Stone Cold (2003)

He's still best known for the Spenser series, but Parker's most rewardingly complicated shamus might be Jesse Stone, an LAPD burnout who now toils as police chief in the not-so-idyllic small town of Paradise, Mass. In his fourth outing, Stone attempts to kick his dual addictions to booze (hence the sobering title) and his intoxicating ex-wife, Jenn, while playing cat and mouse with a married team of thrill killers who mark him as their next target. Adeptly switching between scenes of Stone's professional and personal lives, Parker illuminates the dark-cornered minds of sociopaths and alcoholics. And as always, he renders the action in prose as clear and potent as a fine vodka.