This author excelled at writing snappy comebacks in his character dialogue.However. That's the only positive thing I can say about this book, so I'm giving two stars for the witty banter (of which there was actually too much; how about a little more action/description?). I admit that detective fiction isn't my usual fare--this was another book that a relative handed me and insisted I read--so I can't speak to Parker's overall writing style or other Spenser stories. I tried to be open-minded, but I can't say I'm a fan. Spenser seems to have no visible flaws, and I get the impression that this isn't the only book in which women are constantly throwing themselves at him. Snort. His hero-sidekick dynamic with Hawk does seem to work, to a degree -- but maybe because I've seen so many versions of it already in pop culture. Spenser's primary love interest, Susan, on the other hand...well, she's portrayed as the type of elegant and wispy woman who can't handle chewing an entire stick of gum because it's too much for her dainty, vulnerable physique, yet she's also written as some kind of sex fiend and badass who emerges as victor in a nasty fistfight in this story. I hate to say it, but it's very obvious a man wrote this female character. The two simultaneous story lines start out on a promising note, but they never intersect, and they don't parallel one another, and so why did we need to bother keeping track of two mysteries at once anyway? To add to the annoyance, the author repeats himself over and over throughout (e.g., event happens, main character explains same event in great detail to someone who wasn't there five pages later). Ugh. Overall, not my favorite. Maybe some of RBP's other books are an improvement on this one, but I doubt I'll be reading them to find out.
Spenser ends up working two cases pro bono after Hawk and Susan both ask him for his help. Since he owes Hawk about a thousand favors as well as probably five figures worth of expenses for ammunition alone, it’s perfectly understandable that he’d work for free on that one, but he should charge Susan double just for being so damn annoying.Hawk asks Spenser to help a professor that’s the son of an old friend of his. The professor was denied tenure because of a smear campaign that claimed he had a relationship with a male student who killed himself when the prof broke it off. Trying to backtrack the rumor, Spenser runs across some very annoying academic types as well as some blackmailers.Meanwhile, Susan asks Spenser to help out a friend of hers named KC who is being stalked. KC left her husband for another man, but he refused to follow suit and leave his wife. The ex-husband is a likely suspect, but he seems a lot more stable than the loony KC who gets a severe case of hot pants for Spenser.No surprise that the case with the professor is the more interesting of the two. We actually find out a bit about Hawk’s past, and what starts out as something very routine turns into a furball for Spenser.The stalker story with KC could have been decent, but once again it’s an example of a character’s psychological problems being a big part of the story rather than the detective piece. Plus, it means we have to hear a lot from Susan, and that’s never good. Also, Susan has to be like the shittiest therapist ever because if she couldn’t tell that KC was crazy town banana pants, then she’s obviously not a very good student of human nature.Next up: Spenser tries to keep a horse from getting turned into glue in Hugger Mugger.
What do You think about Hush Money (1999)?
This is definitely a superior Spenser novel. Spenser gets called into two individual cases, one at the behest of Susan and the other at Hawk's. A friend of Susan's is getting stalked, and it turns out she's halfway to crazytown herself. It's great that this woman harasses and eggs on Spenser until he's discombobulated, but it's always been interesting how he kisses these random women - or is at least kissed by these random women. On Hawk's case, RBP talks a lot about gay and racial politics, which is always enlightening since he's libertarian in regards to both. In two very touching scenes, Spenser talks with a mother who's son has died from an apparent suicide. RBP handles these intimate scenes extremely well. They're very touching and her grief is palpable. It's odd at the end that he doesn't revisit her to tell her that her son was murdered and did not commit suicide. I wonder if that was intentional or an oversight. Perhaps he thought it was best left to our own devices.
—Tom
What more can be said about Spenser, Hawk, and Susan? Whenever the tough Boston PI, his sidekick, and the therapist who looks like a Jewish princess unite, things are bound to get interesting. Spenser works on two cases pro bono for Hawk and Susan simultaneously. I was a bit surprised that Hawk's case involved the upper-crust of the university while Susan's case involved a 'friend' who picked up a stalker. I would have expected it to be just the opposite.The plot moved along at a good pace, both cases kept the readers interest, and the dialog was as witty as ever. You can never go wrong with Spenser.
—Shirley Worley
Raymond Chandler did it first, creating the modern Knight in Armour as the honest private detective with his creation, Philip Marlow. Robert Parker does a good job creating someone similar with Spenser.His Spenser novels are a kind of boys' hero, 'good wins out' stories, a modern man's dream of being a knight to the rescue. In this novel Spenser and his friend Hawk right a wrong and find that a suicide was a murder and solve that too.As a non-American I find the guns and beatings a little too violent, and I boggle at the way everyone seems to have a handgun handy! But the writing is tight, the dialogue good and there's plenty of good clean sex with Susan. The novels have been a popular series and it's easy to see why. They are a good read.
—P.D.R. Lindsay
