US crime veteran Robert B. Parker wades into the No Exit catalogue with this, an apéritif for the imminent second Jesse Stone novel, Trouble In Paradise. And as befits a writer of Parker’s standing, this is smoothly realised stuff, finding the 35-year-old ex-LAPD Stone fetching up in Paradise, a small Massachusetts town that takes to him as their new chief of police. Once in office, though, homicide, the local crazies and political corruption all raise their ugly heads. Witty, tightly plotted and as graceful as ever, Parker could do this in his sleep.