Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spenser's Greatest Vulnerabilities and Most Sensitive Feelings Are Exposed, 24 Oct 2007
Now & Then provides plenty of what you like about Spenser. If you like Spenser, this book is a winner!
When Robert Parker decides to do his best with a Spenser novel, there's no experience quite like it. The dialogue is sharp, witty, and intriguing. The moral issues are tough and nicely nuanced. Choices are difficult . . . and costly. The love between Spenser and Susan is almost palpable. The deep loyalty among Spenser and his friends is abiding and heart-warming. The evils that he overcomes are ones that turn your stomach. The physical resolutions are oh so satisfying, like a great hot breakfast on a cold morning.
No one has ever better translated the stories of the knights errant into modern times better than Robert Parker.
Be prepared for a great story.
Dennis Doherty wants Spenser to find out why his wife is out late at night and sometimes shows signs of drinking. Doherty is like a cat on a hot tin roof . . . everything that Spenser says almost scares him off. Doherty is also way too reticent about himself: Something is being hidden.
Spenser quickly finds that Professor Jordan Richmond (Doherty's 51-year-old wife) is snuggling and more with a visiting professor, Perry Alderson, who is attractive to women, knows it, and lives the good life.
Doherty wants proof that where there's smoke there's fire, and Spenser tapes some explosive pillow talk that suggests that the relationship has a basis in something other than musical beds. Knowing how dangerous the tape is, Spenser edits it down before sharing it with his client.
The result is still an explosion, one that reverberates throughout the book. What is the right thing to do?
The more Spenser tries to do the right thing, the worse the situation gets for him . . . and Susan. Before long, Spenser feels he needs as many troops as he can get.
In the middle of the danger, Susan asks Spenser an ultimate question . . . one that's even harder than what's the right thing to do about this case.
If you like stories where Spenser spends more time with Susan, Hawk, Vinnie, and Chollo, this book will be one of your favorites.
The book is filled with intriguing mysteries, abnormal psychology, excellent action, solid investigation and detection, and satisfying steps taken by Spenser. You'll have a ball!
Great work, Mr. Parker!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not the best of Parker, 6 Oct 2008
As always, Parker deals with a current issue - in this case International Terrorism - even if (understandably)from a purely US viewpoint. The concept/reality of "brokers" for the terrorism market was both interesting and chilling - not something that I have seen mentioned before. Overall though, I found this book disappointing and not up to the usual excellent standard. On reflection, I think that this might be due to the fairly early "exit" of the character for whom you feel (and are made to feel - by the author) much sympathy, the cheated-upon husband. Spenser's determination to revenge his betrayal and murder might engage the reader's sympathy more readily without the too frequent reminders of the past problems between him and Susan (A Catskill Eagle - I think) which become more and more tedious and slow the narrative pace too much. Sorry - but only 3 stars this time!
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Write your own Spenser, 29 Dec 2008
Spenser novels are generally short and punchy. This one's certainly short. On a fee per word basis there surely can't be a higher paid author than Mr Parker. That in itself wouldn't be a problem if the whole thing wasn't so absolutely predictable, particularly the dialogue.
So I suggest you save your money and instead do this:
On a sheet of paper write the title '20 things Spenser might say about Hawk'. Then list 20 things. You can copy them direct from previous Spenser novels if you like.
Make another list entitled '20 things Spenser might say about Susan'
Other lists could be 'What Hawk might say', 'What Vinnie might say', etc.
You get the idea.
Then cut out every statement with scissors and put them in a bucket. Mix well and empty the bucket out onto the floor. Pick up a piece of paper at random and read it. Then another. And so on.
Voila! You've written Now and Then!
This is flippant, I know, but Parker remains one of my favorite authors. It's just that this offering seems so incredibly lazy. Back to the early stuff for me.
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