Robert Parker’s Blind Spot is a mystery/thriller novel written to continue the stories of one of Parker’s existing characters, Sheriff Jesse Stone. I ran across the novel because I was looking for novels with baseball connections: this one begins when Stone is invited to a reunion of the minor league ball club he used to play before, before a fielding mishap wrecked his shoulder and cut short his career in professional ball before it really began.  While Stone is at the party being seduced by his ex-girlfriend’s friend (said ex-girlfriend is there because she’s married to his former teammate),   a teenage girl is murdered and her bedmate abducted. Random!  Or…not. It turns out that Stone’s teammate had gotten into some shady business and wanted Jesse to help bail him out.  Beyond the baseball intrigue – did teammate mean for Stone to get injured and put him out of the game? – I was largely uninterested in the plot, especially considering how many bedroom scenes there are.  I can see returning to the Spenser series just because the Chandler influence was so strong, but this book didn’t do anything for me besides make me eye other books with longing.

I’m currently halfway through Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, full-cast audio edition, and beginning Eleanor Oiliphant is Completely Fine.