Night passage - Robert B. Parker

After a busted marriage kicks his drinking problems into overdrive and the LAPD kick him out, 35-year-old Jesse Stone's future looks bleak. He is shocked, however, when a small Massachusetts town called Paradise hires him as their police chief. Once on board he doesn't have to look for trouble in Paradise, it comes to him. For what is on the surface a quiet New England community quickly proves to be a crucible of political and moral corruption, replete with triple homicide and tight Boston mob ties. He finds he must test his mettle to emerge a hero, or the deadest of dupes.