Bad Business: Good Book
Written: Mar 19 '04 (Updated Mar 23 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great installment of the Spenser series
Cons: ... can't really think of any, honestly. :-)
The Bottom Line: If you like Spenser, buy it. If you like *upbeat* detective stories (as opposed to drink-yourself-to-death-in-the-old-dick's-home detective stories), buy it. 8 out of 10, maybe 8.5.
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| baylink's Full Review: Robert B. Parker - Bad Business Books |
I always enjoy it when an author I like stretches a little.
Parker, of course, stretches often, but some of his earlier results haven't been quite as enjoyable for me as his latest outing, _Bad Business_, which I liked quite a lot.
Spenser is hired, by his client's attorney (after she decides he's ok), to follow the husband of an executive of a large energy trading company, similar to Enron, and find out if he's been cheating on her, because she wants to smack him down hard. Before we get out of the first 30 pages (which, of course, is 5 chapters; this *is* Parker :-), we discover that not only *is* her hubby cheating, someone is following the woman who he's cheating with -- and someone *else* is following Spenser's client.
The customary too-witty-for-the room dialogue ensues, and we get a much lighter-hearted start than many recent Spenser novels have managed. Indeed, it seemed to me that the tone of the whole book was a bit funnier than has been the case in many later Spenser adventures; perhaps Parker is airing out his darker material more in the Jesse Stone series these days.
So Spenser starts forth, tailing his suspect -- since the wife wants "iron clad evidence" -- and when Spenser tries to get into the man's office building to ask him some questions, he gets delayed by the guard... long enough for the State Police to show up; it seems the exec has been shot, while Spenser was sitting outside waiting, and they want to know why *he* wanted to see him.
Luckily, of course, Captain Healy shows up, and Spenser is off the hook.
But it's then that the foreplay ceases, and the real mystery begins.
As usual, Spenser hates it when things are going on that he doesn't understand, and figuring out what was *really* going on here took the remaining three-quarters of the book. Susan lends her psychological know-how, and some thug whose current girlfriend calls him lots of things like 'Licorice Stick' and 'Chocolate Thunder' shows up about halfway through, to assist in the crimebusting. Their poking around all seems to lead back to Boston 'Affairs of The Heart' radio talk host Darrin O'Mara, who tends to advocate an approach to connubial bliss that might be more popular on alt.polyamory, than in Corporate America.
But it turns out that *that* isn't the root cause of the murder -- or the accompanying chaos -- either. What, in fact, it *is* remains sufficiently untelegraphed that the book is (as professional blurbers like to put it) a "rollicking read" right up to the last chapter.
Earlier in Parker's career, his novels seemed to me to be missing their last chapter quite frequently -- it seemed that there was more to be said, or resolved, than he'd dealt with. Sometimes, it seemed like a compliment to us, the readers: you can figure this out yourselves.
More often, though, for me anyway, it was jarring. He's clearly over it: in this, and Stone Cold (his latest Jesse Stone novel; review forthcoming), nothing seems manufactured, very little is telegraphed or predictable, Spenser and friends are warm and witty and wise.
Worth paying hardcover. :-)
(Finding this book to post the review, incidentally, took a couple of minutes; I see years of extensive complaining *still* have not convinced ePinions to switch their default search from OR to AND. My _For Us, The Living_ review, not yet posted due to an ePinions outage that night, took even longer to find. Get it together, guys...)
(Second incidentally, apologies to those who had to tolerate the hard-wraps; I write my reviews off-line (so I'll have copies, and in case Epinions screws the pooch when I hit post, as it has in the past), and I didn't realize that the Epinions posting script fails to eat the hard carriage returns. I'd report that bug, if I could figure out where...)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
baylink
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Member: Jay R. Ashworth
Location: St Petersburg, FL USA
Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 4 members
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