Hugger Mugger

Rating:
Summary: Good Entry
Review: This was a good entry into the Spenser series. It introduced a few new characters, along with the old. No Hawk though, boo hoo! Parker seems to have a problem with the female characters in the story. If she is despicable, he will save her despite himself. If he finds her sexually attractive, she must be innocent of any wrong doing. I can't help but wonder if that is Parker's age showing in this type of stereotyping. Still a pretty good book. Lot's of horse stuff in it!

Rating:
Summary: If Robert B. Parker wrote a Dick Francis mystery...
Review: Who else but Robert Parker could tackle three different mystery characters in three different novels a year and still be one of the most consistently entertaining writers in the mystery field? But (with apologies to Jesse Stone and Helen H...er, sorry, Sunny Randall), it's Spenser we love the best. My two favorite mystery novelists are Robert B. Parker and Dick Francis, and this mystery, set in Georgia horse country, is the best of both worlds: Spenser must track down the murderer of horses at a training farm, populated by (as Spenser says) the cast of a Tennessee Williams play. As always, much of the fun is the dialogue--no one's better than Spenser taking the wind out of a pompous twit's sails, and no one's better at writing that wise-guy with an intellectual edge than Parker. Any complaints? Well, sure, there's a big one. No Hawk! Luckily, Susan's around, and so is Pearl the Wonder Dog. Spenser's sidekick in this book, a gay ex-cop named Tedy Sapp, is interesting enough, but Mr. Sapp, you're *no* Hawk! (But who is?) My other quibble is a broader one. This is a fine standard Spenser mystery, but it's nothing more than that--Spenser gets a client, scouts the case, matches wits with the suspects, flirts a bit (but stays loyal to Susan, of course) and cracks the solution. But a truly exceptional Spenser book, while it contains all these elements, can be so much more. I've been reading Spenser's adventures for nearly 20 years, and the ones that make the most impression on me--those I consider the best, in which Parker transcends the normal mystery novel--are the books in which Spenser as a character moves forward dramatically, in which something major happens to Spenser *personally* to change or influence his life. Don't get me wrong--that kind of approach would not be welcome in every book...but after nearly 30 Spenser books the ones that stand out in my mind are "Early Autumn"..."A Catskill Eagle"..."Small Vices"...Spenser adventures that bring us more into the personal life of Parker's hero than the others. That Parker is capable of such sublime heights between the more-standard Spenser (and Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall) mysteries is the most important reason I keep reading him.