Library's review
I read so many of Parker's Spenser series back when they were new. I still remember sitting in the Knox County Public Library and devouring the entirety [Mortal Stakes], third in the series but the first I read, in one afternoon while playing hooky from high school. (Yes, that's the kind of
It didn't take long for the familiar characters to make themselves at home in my head. Spenser is still a wiseass (might be why I like him), he still pals around with ambiguously bad guy Hawk (who steals the show whenever Parker lets him, which isn't often enough), and he's still (sigh) in love with psychologist Susan Silverman (who makes navel-gazing a four-letter word). She's especially prominent in this one, as she asks Spenser to help out her ex-husband who is being sued for sexual harassment.
Inevitably, we get a lot of Susan backstory and it's sort of interesting to fill in those blanks, but boy did this book make me realize why I drifted away from the series: Every move that Spenser makes has to be talked to death by him and Susan, as they vie to see who can be the most evolved spirit on the planet. I think Parker intends these conversations to be signposts for the reader but having moved on to more sophisticated, subtle mysteries I realize how overdone and anvilicious this dialogue is. Less shrinking, more sleuthing!
Also, given the current climate surrounding the issue of sexual harassment, it irks me thatthe case that is the jumping-off point for the plot is fake, a made-up story to cover up a consensual affair. As if women don't have enough problems being believed.
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juvenile delinquent I was: skip school to hang out at the library.) My love for the series has waxed and waned over the years and eventually I stopped reading, right around the time this one was published. So when Mamie and Roberta resumed their shared series read I thought I'd jump in.It didn't take long for the familiar characters to make themselves at home in my head. Spenser is still a wiseass (might be why I like him), he still pals around with ambiguously bad guy Hawk (who steals the show whenever Parker lets him, which isn't often enough), and he's still (sigh) in love with psychologist Susan Silverman (who makes navel-gazing a four-letter word). She's especially prominent in this one, as she asks Spenser to help out her ex-husband who is being sued for sexual harassment.
Inevitably, we get a lot of Susan backstory and it's sort of interesting to fill in those blanks, but boy did this book make me realize why I drifted away from the series: Every move that Spenser makes has to be talked to death by him and Susan, as they vie to see who can be the most evolved spirit on the planet. I think Parker intends these conversations to be signposts for the reader but having moved on to more sophisticated, subtle mysteries I realize how overdone and anvilicious this dialogue is. Less shrinking, more sleuthing!
Also, given the current climate surrounding the issue of sexual harassment, it irks me that
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Fiction. Mystery. HTML: Brad Sterling - former Harvard football player, ne'er-do-well, and Susan Silverman's long out-of touch ex-husband - is by all appearances a successful businessman. But when, in the course of running a vast fundraiser called Galapalooza, he is charged with sexual harassment, he turns to Susan for help. Though Brad denies the charge, he's desperate, behind in alimony and child support payments to other exes, and in the verge of insolvency. When Spencer, Susan's current lover interest, reluctantly agrees to take the case, however, Brad claims everything is fine -he's free of debt and free of problems..
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1998