.”—Booklist

About the Author

ROBERT B. PARKER was the author of seventy books, including the legendary Spenser detective series, the novels featuring Chief Jesse Stone, and the acclaimed Virgil Cole/Everett Hitch westerns, as well as the Sunny Randall novels. Winner of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award and long considered the undisputed dean of American crime fiction, he died in January 2010. 

REED FARREL COLEMAN, author of the New York Times -bestselling Robert B. Parker's Colorblind , has been called a "hard-boiled poet" by NPR's Maureen Corrigan. He has published twenty-eight previous novels. A four-time winner of the Shamus Award, he has also won the Anthony, Macavity, Barry, and Audie awards. Coleman lives with his family on Long Island.