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8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Spenser Looks Out for the Bed Hoppers, 28 Oct 2009
"The man who commits adultery with another man's wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death." -- Leviticus 20:10
Four youngish wives of older wealthy men have been intimate with the same man, someone who can upset their marriages in very fundamental ways. Spenser is called in to help. His sense of the situation shifts as he gets to know the players. Are there any innocents here? Probably not.
For most of this story, you will learn about the lusts and pleasures of irresponsible people. Now, some such stories attract readers because they are titillating. This one isn't. Other such stories draw an audience because there's a lot of humor involved. This one lacks that element. What it does have is a portray of some really shallow people enjoying themselves without much concern for anyone else. I thought that was a real downer.
Much like many of the more recent Spenser books, The Professional turns into a morality tale in the end. But it takes a long time to get there. It wasn't much worth the wait to me. I thought this was one of the weakest books in the series. These books require some interesting conflicts, difficult situations, chilling villains, and action. You will look in vain for those elements here.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Don't dismiss this so lightly. There's substance beneath the usual., 3 Dec 2009
First Sentence: I had just finished a job for an interesting woman named Nan Sartin, and was happily making out my bill to her, when a woman came in who promised to be equally interesting.
A local lawyer hires Spencer to meet with four of her clients. These four women are each married to an older, wealthy man. They have also each been having an affair with, and are now being blackmailed by the same man, Gary Eisenhower, and they want Spencer to end the threat. Or do they? One woman's husband is not wealthy, nor does she want Gary to go away. As the case ebbs and flows, things become more serious and someone dies.
In some ways, you can pass this off as just another Spencer book; formulaic but enjoyable. But not quite. Yes, you have Spencer's apparent chauvinism and ego, his wonderful, easy cooking--these books always make me hungry--the humor--would Hawk really read Janet Evanovich?--and Susan, but there was a bit more here than that. Usually I can't stand women who are just too stupid to live, but when Parker written them, you know it is a very deliberate element of the plot.
An element I found interesting was that the story took place over a matter of months, rather than days as do many mysteries. I also don't remember Spencer employing French in previous books. One thing I feel is very well done is that, as Spencer ages, there is less still the element of threat, but less physical violence than once was.
I appreciated Spencer's introspection regarding his relationship with Susan, "sometimes I thought that Susan was the only thing in life that I care about. But I knew that if it were actually so, it would destroy us. We both needed to work. We both had to do things...It was cases like the one I was on that reminded me now and then that I could care about other things."
I found this a very good read. Oh, and thank you, Putnam, for including the map of Spencer's Boston on the inside covers. I do love maps.
THE PROFESSIONAL (PI-Spencer-Boston-Cont) - VG
Parker, Robert B - 38th in series
Putnam, 2009, US Hardcover - ISBN: 9780399155949
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by Robert B. Parker
by Robert B. Parker
by Robert B. Parker
by Robert B. Parker
by Robert B. Parker
