Tom Selleck's Detective Movie Series Is A Must-watch For Any Murder Mystery Fan

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'80s kids know him as "Magnum, P.I." and '90s kids know him as Richard from "Friends." But who knows Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone? Well, your dad, probably. Selleck's "Jesse Stone" movies ran on CBS between 2005 and 2012 (a final film aired on the Hallmark Channel in 2015) and saw the veteran star play a police chief who he described to the A.V. Club as "a good man with some rather toxic habits." While the films typically appealed to older audiences, they're well worth watching for murder mystery fans.

The movies are based on the "Jesse Stone" series of detective novels by Robert B. Parker, who's also the writer behind the book on which Ed Harris' criminally underrated Western "Appaloosa" was based. Parker authored nine Stone books prior to his 2010 death, after which several other authors continued the series. But Selleck is thus far the only actor to portray Stone on-screen.

The character is a former LAPD detective who moves to a small New England town where he becomes police chief. While battling his own demons, Stone takes on the surprisingly corrupt forces that exist beneath the carapace of his ostensibly quiet hamlet. Selleck was inspired to bring Parker's novels to the small screen after his producing partner, Michael Brandman, gave him one of the books. As the actor told the A.V. Club, "I read it, and I said, 'I've got to play this guy!'" So, after the comforting purgatory of "Friends" came to an end in 2004, Selleck debuted as the detective in "Jesse Stone: Stone Cold," an adaptation of Parker's fourth Stone novel. It was the beginning of one of the actor's longest-running franchises.

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"Jesse Stone: Stone Cold" is set in the fictional town of Paradise, Massachusetts, where Tom Selleck's Stone is the police chief. Having been fired from the LAPD for his drinking problem before divorcing his wife and moving across the country, Stone is basically the jaded, grizzled detective archetype in action. But that's not a knock against the film or its sequels. Selleck is a perfect fit for Robert B. Parker's haunted cop.

"Stone Cold" sees Stone investigate a series of killings in Paradise and a rape case while struggling with his drinking and womanizing issues. He's joined by a solid supporting cast that includes Viola Davis as Officer Molly Crane — a role she reprised in the next three films. Just to make things a little more confusing, "Stone Cold" is an adaptation of Parker's fourth novel, so the events of the film actually take place after the events of the 2006 follow-up, "Jesse Stone: Night Passage." Regardless, Variety's Brian Lowry seemed to like "Stone Cold," praising Selleck for bringing "an easygoing charm to this surprisingly well-crafted crime yarn." Lowry also wrote, "It's not much of a stretch to foresee it becoming a series of movies," which is, of course, exactly what happened.

Over the course of eight more films, Stone investigates everything from a corrupt town council to organized crime and even a serial killer in Boston. He navigates an internal affairs investigation, explores cold cases, and negotiates hostage situations, all while taking stock of his own life. Surprisingly for a film series that only dads have ever heard of, a lot of the movies are actually great crime dramas, made all the more effective by Selleck's lead performance.

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Robert Harmon of "The Hitcher" fame directed all the films in the "Jesse Stone" series except for 2011's "Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost," which was overseen by Dick Lowry. Harmon went on to work with Tom Selleck on several episodes of his CBS procedural "Blue Bloods" and seems to have established a great working relationship with the actor, who began writing for the "Stone" film series as it went on. He and Harmon churned out "Jesse Stone" movies without compromising on quality, impressing author Robert B. Parker, who in a 2007 blog post wrote, "Tom nails the character."

Sadly, following the broadcast of "Jesse Stone: Benefit of the Doubt" in 2012, Variety reported that the series was "over at CBS." Though the eighth film managed to pull in 13 million viewers the network was supposedly uninterested in its older demographic and was moving away from TV movies. At the time producer Michael Brandman described the cancellation of the film series as a surprise saying, "It's really hard for us to grasp." We did get one more film, however, after Hallmark financed a ninth installment: "Jesse Stone: Lost in Paradise." That was the last go round for Selleck's detective, though.

In 2024, the actor spoke about the possibility of a final film, telling TVInsider "It looks like now I might have to write [a script for another movie.]. It wouldn't be a final one because everybody loves it [...] But I need to regroup; I don't know what's next." For now, we have the nine movies Selleck did make, which are scattered across the streaming sphere. You can see "Lost in Paradise" for free on YouTube, otherwise it's a case of renting or buying from the usual platforms.