It had been awhile since I'd read a Parker book, and I realized with greedy joy that I had quite the selection to choose from. Thankfully, even with two junior book lovers at home, my library card was not quite maxed out, so I checked out a bunch.
I read Widow's Walk first, and it wasn't that great. It served to remind me of all the things I like about Parker and his main character, tough-guy private detective Spenser. But the client Spenser is working for is incredibly shallow and stupid (and she's supposed to be). It's more fun to hang out with Spenser when he's hanging out with people who are worth your while.
I loved Cold Service because it had lots of Hawk in it, and who doesn't love Hawk? Sadly, because all Spenser books are first person point of view, from Spenser's pov, we don't really get to see what happens at the end. You could claim that just makes it even more mysterious and Hawk-like. But it's still disappointing.
School Days I had actually read before and remembered almost immediately upon opening it. So I just breezed through it. Which is quite the speed read for a Parker book. Since he does a great job with dialogue and plays to his strengths, some pages have almost no words on them. I personally think there's a bit of cheating involved when he starts a new line and the same person is still speaking, but it's (again) a picky English-major point.
Hundred Dollar Baby brought back the character of April. I only dimly remember who April is, and the book was all right, but I wasn't too sympathetic toward her. Let me just repeat that I like Spenser better when I care about the people he's working for.
Now and Then had Hawk, and Vinnie, and Teddy. Tough guy bliss. I enjoyed it. But somewhere around here, I started to realize why it might not be a good idea to read so much Robert B. Parker at one time. It didn't stop me though . . .
(R: language, violence, sex)
No comments:
Post a Comment