Now and Then (Spenser Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

The last couple of Spenser novels written by Robert B. Parker focus on old issues that the private eye and author have stepped around for years. Now both are getting enmeshed in events that bring those old troubles and insecurities to the forefront so that Spenser finally has to lay them to rest.

Last year's Hundred Dollar Baby is the final tale in the April Kyle saga. She was the young prostitute Spenser saved, sort of, in the series' ninth book, Ceremony. Fans, especially women readers, got split over the resolution in that novel.

This year's offering, Now & Then, is going to unite all the fans and leave them waiting with baited breath for next year's entry. Ah, but the good Dr. Parker has learned how to unleash the power of the soap opera endings. He's doing the same in the Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone series as well.

In the opening pages of Now & Then, Spenser is approached by, and eventually hired by, Dennis Doherty. Doherty is a cagy customer and doesn't act like he really wants to know if his wife is cheating on him. Before he knows it, Spenser finds himself relating to Doherty because of the breakup he had with Susan Silverman all those years ago (Valediction and A Catskill Eagle for series purists).

It takes Spenser little time at all to confirm that Doherty's wife is indeed cheating. Spenser enlists the help of Hawk, his darker side, to track down the answer. Hawk is the first to advance the notion that Spenser is getting too personally involved. It's this interplay of these two characters that I've come to love so much. Getting to peer inside of male bonding at work is awesome, and no one does it better than Parker.

Spenser struggles over how much to tell Doherty. While dealing with that, he talks with Susan and it dredges up all the old hurts he'd covered over after she left him. He finally says that telling Doherty is the right thing to do. By that time, he's also figured out that Doherty is an FBI agent, which is going to cause even more problems for his client.

Old readers are going to feel the resonance of this case to the pain Spenser was going through when Susan left him. We can see what bothers Spenser so much, and it's great. I hadn't thought of Parker dealing with this unresolved issue, but - all of a sudden - here it is.

After he tells Doherty and gives the client a copy of the tape that reveals Jordan Richmond's affair, Jordan shows up in Spenser's office. At first the blusters and threatens, then she offers sex in exchange for the copy of the tape that he has. Spenser says no.

Bothered by the woman's desperation, especially since her husband already knows her husband is aware of her infidelity, Spenser has Vinnie Morris (a longtime character in the series) and Hawk stay on the straying wife and her lover. In short time, Doherty announces that he's thrown Jordan out. That night, a man ambushes Jordan and kills her. Vinnie, being Vinnie, kills the killer.

Spenser knows someone has raised the stakes, but he doesn't know who. Doherty has gone missing and the police suspect he killed his wife. Spenser doesn't. He knows from personal experience that you don't kill those you really love - no matter how badly they hurt you.

That's just one of the lessons I've paid attention to as I've read the Spenser books. Parker is a keen observer of the human condition and how people's minds and motivations work.

Susan Silverman usually splits the audience for these books as well. She's modeled on Parker's real-life wife, Joan. Most of the time I can't stand Susan because she always seems to have the answers, while at the same time exhibiting neuroses that drive me - and a great many other readers - crazy. In this book, though, she really comes across as a great person and a great character.

Then Doherty turns up dead. When his body washes up in the river, people think he killed himself. Spenser doesn't buy that for a moment, pointing out several inconsistencies to the homicide people as well as an FBI liaison he's working with.

In order to lay to rest his own demons from the breakup all those years ago, Spenser has to figure out what really happened to these two people. And fans get one of the best Spenser novels we've had in a long time.

In addition to Hawk and Vinnie, we also get to see more of Chollo, the L. A. gunner Spenser has crossed paths with and aligned himself with on other cases. This book sparkles with deep emotions, witty dialogue, and an insight into the best private eye to hit fiction in decades. This is a must-read for long-time fans, and a good place to start for those who haven't read Parker before.

Just a nicely solid Spenser novel, with the Boston PI doing what he does best: being a chivalrous thug righting wrongs. And loving Susan Silverman. This time, it's about avenging the deaths of two people, one of them a client, while contending with some ghosts of the past. Along for the ride are the usual cast: Susan, of course, and Hawk and Vinnie and Chollo and some other familiar faces. And there is even some genuine detecting going on as Spenser investigates the past of the prime suspect. Spenser is wise-cracking and tough, everything he should be. And a nice bonus in the book is the endpaper map of "Spenser's Boston" showing the locations of various significant spots, including Spenser's apartment and his office, enjoyable for those of us who know Boston reasonably well and for those who have never been there.

The scale is very manageable in "Now & Then", with the villains not too super-sized for credibility. And the somewhat uneasy alliances between Spenser and the Boston cops and the FBI are enjoyable and believable.

Now & Then is an extremely weak and shallow current outing by Robert B. Parker, in which little happens, save for a rehashing of whether or not Spenser and his longtime lady friend should marry. Years ago, Susan Silverman ran off with another man, leaving a void in both Spenser's life and the once-shared life of Susan and Spenser. In this novel, the attempt to close the latter void comes up again and again, with the repetition tedious and quite boring. When that void arises the first time, both Susan and Spenser are good with it; they state that they have gotten past it and have built a much stronge life together, than the one before Susan left. Yet, they rehash that issue, ad nauseum.

Equally tedious is that, while there is an implied terrorist threat, the tension levels are so low concerning such a possibility, that the reader's interest is nil. All we see is a handful of people who might be part of some terrorist plot, showing nothing to that effect, thus eliminating dramatic tension. There is no abreviated timetable that is controlling the action, no recognizable and deadly threat, no real danger. As to the supposed leader of the plot, the only time he shows any action is when he is seducing women--(two that we see)...and that action is extremely low. Even when he attempts to seduce Susan, we only have her word to that effect.

Indeed that is what is wrong with this novel: Mostly talk and little action. Even Hawk, who is the epitome of action versus talk, is relegated to a positon of a bodyguard. None of his celebrated pent-up and explosive energy is there. Even Spenser only throws one punch, yet he is supposedly dealing with demons that have been eating at his sense of "Right" ever since Susan left. And, there is the obligatory and minimal--one page--shootout in Susan's office. Then, it is back to rehashing the past. This dramatic question was stated early on in the novel; there is no need for Mr. Parker to continually repeat it.

What this reader missed the most was the witty repartee among Hawk, Susan and Spenser, three wonderful creations who appear to be escaping from Mr. Parker's literary world.

One wonders is it might be time for Susan and Spenser to marry and move off to some secluded Vermont smalltown where they both can retire, leaving Hawk to do what he does best. Susan and Spenser could continually rehash the singular mistakes in their lives: Susan leaving and Spenser not destroying the man who took her away, without readers having to suffer through such incarnations.

Now & Then leaves this reader asking Why? Why bother, why waste money on the book, why not just rent it from the local library?

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