Night Passage

Night Passage is a crime novel by Robert B. Parker, the first in his Jesse Stone series. Plot summary LA homicide detective Jesse Stone, who already has a penchant for drinking, really begins to hit the bottle after he discovers his wife, actress Jenn Stone, is having an affair with her agent. They divorce and after his drinking leads to his termination from the LAPD he decides to get as far away from his now ex-wife as possible. Despite showing up to the interview intoxicated, he is hired as chief of police for the small town of Paradise, Massachusetts. He later learns that this is because the corrupt Board of Selectmen chair, Hasty Hathaway, is looking for a lush that they can push around. They get more than they bargain for in Stone. The novel begins with Stone's cross country road trip to Paradise during which the disintegration of his marriage is detailed through flashbacks. Shortly after arriving in Paradise, he meets Jo Jo Genest while responding to a domestic dispute. Genest is a huge body builder, who assists local gangsters in a money laundering operation and also provides muscle for Hathaway. During the confrontation, Stone kicks Genest in the groin. Soon after, Genest proceeds to taunt Stone by vandalizing a police car and killing the station cat as well as writing the word "slut" on both. Along with being the board of selectmen chair, Hathaway is also a wealthy bank owner and leader of "The Freedom’s Horsemen", a local militia group. It is Hathaway who orchestrates the payoff and termination of the previous police chief, Tom Carson, after Carson learns of the money laundering operation. Carson then moves out west. Hathaway later becomes concerned that Carson will talk and dispatches corrupt police officer Lou Burke to kill Carson. Hathaway also orders Jo Jo Genest to murder Carson's mistress, Tammy Portugal, after she demands he leave his wife for her. However, Genest can't help but leave his calling card by writing the word "slut" on Tammy's corpse to further taunt Jesse.