In this interview, Reed talks about Robert B. Parker, Jesse Stone, and his new Gus Murphy series.
“One of the promises I made myself, Parker’s estate, and Putnam was that I wouldn’t tinker with the essential nature of Jesse or his supporting cast… They are who they were when [Parker and Brandman] wrote them. But my approach to character is a more internal and intimate one than theirs. I think readers want to know why a character does what he does or thinks what he thinks. I know I do. So although my Jesse acts as he has always acted–a bit aloof, a bit of a self-contained man–you now understand why. Any reader of the series knows Jesse’s life was turned upside down, no pun intended, when his shoulder was severely injured in a minor league baseball game in Pueblo. But you never quite knew the circumstance surrounding the injury or how he felt deep inside about it. Let me put it to you this way: I use the same camera Mr. Parker used, but my lens has a more narrow focus.”
Click here to read the interview