In ‘Colorblind,’ Reed Farrel Coleman moves to make ‘Jesse Stone’ series his own

“Robert B. Parker’s Colorblind” (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $27) is Reed Farrel Coleman’s fifth Jesse Stone novel, a series originated by the late Robert B. Parker. And the small-town Massachusetts police chief is back at work after a long-overdue month in rehab following his anguish over the death of his fiancee, who was murdered in “Debt to Pay.”

Any hope he could ease back in is dashed when a young black woman with a white boyfriend is raped and murdered. A cross is burned on the lawn of another interracial couple, and Jesse — he tells everyone to call him by his first name — recognizes a new kind of trouble has come to the town of Paradise.

“Colorblind” represents another advance in Coleman’s effort to make this series his own. He makes no attempt to mimic Parker’s idiosyncratic style. He gradually has made the chief more human and memorable. Now, he also has changed the fictional seaside town, diversifying its makeup with a wave of outsiders moving in from nearby Boston.

Some are uneasy about the changing demographics. Tensions run high when a young black officer Jesse hired over the objection of the town council guns down an apparently unarmed white suspect in the cross burning. As a white nationalist group from out of town muscles in, urging people to “take your town back,” Jesse has to act fast.

The result is another well-written, fast-paced yarn from one of the masters of crime fiction.