Rating: 
Summary: Good Spenser with Southern Charm
Review: A high society Boston woman is killed, a "perfect wife in a perfect family". Spenser gets on the case, with Farrel, a gay detective. Spenser finds that the wife was not exactly perfect, her background suspicious, and dead relatives are really quite alive and kicking. The end is full of twists and turns. The book provides our first look at Farrel, an interesting gay police officer. An addition I like quite a lot, and one that gets better as the series goes on. Spenser's always multicultural and quite open - I like that about him. Susan's not in this a lot ... calls and such. Probably also a wise decision :) The characters Spenser runs into are all very well done, as usual. He does miss with the high school year-figuring-out ... she'd have gone to college for 3 years with his math. He does the "If nominated, I will not run" quote of Lyndon B Johnson and the "the rest was silent" from Hamlet. Big question: How did *poof* Pearl become a Wonder Dog, though? The writing is excellent, the southern scenes really give you a sense of what that area is like. This is the first Spenser novel that had me truly afraid, too - the jail scene had me afraid to read further. I did of course, and enjoyed it immensely.
Rating: 
Summary: Typically excellent reading, with one super super scene.
Review: As with all his Spenser books, Parker's writing in this is so smooth, so witty, with so much descriptive power, that I enjoy reading it even without the nicely-progressing plot. Maybe it's because I feel that I know Spenser and Quirk pretty well, but, whatever the reason, I find the part where Spenser is being brutalized in a Southern jail and Quirk walks in and walks him out, followed by their bracing of the two instigators (not Southerners, by the way) to be the scene I enjoy reading again and again.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent summer reading, funny, intelligent.
Review: I bought this book to give to someone else and read it myself only because I had run out of books of my own. I was hooked. By the time the summer was over, I had read 4 more Spenser novels and now have my name on our local library's waiting list for the new novels. I have read all the Spenser novels now and love them. I never did get a chance to watch the TV series but have seen a couple of TV movies. I like the books better.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe the Best
Review: I have read all the Parker books more than once, and this one is my favorite. You shouldn't start with it - it would be better to be familiar with the character first - but if you're going to pick and choose, choose this one. The mystery is top-shelf, the supporting characters are carefully drawn, there isn't too much of the adorably annoying Susan, and Spenser is at his wise-cracking best. He really hit his stride with this book.
Rating:
Summary: PARKER DOES IT AGAIN!!!
Review: I have read many, many of the Spencer books. Some I liked better than others. I rank this one close to the top. Spencer is hired to find out who killed Olivia Nelson. She was killed with many blows to the head with a hammer. The police have done all they can to find the killer but had no success. Spencer is hired by Olivia's husband. A trip is made back to a town in South Carolina, where Olivia Nelson came from. But is her real name Olivia Nelson? Yes, there is a person by that name but where is she? Why would a Senator want to keep Spencer from finding out anything? Spencer in jail?????? Many, many twists and turns. The ending is very good, really two endings, finding the killer and finding out about the senator. A good Spencer read! The only thing that would make it better, for me, would be less Susan and more Hawk.
Rating:
Summary: A standard case for Spenser
Review: I have read several Robert Parker "Spenser for Hire" novels and have enjoyed all of them. This particular book was good, but seemed more formulaic than most. Some of his books are very interesting with unusual plot twists. Unfortunately, some of them, like this one, seem to be cranked out to a formula. Parker has been very successful in slowly defining Spenser's character and nuances. I felt this book drew on already established characteristics and went too far in the extreme with the climactic gunfight scene in the end. Still, the novel plays well into the series and is a fast paced book and a good read for true Spenser fans.
Rating:
Summary: A standard case for Spenser
Review: I have read several Robert Parker "Spenser for Hire" novels and have enjoyed all of them. This particular book was good, but seemed more formulaic than most. Some of his books are very interesting with unusual plot twists. Unfortunately, some of them, like this one, seem to be cranked out to a formula. Parker has been very successful in slowly defining Spenser's character and nuances. I felt this book drew on already established characteristics and went too far in the extreme with the climactic gunfight scene in the end. Still, the novel plays well into the series and is a fast paced book and a good read for true Spenser fans.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe the Best
Review: In Double Deuce Parker neglected mystery to focus on social commentary. In Paper Doll, however, he achieves quality in both. As a mystery, it's a success. A crime is committed, Spenser is hired, the clues and suspects are introduced... By the end, the simple story grows into one of Parker's most complex plots. And as social commentary, it also succeeds. In addition to Parker's comparison of different economic classes, he addresses the issue of homosexual prejudice. It's all effectively done without being excessively didactic. Paper Doll is highly recommended for fans of the series, even if you don't follow the best approach of reading them in chronological sequence.
Rating:
Summary: simplicity to complexity
Review: In Double Deuce Parker neglected mystery to focus on social commentary. In Paper Doll, however, he achieves quality in both. As a mystery, it's a success. A crime is committed, Spenser is hired, the clues and suspects are introduced... By the end, the simple story grows into one of Parker's most complex plots. And as social commentary, it also succeeds. In addition to Parker's comparison of different economic classes, he addresses the issue of homosexual prejudice. It's all effectively done without being excessively didactic. Paper Doll is highly recommended for fans of the series, even if you don't follow the best approach of reading them in chronological sequence.
Rating: 
Summary: Solid if not spectacular
Review: In Paper Doll, Spenser is hired by Loudon Tripp, a local Boston businessman who is trying to help the police solve the apparently "random" killing of his society wife. Without any better ideas and stumped in Boston, Spenser heads to a sleepy South Carolina town where the victim was born to try and dig up something the police may have overlooked. In so doing, Spenser manages to alienate the local law enforcement authorities, get himself followed, and finds out that the victim may not have been who she appeared to be. In fact neither is the esteemed businessman Loudon Tripp, whose rubber checks bounce all the way to Brookline. Along the way, Spenser is offered some dubious assistance by a hard-drinking Massachussets senator, who may have some skeletons in his closet to hide. There is the usual playful banter between Susan and Spenser, in their perrenial honeymoon-like lovefest, but a lot less Hawk than this reader would prefer. All in all I thought this was a pretty decent read, better than Potshot to be sure, but not exactly Dashiell Hammett either. Fans of the series will not be disappointed.
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