COLETTE'S LIST

Brief Reviews Writ Loud
by Colette Bancroft

Spenser Is Parker, Only Taller

HE MAKES IT LOOK EASY. That's the seductive nature of Robert B. Parker's books. Every time I open up a new one and read it straight through in one sitting, I think what he does must be easy. Then I remember that it's easy for me, not him, and it's easy for me because he's so damn good at it.
For connoisseurs of the tough detective story done with wit, skill, intelligence and moral sensibility, there is no more consistently fine writer working today.
Parker published his first novel, "The Godwulf Manuscript," in 1973. He was fresh off writing a doctoral dissertation on the fiction of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Ross Macdonald, and their hard-boiled influence was obvious in that first book. But so was Parker's own distinctive style. From the first, the single-named Spenser was an original. I began reading Parker's books soon after he began writing them, and I've long been one of those fans, beloved by his publishers, who pounces on each new one as soon as it hits the shelves.
Parker's lean, charged style, his vivid use of Boston and environs as a rich setting, and his tightly knit plots are all satisfying. But I'll confess that for me, and probably for a lot of Parker's female fans, Spenser is what brings us back. We're more than a little in love with him, and who could blame us?
Spenser is not just your standard-issue tough guy with a gun (although he's very good at that, and it comes in handy from time to time). He's laugh- out-loud funny, confident and self-deprecating at once. He listens to people when they talk, he pays attention to details, he spoils his dog, he's loyal to his friends, and he positively worships the woman he's been in love with all these years and yet manages not to stifle her. He's a thinking woman's tough detective. I want Spenser to cook me dinner.
When I interviewed Parker in 1994, he commented that the actor cast to play Spenser in the TV series didn't fit his notion of what Spenser looked like. I asked him what Spenser should look like. He cocked an eyebrow and said, "Like me, only taller."
Spenser's his fantasy and ours. It's a beautiful relationship.
Twenty-six Spenser books (as well as several other novels) later, Parker can still satisfy and surprise. As his protagonist has evolved, Spenser and his relationships with his beloved Susan Silverman and the enigmatic Hawk have become the most important reasons many fans read the novels -- the mysteries are just gravy.

Introducing Jesse Stone
In his latest novel, "Night Passage," Parker introduces a new protagonist, Jesse Stone. Stone is an ex-L.A. homicide detective who gets canned for trying to drown a case of post-divorce blues in booze, then leaves California for a new job as police chief of Paradise, Massachusetts.
As Jesse drives across the country, he wonders why he was hired for the job even though he was bombed at the interview, and he wonders how he'll get along without his ex-wife, a wannabe actress. Once he gets to Paradise, he wonders why the last chief left under a cloud, he wonders about a series of escalating crimes that seem intended to bait him, he wonders about the local militia running around out in the picturesque New England woods, and most of all he wonders about their leader, the town banker and head selectman, a geeky little item in a bowtie named Hasty Hathaway, and about Hasty's connection with a meanass body builder named Jo Jo Genest.
I sat down to read "Night Passage" with a combination of curiosity and grumpiness. I wanted to see what Parker was up to now, but more than that I wanted Spenser, and Hawk and Susan and Pearl the Wonder Dog. (Parker has promised, by the way, that although "Night Passage" is the first in a series of books about Stone, he will also continue writing Spenser books.)
Is Jesse Stone Spenser? No, he isn't. He's not taller, but he's younger; Spenser has, of course, aged more slowly than his creator (Parker is now 65), but he has been at this detective thing since '73, so we have to figure he's somewhere in middle age. Stone is a buff 35. He's not as funny as Spenser, and not as wise, either, but he's smart and no-bullshit, he pays attention to details, and damned if I didn't read the whole book at one sitting.
So, okay, I'm willing to see if this new kid grows on me, and if you're already a Spenser fan, you'll find much to enjoy in "Night Passage" (and you'll also find several characters who have appeared in Spenser novels).
But if you're new to Parker's work, start with Spenser. Twenty-five of the novels are available in paperback, and the latest, "Small Vices," will be soon. Read a few choice ones. Or work your way through all of them in order, an exercise that offers a first-rate study in character development and a hilarious survey of fashion through the last couple of decades.
It's tough to pick the best of Spenser, since all of them repay reading. But here are a few particular favorites:

The Godwulf Manuscript: Parker's first novel holds up remarkably well 25 years after its publication. Spenser's first appearance involves him in the theft for ransom of a priceless Old English manuscript and in the sometimes heady, sometimes sordid mix of radical politics and experimentation with drugs and sex found on college campuses in the early 70s. The plot, involving a megalomaniacal English professor, echoes Ross Macdonald's novels but is also clearly the work of a man getting gleeful revenge for being put through the trials of earning a Ph.D.

God Bless the Child: The second Spenser novel introduces Susan Silverman and chronicles the origins of Spenser's involvement with young Paul Giacomin, the sullen teenage son of a repulsive couple of social- climbing parents. Spenser proves himself not only an adept detective but a hell of a father figure, though he almost bobbles his first date with Susan by cooking pork roast.

Looking for Rachel Wallace: Spenser is hired to serve as an author's bodyguard. Sounds like a piece of cake, but the author is Rachel Wallace, a feminist whose new book details corporate sexism and corruption. Someone is threatening her, but that's only one of Spenser's problems. He's trying to protect a woman who tells him,"You embodied everything I hate ... Everything I have denounced -- machismo, violence, that preening male arrogance that compels a man to defend any woman he's with, regardless of her wishes and regardless of her need." Rachel is abrasive and angry and she makes a lot of people mad; after she fires Spenser, one of them kidnaps her. Does Spenser give up, say good riddance and go have a beer? Be serious.

Paper Doll: Spenser is hired by Boston Brahmin Loudon Tripp to investigate the brutal and seemingly random murder of Tripp's wife, Olivia Nelson. Tripp disagrees with the cops' conclusion that she was a random victim, though he's virtually no help to Spenser after he hires him. In fact, he lives in a rosy cloud of denial, assuring Spenser that his marriage was perfect and his life likewise until the murder. But he's bouncing checks all over Boston, his two teenagers are a mess, and the apparently perfect Olivia was screwing around with most of her male acquaintances. What's more, as Spenser discovers when he goes to her South Carolina hometown, Olivia wasn't Olivia.

Stardust: Could it be a coincidence that during the years Parker was serving as adviser and producer for "Spenser: For Hire," he wrote a book about the idiocies of show biz? The star of a Boston-based TV series is being harassed by an anonymous enemy. Spenser is hired to guard Jill Joyce, who turns out to be a spoiled sex addict and all-around substance abuser with more secrets than a presidential candidate. This is one of Parker's funniest.

Double Deuce: In one of Boston's most godforsaken public housing projects, 22 Hobart Street, known as Double Deuce, a 14-year-old girl and her 3-month-old baby are gunned down in the street one fine morning. Just another drive-by, until the people who live in Double Deuce turn to Hawk for help. Standing down a whole street gang is a little much even for Hawk, so he brings Spenser along to help. In addition to exploring whether or not Spenser and Susan can live together, "Double Deuce" offers insight into the mysterious Hawk.

Titles discussed in Colette's List may be
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Colette's Archive

Colette's List 1: Hiaasen: Murder Under The Palms

Colette's List 2: Hall, MacDonald & More Murder

Colette's List 3: Crews: The Artist As Scar Lover

Colette's List 4: Mosley: Easy In The City Of Angels

Colette's List 5: Chandler: Trouble Is My Business

Colette's List 6: Mango, Mortal Sin & Margaritaville

Colette's List 7: A Monstrous Regiment of Women

Colette's List 8: The Inferno: James Ellroy's L.A.

Colette's List 9: Spenser Is Parker, Only Taller

Colette Bancroft, a writer known at various times in her career to date as The Goddess of the Classroom, The Empress of Haute Cuisine and The Spitball Queen, is at work on a mystery novel of her own. She is an editor on the Metro Desk at the St. Petersburg Times.

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