Promised Land

Rating:
Summary: Spenser is getting more likeable
Review: This book is a turning point for Spenser. He is in love, the caring side of Spenser is really starting to show. In this book, Hawk is introduced. He kind of reminds me of Bubba in the Kenzie/Angela Gennaro series by Lehane.
Anyway, this book was about a missing wife, guns, burgulary, murder...all taking place outside of Boston in Cape Cod to New Bedford. Spenser is growing on me and I am looking forward to the next in the series.

Rating:
Summary: Spenser is getting more likeable
Review: This book is a turning point for Spenser. He is in love, the caring side of Spenser is really starting to show. In this book, Hawk is introduced. He kind of reminds me of Bubba in the Kenzie/Angela Gennaro series by Lehane.
Anyway, this book was about a missing wife, guns, burgulary, murder...all taking place outside of Boston in Cape Cod to New Bedford. Spenser is growing on me and I am looking forward to the next in the series.

Rating:
Summary: A dated, smug Spenser
Review: This book is more than 20 years old, and it hasn't aged well. Spenser is flip and condescending as he deals with women in search of themselves in the long-ago days of Phil Donahue, Alan Alda and Patty Hearst. At times, he is so smug (Susan's word, by the way) that I was sorry I picked up the book. For diehard fans of the series, this edition is noteworthy for the introduction of Hawk. Now that gentleman has indeed aged well.

Rating:
Summary: A Bit Of A Slip
Review: This one was not up to the usual standard of the Spenser series. This mother/wife was selfish and ridiculous. The idea that Spenser could arrange to have felony murder charges dropped to protect her was rather ridiculous, too. Not as good as the rest of the series, but should be included for the continuity of the series.

Rating:
Summary: First Hawk-- but doesn't offer much else
Review: We finally meet the delightful Hawk... and that's about all the fun there is to be had in this fourth outing in the series. A great deal of time is spent on the dynamics of marriage, sex, and women's liberation and it's all pretty boring. Maybe if it fed somehow into the mystery, of which there is little, it would fit. Mostly though, it seems like Parker is shoehorning some societal concerns into a nominal Spenser story. He and Susan go round and round, declaring their love for each other, eating, drinking, carousing, making love, etc. The bad guys are met, tricked, and defeated without much ado. I'm reading these in order and I have to say, this one's enough to put me off the whole thing entirely. Fortunately, I am reassured to find others rate this book poorly and that the series grows from here on out.

Rating:
Summary: First Hawk-- but doesn't offer much else
Review: We finally meet the delightful Hawk... and that's about all the fun there is to be had in this fourth outing in the series. A great deal of time is spent on the dynamics of marriage, sex, and women's liberation and it's all pretty boring. Maybe if it fed somehow into the mystery, of which there is little, it would fit. Mostly though, it seems like Parker is shoehorning some societal concerns into a nominal Spenser story. He and Susan go round and round, declaring their love for each other, eating, drinking, carousing, making love, etc. The bad guys are met, tricked, and defeated without much ado. I'm reading these in order and I have to say, this one's enough to put me off the whole thing entirely. Fortunately, I am reassured to find others rate this book poorly and that the series grows from here on out.