Parker, Robert B. Books - Page 3

Mortal Stakes

Robert B. Parker

List Price: $20.95 By: Thorndike Pr Amazon Marketplace: 6 new & used starting at $66.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> United States -> General AAS
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> General
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> Hardcover

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

HIgh Stakes Indeed 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Mortal Stakes, the third in the Spenser series, is wonderful on many levels. It is more than just about baseball and blackmail and a lone wolf PI taking on underworld thugs. It is also about relationships: between couples, between business partners, between a sports idol and his fans and also his teammates. Parker handles all of these relationships well, with the plot twisting down to a somewhat surprising end: the hero is not who you think! Excellent read - I highly recommend.

Editorial Review:

Everybody loves a winner, and the Rabbs are major league. Marty is the Red Sox star pitcher, Linda the loving wife. She loves everyone except the blackmailer out to wreck her life.

Is Marty throwing fast balls or throwing games? It doesn't take long for Spenser to link Marty's performance with Linda's past...or to find himself trapped between a crazed racketeer and an enforcer toting an M-16.

America's favorite pastime has suddenly become a very dangerous sport, and one wrong move means strike three, with Spenser out for good!

Chance (Spenser)

Robert B. Parker

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Berkley Amazon Marketplace: 118 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> General
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> Paperback
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Casting Diamonds to Devils: Shattering A Child's Crystalline Dreams. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The prologue of CHANCE was a haunting literary coup. Opening with the ethereal elegance of crystal goblets and white linen dreams, it descended quickly into the darkened schemes of beating bands and backed up screams:

>> It was all to come. The cocktails, the crystal, the starched white napkins, and the soft Sunday mornings with orange juice and floral print coverlets. Apple trees in spring blossom.... dense racket of the band and the crowd... booze and the sweet pungent marijuana smoke. <<

The scene appeared to be set-in-retro a few decades from the ongoing plot time, to a feel of the 70's:

Blackjack chewing gum, be-ribboned pony tails, dark loafers worn with no sox.

The effect reminded me of Sue Grafton's first chapter of "S is for Silence" with Violet portrayed in the 50's era, decades earlier than the 80's plot setting. (See my review on S, which I cut to 1/4 its original length to halt a blitzkrieg of No. Please ignore the bullet holes. Swiss Cheese is good.)

Later in the plot, Spenser made a few touching gestures, after the reader identified the red-haired woman in the 70's-retro, Cinderella prologue (with the antique-lace headed to the blinking-neon-light) and realized what befell the girlish schemes of a hopeful rescue from a brutal father.

During a lunch scene with the prologue gal (who easily received my sympathy), Spenser narrated:

I was quiet. She sat thinking back, looking past me at the lush artifice of the Las Vegas restaurant and probably not seeing it....
"You can't stop him. He'll find me and do what he's going to do and no one will stop him. Nobody can."
"I might stop him," I said.

A dialogue between Spenser and Hawk:

"She hasn't hired us. But I sort of told her I wouldn't let ... get her."
"Sure you did," Hawk said. "She's probably good looking and sad and you do four or five back flips and say we gonna eat Marty's lunch for him, he comes near her."
"I didn't do that many back flips."

Later, a few clips here and there from a scene in an MGM Grand motel room:

While I waited I patted her knee. My father used to do that, give me a pat once in a while, without comment....
"You all right in this?"
"No," she said. "All I can do is sit here and wait for the men to do whatever they'll do. How all right is that?"....
"I patted (her) knee again and headed for the door."

In a sense, this novel seemed to be dealing with vulnerability, sensitivity, and the idealized life brutalized, as much as with gambling and the death of romantic compulsions.

>> I walked with Susan through the brief wedge of dry heat into the air-conditioned terminal.... Watching her I felt the little knot in my stomach that I always felt when I left her.... I still stood for a moment, looking at the last place I had seen her, being careful not to be routine, while I became the other guy again, the one I was without her. It took a couple of minutes. And then I was him. He wasn't a bad guy; in fact sometimes I thought he had strengths that the other guy didn't have. Certainly he wasn't worse. But he was no one I wanted to be all the time. I turned back and headed for Lester and the Lincoln. <<

Parker painted the ambiance artifice of Vegas, the varied moods of its sunlight's unrelenting lack of relief:

>> ... live pirate show where one ship sinks another in the Treasure Island Lagoon, while the mist machines on the perimeter cooled us down. The rest of the hotels on our part of the strip looked like big, ugly hotels, a fifth-grader's dream of luxury, and nighttime excess, shopworn in the unblinking Nevada sunlight. <<

Describing a dead woman:

>> ... her white body dimpled and pudgy in the comfortless sunlight ... It was late morning and the dry heat lay and flat over everything. <<

The above type of Vegas detail is contrasted cleanly to Boston's climate, "Hawk and I went out, adequately armed, at least by our standards, and walked along the waterfront through a raw wind blowing off the harbor."

I'm beginning to notice some of what the addictive appeal is for me with the Spenser series, in addition to the above type of poetic prose in which the First Person Narrator sketches setting into life. The appeal is that I've been nicely set up to look for Spenser's unique brand of quips, quotes, and answers which slip to the reader those "keys" (or clues) on "How to Win the Boxing Matches of Life" (without feeling you've slimed your soul).

I don't know if Spenser's style is a melancholy-blues song, or poetry gone crisp with edges of truth. Maybe Parker's voice is the synergy of both, surged to the level of An Icon within The Cultural Conversation. When I read any Spenser novel now, I expect diamonds to glisten among the garbage of the "way we were" the way we are, the ...

"What I am to be I am now becoming."

I don't recall who said that. I just remember that it was quoted by a Girl Scout leader from my long gone youth.

While I enjoy Hawk's references of Spenser being an Eagle Scout, I was never fond of what I learned in Girl Scout camp (other than the above quote), what with the rats keeping me awake chewing on my shoes beside my cot, the wake up calls in the frigid frost of dawn, the choice of either shivering or sweating my terror of mountain lions and bears. The horrifying, bone-marrow-tapping Cold of the Nights in the mountains and woods were the worst, with the campfire always glowing too hard, too late, too small, too far away from my nightmares.

Working the summer as an assistant cook at a Girl's Scout camp designed (horribly poorly; what a horrendous choice that was!) my transition from home to college, at the end of my high school reign, during which I was class president and Co-Valedictorian.

All for what?

What a maze we go through to get from youth to adult, a maze which never seems to truly end with the Brass Ring called Actualization, a maize in which spirit bruises reign and rain.

Who doesn't at times feel like a losing gambler in life.

Returning to the Life of Spenser and the dry-heat, Nevada ambiance in this plot...

I noticed a pause in the middle of the book, in which questions like the above moved mood to melancholy, as Spenser wallowed within an absolute lack of success of his mission; an inability to take satisfaction in his pay (which he gave away) at the end of The Day. When I realized the book was only half finished at that seemingly moot point, I wondered how Parker would heat the rhythm enough to make the second half feel more than an extended tack-on. I was surprised that while Spenser, Hawk, and Susan were moaning the emptiness of dead ends in the case at hand, I didn't feel those dreaded spaces of reader boredom which sometimes overwhelm (underwhelm?) me if characters endure depressing lulls of dissatisfaction.

What kept me away from ennui at that half-way plot point of "Is this all there is?"

Possibly what kept me involved in the story was that I knew Parker would leave clues I could use for "me"; I wanted those more than I wanted completion to Parker's clients' questions and needs. They were there. Both. All. But, they weren't etched in glowing script on Silver Plates. Diamonds buried in mud, they were. I had to dig. I did.

See my tiara? Not a princess in a fairytale, I'm The Queen of my Dreams. Wherever they are, my dreams are mine. Who can steal something I keep in my mind while dining on time?

Maybe the secret is to know what might be attainable with sweat and finesse, and what is likely pie in the sky to save for sleep.

Onward. To more culinary cozies carefully contrasted by Parker, Rand, Woods, McGarrity, Grafton, Myers, Workinger, O'Loughlin ... The list goes on.

Diamonds before devils, and angels have wings. These are a few of my favorite things.

Speaking somewhat of choirs of dashing devils and soprano angels, I enjoy seeing voices of reviewers develop on Amazon, the only venue I've discovered which allows, in a way encourages this development, with its relatively open gift of space for individual songs to strike a rhythm and tone. If you want to identify more clearly what they mean by a writer's voice this is a good place to study that. Click on any "See all my reviews" and read a few from the beginning of the list, a few from current posts. Maybe you'll hear a song growing, which is more than a style.

Amazon has its very own music of the spheres. (For clear-voice reviews on opera and mystery, see the list of my Amazon Friend, L.E. Cantrell.)

Parker's dedication to his wife, Joan: "Every town is Paris; every month is May."

Linda G. Shelnutt

Editorial Review:

Spenser and Hawk investigate the disappearance of Anthony Meeker, the husband of mafia daughter Shirley Meeker, and begin to suspect that his wife, father-in-law, and associates miss him for darker purposes. Reprint.

Blue Screen (Sunny Randall)

Robert B. Parker

Amazon Price: $9.99 List Price: $9.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Berkley Amazon Marketplace: 210 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General AAS
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 65 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Just Dull 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book isn't awful it just never drew me in. Both the main characters are regulars from other Parker books. After this I have no desire to try either of them again. I like Parker but these two were both too bland. I read it on a working vacation to Europe and I can't even say this was good "killing time" type reading.

First Parker book ever, and probably the last. 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I've never read Robert B. Parker before and I settled on Blue Screen because it was available at the library on short notice, and I needed an audio book for a trip the next day. As a reader, I'm always weary of jumping into the middle of a series. Will I be lost because I haven't read the previous books? Will I care about or understand the main characters? In Blue Screen, Sunny Randall is hired by Buddy Bollen to watch over and protect Erin Flint. Buddy is a mega rich dotcom millionairre who owns the fictional Connecticut Nutmegs, a major league baseball team. Erin Flint is a beautiful woman. Every one agrees on that. She is Buddy's girlfriend and has starred in many B-movies that he's produced. Erin is also a pretty good athelete and a first class jerk to be around.

Buddy wants Sunny to protect Erin because he feels Erin may be in danger because Buddy plans on having her be the center fielder for his major league team. Okay. I need to stop right there. This is a pretty big plot point. I've read a lot of fiction and most have outrageous and unrealistc plots that the author never the less makes believable because of his writing talent. The idea of a movie star jumping in and playing in the majors is one of the most laughable, ridiculous things I've ever read in a novel. What's sad is that Parker believes it could happen. Sunny and other characters continuously ask those who supposedly know, including Jesse Stone, if Erin could make it. They all seem to say, sure, but it would be difficult. This whole plot point, a 35 year old actress suddenly playing in the majors totally ruined the novel for me. This isn't mentioned in the summary on the back of the book, or I wouldn't have even started reading it. Baseball is one sport where even the best college players have to work their way up through the minors. Most players hit their prime in their 20s. Thirty-five is over the hill. Baseball isn't a sport you can just pick up by spending a few months in a batting cage hitting against college kids.

Okay, enough of that rant. How is the rest of the book? Well, the plot is typical thriller stuff that includes pimps, murder, thugs and the mob. In fact, the plot, aside from the baseball angle, is comepletely underwhelming. There is no hook here. Nothing to compel you to turn the page. Sunny hooks up with Jesse Stone and they begin a relationship. Sunny is still attached to her ex-husband Richie and seems to think in her deluded mind that she has a chance with him although he is married and expecting a child. For such a short book, there was way too much relationship with Stone and Sunny. The dog Rosie and its biscuits drove me crazy, and the chat with the psychiatrist during the last fifth of the book about sex was absolutely pointless. Parker sets up an interesting character in Erin during the first half of the book, then seems more interested in having Stone and Sunny talk about sex for the latter half.

I probably won't read any more Parker books. The entire 35 year old actress as a major league center fielder soured me early on on the book. Then the bad parts of the rest of the novel seemed to stick out all the more and my dislike seemed to snowball. I'm sorry, but this is one series I can't recommend. Novels featuring his other characters may be different, so I may try one of those out again in the future.

Editorial Review:

Sunny Randall, "Boston's leading lady gumshoe" (New York Daily News), returns as hired bodyguard for the spoiled, and possibly dangerous, prize female client of a sleazy producer. This time, she gets a little help from Parker's popular character Jesse Stone, making a guest appearance here

Cold Service (Spenser)

Robert B. Parker

Amazon Price: $9.99 List Price: $9.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Berkley Amazon Marketplace: 315 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Action & Adventure
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> General
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> Paperback

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 105 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Characters have lost their roots 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I have read all of the Spenser books up to this one, and always enjoyed them as a change from my normal reading. They are always witty, quick and I like the characters. But this book has begun the spin into the zone of the unreal. The plot is not realistic. The doors all open without hestation, the knowledge is gained without sweat, the friends are coming out of the woodwork to help, Hawk and Spenser are taking on a huge organization in Marshport but there is no drama from it. The characters of Hawk and Spenser have crossed the line - once they were the outcasts, the rebels on a cause, now they are the mainstream with police, mob and the FBI helping and looking the other way. It's too much.

The story starts after Hawk is gunned down and moves to his convalescence. The psychologist in Susan and Spenser is front and center on the emotional rehabilitation. A little more of Hawk is revealed and that sets up a conundrum: With this information, as small as it is, is it too much? Has Hawk become too human? Not sure that I like knowing more about him.

The verbal banter is still topnotch and the wisecracking enjoyable. The storyline, while a very large stretch, is still entertaining. I hope that Parker comes back to the roots of the characters and gets away from this type of plot in the next Spenser.

Editorial Review:

When his buddy Hawk is beaten within an inch of his life, Spenser infiltrates a ruthless mob in the name of friendship--and revenge.

Stone Cold (Jesse Stone)

Robert B. Parker

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Berkley Amazon Marketplace: 137 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> General
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> Paperback
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 57 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Action in Paradise 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Excellent Book. Typical intriguing Robert Parket mystery. Sex, murder and mystery. In this there is an emotional subplot and a main plot with occurrences very close to Jesse's vest. This is another detective murder mystery filled with intelligent clues, emotional moments and the reader is left wondering what's next between Jenn and Jesse?

Disappointing. 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I was disappointed. This was by far the least of the Parker novels I have read. The humor was weak and this is usually a strong point. The characters were super-thin, not that they ever have much depth. The plot is straight forward but not very exciting. Pretty dull stuff for Parker.

Quick read 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

When people start showing up dead with two bullet holes to the chest with no rhyme or reason, Jesse Stone is on the case. It appears there is a serial killer or killers in Paradise and it is up to Jesse to find them - before they find him; because it seems Jesse is next on their list.

A subplot involving the rape of a teenage girl by three boys adds a bit of depth to the plot.

As mentioned - this was a very quick read. I actually read half of Trouble in Paradise (Jesse Stone) and all of Death in Paradise (Jesse Stone), all of "Stone Cold" and a good bit of Sea Change (Jesse Stone) yesterday. These are very quick reads and difficult to put down once started. Not to be missed for the fans of Robert Parker and police procedurals!

Editorial Review:

Tony and Brianna Lincoln just moved into Paradise, but friendly they aren't. In fact, these urbane thrill killers are knocking off the neighbors one by one, and Jesse Stone is next.

Back Story (Spenser)

Robert B. Parker

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Berkley Amazon Marketplace: 227 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> General
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> Paperback
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 67 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Lite, fun reading 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I recently discovered Robert B. Parker and have quickly turned into a fan. His novels are a pleasure to read. I am an avid mystery reader and particularly enjoy those that contain humor. Parker fits the mold for me. "Back Story" was a pleasure to read. I enjoyed the interaction between Spenser and Hawk, and enjoyed the banter once I got over the stereotypical African-American language Parker employed for Hawk. If yo enjoy novels with decent plotting and amusing style, you will enjoy "Back Story".

Enough, Already 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Parker came upon a unique and clever idea when he befan writing the Spenser series. The characters were of interest and the plots well tailored. Although this series would never be confused with great, or even good literature, it was always good for a fast and harmless read. It seems as if the writer is going to the well far too often. The story is more miss than mysyery and the story becomes tedious at times. The story is rather predictable and this entry lacks the snappy writing style that was so evident in the earlier books of this series. The characters are like oft-used stereotypes andthere is little development of them. It was a good run yet appears to be time to give this character a rest.

Editorial Review:

In Robert B. Parker's most popular series, an unsolved thirty-year-old-murder draws the victim's daughter out of the shadows for overdue justice--and lures Spenser into his own past, old crimes, and dangerous lives.

The Widening Gyre

Robert B. Parker

List Price: $12.95 By: Delacorte Press Amazon Marketplace: 19 new & used starting at $2.79

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> United States -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> United States -> General AAS
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

"I Spin my Tales (and Bust a few Chops) As I Walk Alone Through Night Drenched Streets." - The Private Eye. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This one played the neon-light-blink, moaning-blues song of the lonely P.I., but with a sugar plum twist of Spenser's ideal of Romantic Love oozing out-of-the-funk. Susan cast a long shadow in the background until Spenser drew her into his Spotlight midway through the plot. Prior to Susan's entrance, The Master P.I. had walked alone. Not even the Hawk had flown there, except for a cool cameo in the plot conclusion. Spenser narrated the soliloquy scene so well at times that the style in THE WIDENING GYRE, # 10 in series, read like a diary dealing with the sad refrain of "Susan's away" (she was in Washington DC, getting her PhD, developing her "Me").

When Susan did arrive in plot ... actually Spenser went to DC were she was solidly steeped into her "schooling"; stuck-in-the-mud of its professional status of mining/mixing ... she and Spencer exchanged a few thought provoking conversations, doodling boarders around Cynicism and Romantic Love. With interesting irony, Susan was the cynic, interpreting each human action/feeling as self-serving. Those conversations, containing several pages of quotable-keepers, set a large segment of the baseline for the evolving Silverman/Spenser mystique. (See chapters 19 & 22, in particular.)

Well prior to those scenes, eighteen-year-old Paul had arrived at Spenser's apartment to share the Thanksgiving holiday, and zinged Spenser with a few passages of "blow-your-socks-off" wisdom about intimacy breaking down Spenser's previously well-contained-and-clearly-coded "me-ness." If nothing else had given me a clue, I would have known Spenser was in a MOOD in this one (entertaining to the reader though not to him) by the dull description of food available, and resultant location of the "Be Thankful" dining event.

I'm glad I didn't miss the touching (and telling) comment Spenser made to one of the Grannies involved in the voyeurism scenes, as he walked away from her after having "saved her bacon" (though no cast iron skillets sizzled in this one).

I enjoyed riding along through Spenser's daily diary submissions about booze and caffeine, describing the ticking of minutes as he struggled to stretch the timing and flavor of his culinary "vices" ... which The Experts had proclaimed bad one year (or decade), good the next. This series is a fascinating vehicle for recalling the years when certain habits emerged with stamps of sanction or sacrilege. From my observations, the 70's were the time of shuffling every card of "Do" and "Don't"; sorting and re-sorting the ups and downs of each trump of life-and-taste, until Flavor Itself, along with Human Nature were condemned as Ultimate Evils.

Such a deal. And that makes sense why?

Sigh. Maybe a decade will arrive in which sanity, or even a useful sentience will emerge from the abused bowels of the human race. Maybe the pseudo varieties of Science will slither down the drains in the dungeons of drudgery, and what's left to pick up from The School floor will clean up into something based on truth instead of in alternate fad pushing (with punishment, $$$, and fame the partially hidden intents).

(An informative, intriguing series of Amazon Shorts is currently available which addresses evolutions around some of this thinking, which was upchucked and overturned in the 70's, then poked and picked to death in the 80's and 90's. In the 00's, we seem to be in a stupor of gyration to the sloshes of aftermath. Is it any wonder this is the outcome of the age which coined "Duh"? The series of which I'm speaking was presented by scientists Gregory Benford and Michael Rose. I've recently reviewed the first 5 of their series of Amazon Shorts.)

I was intrigued by Spenser's play on "Gyre" in his book-front-dedication and quote from William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming." Parker asks, "Can the center hold, or not." That was the question. Spenser seemed to be dramatizing that it can. He added a how and why.

WIDENING GYRE was a classy offering in this cultural landmark of a series. I very much enjoyed the slight-lime-twist on the classic "voice" of the low-key, poor-me, lonely P. I. My thanks to Parker for staying true-to-soul and avoiding another same-ole detective series. That well-established, long-trod genre has abundantly and sensually filled a void with lip-smacking (and bone-shattering) satisfaction. But for me, The World's need for Spenser was/is like its need for gravity.

Bless the same-ole, along with the unique (maybe they need each other),
Linda Shelnutt

Editorial Review:

The adoring wife of a senatorial candidate has a smile as sweet as candy and dots her "i's" with little hearts. A blond beauty, she is the perfect mate for an ambitious politician, but she has a little problem with sex and drugs--a problem someone has managed to put on videotape.

The big boys figure a little blackmail will put her husband out of the race. Until Spenser hops on the candidate's bandwagon.

But getting back the tape of the lady's X-rated indiscretion is a nonstop express ride to trouble--trouble that is deep, wide and deadly.

"A thriller all the way." (Seattle Times)

A Catskill Eagle - Level 3 - Con 1 Cassette (Penguin Joint Venture Readers) (Spanish Edition)

Robert B. Parker

List Price: $14.55 By: Penguin Books Amazon Marketplace: 1 new & used starting at $24.76

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> General
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> General AAS
Subjects -> Children's Books -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Catskill Eagle - AUDIO VERSION read by, Michael Prichard 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I read the hard cover version of this book and loved it so much. The best ever of all in the Spenser series in my opinion. I bought the audio version (read by, Michael Prichard),thinking it would be great fun to listen to it. I was very disappointed. The book was read, but with no character, (no emotion). I would love to listen to this one again, if read by Joe Mantegna

Here's Where the Spenser Books Start Getting Silly 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

A CATSKILL EAGLE is the twelfth Spenser novel, and it's the first one with a really silly plot. The absurdity of the story makes this book difficult to thoroughly enjoy.

In this novel, Susan Silverman hooks up with a new boyfriend whose father just happens to be a evil arms dealer (and a white supremacist and anti-semitic to boot). Spenser and Hawk try to rescue her and somehow hook up with the CIA (!) who enlist them to covertly kill the arms dealer. The conclusion of this book involves Spenser breaking into the arms dealer's fortress and going through a secret tunnel to kill him.

Anyway, the whole plot of A CATSKILL EAGLE is absurd, and it's only Parker's snappy writing that makes this novel worthwhile. This is one of my least favorite Spenser novels, and I would definitely not recommend it to a newcomer to Parker's work. My advice would be to read PROMISED LAND, LOOKING FOR RACHEL WALLACE or EARLY AUTUMN first. Those novels have much more realistic, compelling plots that show Parker at his best.

Editorial Review:

In the detective business, Spenser sometimes has to bend the law. Other times, to break it. But he lives by his own inviolate rules. And he loves just one woman -- even though she is the one woman he's just lost.

So when Susan's desperate letter arrives, Spenser doesn't think twice. His best friend, Hawk, faces a life sentence. And Susan has gotten herself into even bigger trouble. Now Spenser has to free them both...even if it means breaking his own rules to do it.

"If you like tight writing, no wasted words and interesting characters, Parker will be your cup of tea." (USA Today)

Valediction

Robert B. Parker

List Price: $12.95 By: Delacorte Press Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $0.49

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> United States -> General AAS
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> General
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> Hardcover

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Symbolism Steeps & Steams. Spenser Loses Sleep, Speaks-in-Tongues to Loss & Life 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This might not be much of a review since the only word which has come to mind since I've finished the read is, "WOW."

More than most offerings in this series so far, # 11 VALEDICTION concluded a catharsis which had been building through previous plots. The theme set by the title and dedication in THE WIDENING GYRE, # 10, continued to gyrate here, accumulating insight about the center holding (at the cliff-edge of a workable level of obsession), weathering The Storm, using as Super Glue a commitment to Capital "L" LOVE.

Even so, I believe that a reader could open this offering in the series as a first taste of Spenser and easily slip into the plot (more like willingly fall down a well) and enjoy it. I'm thankful, though, that I received the addictive effect of having carefully read and reviewed the previous 10 books in order, prior to approaching VALEDICTION.

The solitary, diary-narrative-style set in GYRE continued in VALEDICTION, yet with a gradual erosion of the set-apart, lonely P. I. Emotions ran (and rutted mesmerizing-ly) so deeply that, especially in retrospect, I felt more like I had lived within this book instead of reading its words. I fell so far into the story that I'm not able to immediately recall details of the action, though there was plenty (of delicious detail and apothecary action).

I was particularly intrigued by purposely-parallel-situations exposing various levels-of-obsessions. Parker used Spenser's male client as a juxtaposition of nearly identical feelings of loss endured in a contrasted way to Spenser's handling of Susan's journey taking her further and further away. The precise way in which Susan initiated her abandonment of Spenser was quietly shocking, to the reader as well as to Spenser. Yet, Parker's way of dealing with this complex type of trauma, through Spenser and other characters, was one of the best dramatizations I've read, of coming through the deepest types of separation or loss.

This novel traveled to the ends of several roads in the visceral labyrinths of human intimacy. Lusciously included in this labyrinth were signature scenes with Hawk, Paul & Paige; touching phone conversations with Susan; and a Partridge-Pear-Tree-Gateway, which opened "Through-The-Looking-Glass" of the woman-at-the-drawing-board who'd been posed through several previous novels, in the window across from Spenser's office. Whew. Take a breath.

Impressive to the Nth degree, Dr. Parker. You've done it again, yet gone beyond anywhere you'd been. I have no doubt that the next eleven Spenser novels have been written at sequential levels of mastery, with the first eleven proving a foundation of perfection.

Landmark. Lazarus. Phenomenon. Whatever. Wow.

Linda Shelnutt

Editorial Review:

The most dangerous man to cross is one who isn't afraid to die. But the most deadly is one who doesn't want to live. And Spenser has just lost the woman who made life his #1 priority.

So when a religious sect kidnaps a pretty young dancer, no death threat can make Spenser cut and run. Now a hit man's bullet is wearing Spenser's name. But Boston's big boys don't know Spenser's ready and willing to meet death more than halfway.

"Tough, wisecracking, unafraid and unexpectedly literate --in many respects the very exemplar of the species." (The New York Times)

A Triple Shot of Spenser (Spenser Mysteries)

Robert B. Parker

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Berkley Trade Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $6.45

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> General
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> Paperback
Subjects -> Mystery & Thrillers -> Authors, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Parker, Robert B. -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

triple good 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

some of Parker's best work. his char development is always good, but better than most here.
a must have if you are a Parker fan, if not a great place to become one.

A Triple-shot of Great books! 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

In Pastime, Paul Giacomin comes to Spenser asking for help in tracking down his mother, who has gone missing. Never the best of mothers - having often abandoned Paul to his own devices when he was younger, causing Paul to develop as a very neurotic youngster before Spenser took him under his wing in Early Autumn (as Paul says at one point "she used to literally hide under the bed . . . but I would find her") - Patty Giacomin had nonetheless kept in at least loose contact with her son through the years. However, when he had recently left several messages on her machine and then stopped by her house to find no one there, he became concerned. Spenser also suspects that Paul is seeking some resolution of the issues from his childhood, as he is now engaged to his significant other Paige and planning on marrying in the next year or so.

When Spenser begins investigating, he becomes concerned that he will learn something about which Paul would rather not know. Paul nonetheless insists on being involved every step of the way. Because of the nature of the investigation and the strain it puts on Paul, Spenser finds that talking about his own background and history to Paul helps distract the boy. (Up until now, much of this information has been a mystery to not only the characters, but also the reader.) Susan manages to get even more out of him. This makes for fascinating reading.

When Spenser's investigations lead to evidence that Patty's new boyfriend may have been involved with Gerry Broz, things begin to turn ugly.

This is a very revealing book, in many ways. We learn a great deal about Spenser; we learn a few things about Hawk. We see that Paul, despite all his hard work over the years, is inside still very much the insecure young boy yearning for his mother's affection and attention. We see some great interactions with Joe Broz and his son, Gerry - there are several very interesting parallels and contrasts which can be drawn between Joe Broz and Gerry's relationship vs. that of Patty Giacomin and Paul. Although Patty is not around by the end of the book, because of her dysfunctional approach to relationships (and as predicted by both Spenser and Paul in the book), I suspect this is not the last we will be seeing of her.

I have to say that my heart almost literally broke for Vinnie Morris, for the decision he had to make toward the end of the book. Vinnie may be a crook, but he is a crook with honor and I felt bad for him being put into the position he was in. I hope we'll see him again in the future, in a better situation.

In Double Deuce, when 14-year-old Devona Jefferson and her three-month-old baby Crystal are shot down near the projects at 22 Hobart St (thus called Double Deuce), a committee of the residents comprised of women, old men and the Reverend Orestes Tillis contact Hawk and ask him to help weed out the gangs who have taken over the neighborhood. Hawk agrees to help and brings in Spenser. Understandably suspicious of Spenser, many of the residents outright state that they do not want him there - the most outspoken being Tillis, who calls Spenser the White Satan and says that he will not support Spenser being there. Hawk says that Spenser is there with him and if anyone has a problem with that, then both he and Spenser will be on their way.

Spenser and Hawk spend a lot of time around the Double Deuce, trying to work out who runs the Hobarts (the local gang) as well as who spiked (shot) Devona and her baby. As they investigate, connections to their old "friend" Tony Marcus pops up - it seems that Marcus has been using the Hobarts to run drugs through the area.

In many ways, this was a very difficult book to read - not to say I did not enjoy it, but it was full of uncomfortable truths about the disenfranchised who surround us every day. It paints a very bleak picture of life in the projects.

In Paper Doll, when a prominent member of the community is murdered, Spenser is hired by her husband when he feels the police are not making headway quickly enough. Spenser quickly discovers that there is very little to discover (the police are leaning toward the "random psycho" theory), so he begins to do research into her past, finding there a tangled web of lies. He grabs an end of the web and starts to pull.

Like usual, this does not earn him any friends.

What he finds out is by turns shocking and tragic. This was a great book with a terrific twist to it that I just did not see coming at all and I can't even begin to give any more details about the plot without spoiling it.

Each of this books individually earns a strong recommend from me - put them all three together? Wow - a weekend of wonder!

Editorial Review:

THREE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SPENSER NOVELS TOGETHER IN ONE TRADE OMNIBUS.

A first-ever, triple-shot omnibus of the classic New York Times bestsellers featuring "THE WORLD'S MOST PERFECT PRIVATE EYE."-Los Angeles Times Book Review

In Pastime, the Boston PI revisits a crime from his past, and a young victim who wants answers. In Double Deuce, when Spenser is drawn into a war against a Boston street gang. And in Paper Doll, a perfect suburban wife and mother is found murdered. A random act? Spenser's isn't convinced.