"In the city of the Red Sox and the Red Line someone is leaving roses—red ones, of course—on the bodies of women he kills. For a psychologist named Susan Silverman and a P.I. named Spenser, the case is personal. But Spenser knows it's the wrong man. Because the right one has come calling on Susan—with a red rose in hand."--

Robert B. Parker introduces readers to police chief Jesse Stone in the first novel in the beloved mystery series—a New York Times bestseller.
After a busted marriage kicks his drinking problem into overdrive and the LAPD unceremoniously dumps him, thirty-five-year-old Jesse Stone’s future looks bleak. So he’s shocked when a small Massachusetts town called Paradise recruits him as police chief. He can’t help...

Spencer is hired by Loudon Tripp to find his wife's murderer. Tripp doesn't believe she was a victim of random violence.

When a Hollywood-based TV series schedules filming in Boston, Spenser smells trouble. When he signs up to protect the show's star, Jill Joyce, he knows it's on its way.

Spencer and his cohort Hawk investigate a murder in the housing projects of Boston and are drawn into a world of violence and hate.