Status
Available
Series
Genres
Collection
Publication
Dell (1987), Edition: New Dell Ed.,4th printing April1985, 224 pages
Description
Fiction. Mystery. Thriller. HTML:�??Crackling dialogue, plenty of action, and expert writing.�?��??The New York Times Rachel Wallace is a tough young woman with a lot of enemies. Spenser is a tough guy with a macho code of honor, hired to protect a woman who thinks that kind of code is obsolete. Privately, they will never see eye to eye. But when Rachel vanishes. Spenser is ready to lay his life on the line�??to find Rachel Wallace. �??A rare kind of book.�?��??Chica
User reviews
LibraryThing member benfulton
Explores some issues that you don't commonly see in this sort of noir fiction. Tough guy Spenser is hired as a bodyguard to a militant feminist, and I must say I thought the feminist was right in character as well as spot-on with her analysis of Spenser's behavior as a protective alpha male. As
Show More
well, Spenser, who is a live-and-let-live kind of guy, gets exactly as uncomfortable with his client's homosexual proclivities as I would have expected. Nicely handled. Who would have thought you'd get this sort of character sketch in a little potboiler like this? Show Less
LibraryThing member SteveAldous
Stright-forward, thick-ear, mystery. The writing is assured and the characters are strong in this entertaining page-turner.
LibraryThing member MrsLee
Rachel Wallace is not the easiest person to get along with. Prickly is a mild description. Due to her stand on Feminism, her outspoken Lesbianism, and the fact that she has written a book naming names of those who practice unequality in the workplace, she needs a bodyguard. The last thing she wants
Spencer is a thoughtful man who hides behind a wise-cracking exterior (my favorite kind of hero). The issues in the book were tough. Feminism, lesbianism, human rights and what makes up the identity of a man. It could all have been trite or preachy, but it never was.
As for the mystery, well, it was more of a noir crime novel than a mystery. Some great literary references in there, and new word or two to me. This is an author I am happy to have found, and I look forward to reading more of his books.
Show More
in her life is a macho, smart-aleck bodyguard. Introducing Spencer. He is all that, but he is also more if you have eyes to see.Spencer is a thoughtful man who hides behind a wise-cracking exterior (my favorite kind of hero). The issues in the book were tough. Feminism, lesbianism, human rights and what makes up the identity of a man. It could all have been trite or preachy, but it never was.
As for the mystery, well, it was more of a noir crime novel than a mystery. Some great literary references in there, and new word or two to me. This is an author I am happy to have found, and I look forward to reading more of his books.
Show Less
LibraryThing member raizel
The first Spenser book I read. I still remember whodunit.
LibraryThing member wildbill
This is the first book I have read in the Spenser series. The book was well written and suspenseful and I will have to try another volume to see if the shortcomings I found are isolated to this book or present throughout the series.
Spenser in this book is acting as a bodyguard for Rachel Wallace.
Spenser went from being a boxer to his present occupation. As he describes it he was a good but not great boxer. That meant he could make a living at it but it would not be worth the physical cost to him. He is very direct with an irreverent sense of humor. Ms. Wallace has very little sense of humor. She makes that clear at their first meeting which to say the least does not go well.
She fires Spenser after an incident at the offices of First Mutual Insurance. Ms. Wallace is there to speak with a group of women to talk about her book. As soon as the men in charge find out who she is they call security to have her thrown out. She wants to make it hard for them by going limp so they will have to physically remove her. Spenser escorts her out and after they have a short discussion he is terminated. Then Rachel Wallace was kidnapped.
Spenser is called by her publisher and starts investigating. He gets a lead and as he is going to interview a KKK grand dragon he is beat up by four of the dragon's friends. Then he goes back and starts beating people up. First is the grand dragon and next is Mingo who hired two guys to run Wallace and Spenser off the road before she fired him. Very soon Spenser finds Rachel Wallace in the attic of the rich people's house. Two guys come up the attic stairs with guns and Spenser shoots them. One guy gets two in the head and the other guy gets his in the throat. Then Spenser has to knock out an elderly rich woman to keep her from trying to bite him.
There is plenty of suspense at the end and Rachel Wallace tells Spenser she felt good when he shot her kidnappers. What struck me was that Spenser said nothing about killing two people. He didn't try to disable them he just killed them and put his gun away. The book was well written, moved well and there was a good plot twist at the end. It didn't bother me that Spenser killed the kidnappers I just felt that what he did was close to murder.
Spenser in this book is acting as a bodyguard for Rachel Wallace.
Show More
Rachel Wallace is a writer and a self proclaimed lesbian radical feminist. Her publisher has hired a bodyguard for her, against her wishes, because she is receiving death threats associated with the publication of a new book. Her new book is an expose of discrimination against women which names prominent business people and their misogynist attitudes and actions. The threats are signed by a right wing group which calls itself RAM (Restore American Morality).Spenser went from being a boxer to his present occupation. As he describes it he was a good but not great boxer. That meant he could make a living at it but it would not be worth the physical cost to him. He is very direct with an irreverent sense of humor. Ms. Wallace has very little sense of humor. She makes that clear at their first meeting which to say the least does not go well.
She fires Spenser after an incident at the offices of First Mutual Insurance. Ms. Wallace is there to speak with a group of women to talk about her book. As soon as the men in charge find out who she is they call security to have her thrown out. She wants to make it hard for them by going limp so they will have to physically remove her. Spenser escorts her out and after they have a short discussion he is terminated. Then Rachel Wallace was kidnapped.
Spenser is called by her publisher and starts investigating. He gets a lead and as he is going to interview a KKK grand dragon he is beat up by four of the dragon's friends. Then he goes back and starts beating people up. First is the grand dragon and next is Mingo who hired two guys to run Wallace and Spenser off the road before she fired him. Very soon Spenser finds Rachel Wallace in the attic of the rich people's house. Two guys come up the attic stairs with guns and Spenser shoots them. One guy gets two in the head and the other guy gets his in the throat. Then Spenser has to knock out an elderly rich woman to keep her from trying to bite him.
There is plenty of suspense at the end and Rachel Wallace tells Spenser she felt good when he shot her kidnappers. What struck me was that Spenser said nothing about killing two people. He didn't try to disable them he just killed them and put his gun away. The book was well written, moved well and there was a good plot twist at the end. It didn't bother me that Spenser killed the kidnappers I just felt that what he did was close to murder.
Show Less
LibraryThing member joeydag
An early Spenser story. I think it is set in the late 70's, and a snow emergency that shuts down Boston is part of the story. I lived in Boston when a blizzard occurred that pretty much shut down the city for a day or two. The story sort of put me in a nostalgic frame of mind. Regarding the book
Show More
and Spenser, he is a bit over the top for me(super-macho tough and smart and sensitive, my god, he even cries after he kills people.) I have an image in mind that may have no basis in reality of the author being mildly obese and I tend to focus on how Spenser is a pretty serious foody. Show Less
LibraryThing member unclebob53703
Along with Early Autumn, one of his very best.
LibraryThing member hcnewton
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---
“What is it you want to know?”
“Why you engage in things that are violent and dangerous.”
I sipped half a glass of beer. I took another bite of veal. “Well,” I said, "the violence is a kind of side-eiffect, I think. I have always
"The answer doesn’t satisfy me,” Rachel said.
"It doesn’t have to. It satisfies me.”
“What he won’t say,” Susan said, "and what he may not even admit to himself is that he’d like to be Sir Gawain. He was born five hundred years too late. If you understand that, you understand most of what you are asking.”
"Six hundred years,” I said.
WHAT'S LOOKING FOR RACHEL WALLACE ABOUT?
Spenser is hired to act as a bodyguard for Rachel Wallace. Wallace is a no-nonsense feminist activist and lesbian author. There have been threats made against her if her book exposing the discriminatory practices of several New England companies is published. The threats make little sense since the galleys have already been released (and therefore the material is out there), but they're still there.
Despite clashing in their first meeting, Wallace agrees to her publisher's choice in Spenser and he agrees to try not to annoy her. The two continue to squabble for the first eighty or so pages. Wallace keeps trying to provoke Spenser, questioning his professionalism, wanting to debate her brand of feminism with him. Spenser really doesn't care about all that—and as much as he's willing to discuss and think about those issues at other times (he'd read Wallace's previous work before going to work for her)t—this is about work for him. He doesn't care who she sleeps with, what she thinks, he's about keeping her as safe as he can.
There is a moment where Wallace knows she's going into somewhat hostile territory and tells Spenser to stand down beforehand. When security guards arrive to drag her off, and she goes limp to make it hard for them, Spenser intervenes. Which robs Wallace of the opportunity to make her statement, get the attention she wants, and hopefully a hearing with her target-audience. Wallace takes this as an insult, thinking Spenser's machismo forced him to protect a (seemingly) helpless woman. And, yes, that's true. But it's also true, that if Wallace had been a male academic attracting this kind of response, he'd have done the same thing.
It was the wrong thing for Spenser to do regardless, which he admits later. Wallace fires him—and apparently doesn't replace him. A couple of months later, she's kidnapped. Belson* brings Spenser in for his perspective—and of course, that just spurs Spenser into his own investigation. He blames himself for not being a better employee, so he wasn't around to protect her.
* It's never explained why a homicide detective is brought in to discuss an abduction, but let that pass.
Spenser has very little to go off of here. He has one name, from a minor incident on his first day with Wallace to look into, and he essentially spends a lot of time trying to find evidence to tie this guy to the kidnapping. There's also a KKK leader that Spenser arrested back when he was a law enforcement officer and hasn't lost track of. Working off the assumption that a racist is going to operate in the same circles as a militant misogynist, Spenser harasses him for information. It works out (to a degree), but watching Spenser bully this guy on less than a hunch really bothered me.
Almost randomly, the one piece of evidence that Spenser (and Belson, to be fair) needs to tie everything together is essentially dropped into their lap. As a record blizzard descends on Boston, Spenser decides to walk (almost all roads are closed) fifteen miles to make the best of that piece of information. And well, you can guess the rest.
I FEEL COMPELLED TO SHARE THIS QUOTATION THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PLOT
The Main Entrance to the Boston Public Library used to face Copley Square across Dartmouth Street. There was a broad exterior stairway and inside there was a beautiful marble staircase leading up to the main reading room with carved lions and high-domed ceilings. It was always a pleasure to go there. It felt like a library and looked like a library, and even when I was going in there to look up Duke Snider’s lifetime batting average, I used to feel like a scholar.
Then they grafted an addition on and shifted the main entrance to Boylston Street. Faithful to the spirit, the architect had probably said. But making a contemporary statement, I bet he said. The addition went with the original like Tab goes with pheasant. Now, even if I went into study the literary influence of Eleanor of Aquitaine, I felt like I’d come out with a pound of hamburger and a loaf of Wonder bread.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT LOOKING FOR RACHEL WALLACE?
I guess I've made it clear that this isn't my favorite Spenser. But it's not that I dislike it. I enjoy spending time with Spenser and Susan. I liked when Wallace and Spenser engaged with each other—seeing Spenser in these settings tells a lot about him, as does the way he reacts to Wallace. At the same time, it's interesting seeing Spenser through her eyes (as mistaken as I think her estimation of him is, it's not merit-less). The dialogue is great, Spenser verbally sparring with Wallace's publisher and a prosecutor looking into her disappearance is just fun to read. I can't forget there are some pretty good action scenes (even if Spenser does bring a handgun to a pie fight).
It's just that this is the first one since The Godwulf Manuscript that I have to add provisos to my enjoyment. I have had the impression on many re-reads (including this time), that Parker was more interested in bringing up some of Wallace's ideas, positions, and practices than he was in telling a good story. At the very least, he was frequently distracted during the telling.
Do I recommend it? Yeah, it's a good read. It's a great way to understand the character, and the story is okay. Am I in the same kind of fan-boy mode for it as I was for Mortal Stakes, The Judas Goat or Promised Land? Nope. Still, I'll take this over almost Spenser novel from the 2000's.
---
“What is it you want to know?”
“Why you engage in things that are violent and dangerous.”
I sipped half a glass of beer. I took another bite of veal. “Well,” I said, "the violence is a kind of side-eiffect, I think. I have always
Show More
wanted to live life on my own terms. And I have always tried to do what I can do. I am good at certain kinds of things; I have tried to go in that direction.”"The answer doesn’t satisfy me,” Rachel said.
"It doesn’t have to. It satisfies me.”
“What he won’t say,” Susan said, "and what he may not even admit to himself is that he’d like to be Sir Gawain. He was born five hundred years too late. If you understand that, you understand most of what you are asking.”
"Six hundred years,” I said.
WHAT'S LOOKING FOR RACHEL WALLACE ABOUT?
Spenser is hired to act as a bodyguard for Rachel Wallace. Wallace is a no-nonsense feminist activist and lesbian author. There have been threats made against her if her book exposing the discriminatory practices of several New England companies is published. The threats make little sense since the galleys have already been released (and therefore the material is out there), but they're still there.
Despite clashing in their first meeting, Wallace agrees to her publisher's choice in Spenser and he agrees to try not to annoy her. The two continue to squabble for the first eighty or so pages. Wallace keeps trying to provoke Spenser, questioning his professionalism, wanting to debate her brand of feminism with him. Spenser really doesn't care about all that—and as much as he's willing to discuss and think about those issues at other times (he'd read Wallace's previous work before going to work for her)t—this is about work for him. He doesn't care who she sleeps with, what she thinks, he's about keeping her as safe as he can.
There is a moment where Wallace knows she's going into somewhat hostile territory and tells Spenser to stand down beforehand. When security guards arrive to drag her off, and she goes limp to make it hard for them, Spenser intervenes. Which robs Wallace of the opportunity to make her statement, get the attention she wants, and hopefully a hearing with her target-audience. Wallace takes this as an insult, thinking Spenser's machismo forced him to protect a (seemingly) helpless woman. And, yes, that's true. But it's also true, that if Wallace had been a male academic attracting this kind of response, he'd have done the same thing.
It was the wrong thing for Spenser to do regardless, which he admits later. Wallace fires him—and apparently doesn't replace him. A couple of months later, she's kidnapped. Belson* brings Spenser in for his perspective—and of course, that just spurs Spenser into his own investigation. He blames himself for not being a better employee, so he wasn't around to protect her.
* It's never explained why a homicide detective is brought in to discuss an abduction, but let that pass.
Spenser has very little to go off of here. He has one name, from a minor incident on his first day with Wallace to look into, and he essentially spends a lot of time trying to find evidence to tie this guy to the kidnapping. There's also a KKK leader that Spenser arrested back when he was a law enforcement officer and hasn't lost track of. Working off the assumption that a racist is going to operate in the same circles as a militant misogynist, Spenser harasses him for information. It works out (to a degree), but watching Spenser bully this guy on less than a hunch really bothered me.
Almost randomly, the one piece of evidence that Spenser (and Belson, to be fair) needs to tie everything together is essentially dropped into their lap. As a record blizzard descends on Boston, Spenser decides to walk (almost all roads are closed) fifteen miles to make the best of that piece of information. And well, you can guess the rest.
I FEEL COMPELLED TO SHARE THIS QUOTATION THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PLOT
The Main Entrance to the Boston Public Library used to face Copley Square across Dartmouth Street. There was a broad exterior stairway and inside there was a beautiful marble staircase leading up to the main reading room with carved lions and high-domed ceilings. It was always a pleasure to go there. It felt like a library and looked like a library, and even when I was going in there to look up Duke Snider’s lifetime batting average, I used to feel like a scholar.
Then they grafted an addition on and shifted the main entrance to Boylston Street. Faithful to the spirit, the architect had probably said. But making a contemporary statement, I bet he said. The addition went with the original like Tab goes with pheasant. Now, even if I went into study the literary influence of Eleanor of Aquitaine, I felt like I’d come out with a pound of hamburger and a loaf of Wonder bread.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT LOOKING FOR RACHEL WALLACE?
I guess I've made it clear that this isn't my favorite Spenser. But it's not that I dislike it. I enjoy spending time with Spenser and Susan. I liked when Wallace and Spenser engaged with each other—seeing Spenser in these settings tells a lot about him, as does the way he reacts to Wallace. At the same time, it's interesting seeing Spenser through her eyes (as mistaken as I think her estimation of him is, it's not merit-less). The dialogue is great, Spenser verbally sparring with Wallace's publisher and a prosecutor looking into her disappearance is just fun to read. I can't forget there are some pretty good action scenes (even if Spenser does bring a handgun to a pie fight).
It's just that this is the first one since The Godwulf Manuscript that I have to add provisos to my enjoyment. I have had the impression on many re-reads (including this time), that Parker was more interested in bringing up some of Wallace's ideas, positions, and practices than he was in telling a good story. At the very least, he was frequently distracted during the telling.
Do I recommend it? Yeah, it's a good read. It's a great way to understand the character, and the story is okay. Am I in the same kind of fan-boy mode for it as I was for Mortal Stakes, The Judas Goat or Promised Land? Nope. Still, I'll take this over almost Spenser novel from the 2000's.
Show Less
LibraryThing member DrApple
I liked the story of this installment of the Spenser series. Spenser is involved in protecting a radical feminist. She fires him, then gets kidnapped, and finding out who has her takes Spense down some interesting paths.
LibraryThing member john.cooper
A decent, dated (1980) tough-guy thriller with an unusually heavy psychological undercurrent. Spenser is hired to bodyguard a feminist author who doesn't want him around; so in addition to the usual physical challenges, there's a lot of push-pull and discussion about the politics and utility of
This is the first Robert B. Parker I've read, and while his style has neither the resonance of Ross MacDonald and Raymond Chandler or the surprising sophistication of John D. MacDonald, it's amusing enough. One of my favorite quotes, when Spenser accompanies Wallace to a corporate cafeteria appearance:
"The cafeteria had a low ceiling with a lot of fluorescent panels in it. The walls were painted a brilliant yellow on three sides with a bank of windows looking out over Back Bay on the fourth side. The bright yellow paint was almost painful. Music filtered through the cafeteria noise. It sounded like Mantovani, but it always does.
“Working with a writer, you get into the glamour scene. After we left here, we’d probably go down to Filene’s basement and autograph corsets. Maybe Norman would be there, and Truman and Gore.”
Show More
positive vs. negative male violence. To Parker's credit, the feminist side of the issue is given nearly equal weight, even if it turns out that the author does need Spenser's help (as could hardly be otherwise, given the genre). This is the first Robert B. Parker I've read, and while his style has neither the resonance of Ross MacDonald and Raymond Chandler or the surprising sophistication of John D. MacDonald, it's amusing enough. One of my favorite quotes, when Spenser accompanies Wallace to a corporate cafeteria appearance:
"The cafeteria had a low ceiling with a lot of fluorescent panels in it. The walls were painted a brilliant yellow on three sides with a bank of windows looking out over Back Bay on the fourth side. The bright yellow paint was almost painful. Music filtered through the cafeteria noise. It sounded like Mantovani, but it always does.
“Working with a writer, you get into the glamour scene. After we left here, we’d probably go down to Filene’s basement and autograph corsets. Maybe Norman would be there, and Truman and Gore.”
Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1980
Physical description
224 p.; 4.2 inches
ISBN
0440153166 / 9780440153160