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Small Vices (A Spenser novel) (Hardcover)

by Robert B. Parker (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 308 pages
  • Publisher: John Murray Publishers Ltd (17 Sep 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0719556627
  • ISBN-13: 978-0719556623
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.2 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 605,604 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

While the rest of us grow older, Spenser seems suspended in perpetual early middle age. Oh, he talks about getting older, but his body is still firm, his muscles toned and his reflexes are still hair-trigger fine. Even so, it is Spenser's body that betrays him when he is almost killed by an assassin's bullet two-thirds of the way through Robert B. Parker's latest Spenser adventure, Small Vices. Hired to discover the truth behind a four-year-old murder, Spenser soon runs afoul of "the Gray Man", who eventually shoots and partially paralyzes him. Spenser, his stalwart girlfriend Susan, and his almost mythical friend Hawk then hole up in Santa Barbara until the detective can get back on his feet again.

There's never any doubt that Spenser will get back on his feet, or that he will eventually track down the man who shot him and solve the mystery that started the whole ball rolling in the first place. What makes the Spenser mysteries interesting is Spenser himself, the thinking person's private eye, a man of honour and of conscience who understands that every action has consequences.

Product Description

Ellis Alves is a bad kid from the hood with a long record, but did he really murder Melissa Henderson, a white co-ed from ritzy Pemberton College? Alves's former lawyers think he was framed, and hire Spenser to uncover the truth.

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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Spenser Suffers a Set-Back!, 28 May 2004
By Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)      
This review is from: Small Vices (Hardcover)
The Spenser novels are really about Don Quixote, dressed up as a modern detective. Spenser is better at what he does than Don Quixote was, but has the same appeal.

Fortunately for Spenser fans, the other characters are drawn as finely and uniquely, and bring much appeal to any story. It's like visiting your somewhat funny, dysfunctional family for a reunion.

I appreciate it when Robert Parker breaks up the stories with new plot complications. Spenser's injury makes this book all the more rewarding by providing new perspectives on one of fiction's most appealing detectives. Otherwise, Spenser seems like a Greek god able to tame nature and man without any personal consequences. I liked the more vulnerable side of Spenser, and his relationship with Rita Fiore provides lots of interesting dialogue.

If you are a Spenser fan, don't miss it.

If yo are not yet a Spenser fan, this is a worthy book to start with.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Parker returns to dazzling form, 25 Jan 2001
This review is from: Small Vices (A Spenser novel) (Paperback)
Following the disappointments of the last few Spenser novels, in 'Small Vices' Parker recaptures the carefully-composed blend of wit, action and moral and metaphysical rumination that characterised his earlier work. Without revealing too much about the plot, the extremity of the situations Spenser gets into in 'Small Vices' serve to heighten the reader's appreciation of the central characters and their truly moving commitment to each other. Of course, there are also bucketloads of smart lines, dangerous women, gunplay, fisticuffs and cookery, but as always, character development and moral complexity raise this series above the level of genre fiction and into the rarefied territories of literature.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Spenser meets his match and confronts his mortality, 24 Feb 2003
By Neal C. Reynolds (Indianapolis, Indiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Small Vices (A Spenser novel) (Paperback)
I give this the highest rating because I consider it one of the important Spenser books. Basically, Spenser is confident that he's going to be better than his adversary, and so when he is nearly killed by an expert, he needs to deal with his mortality.
The ironic part of this is that he's working to find out if an absolute loser of a gangbanger is guilty of the murder he's accused of. This novel poses questions both of mortality and of morality. There's the question of how important is "The Truth". Deals are made and those who end up in prison may be more worthwhile to society than those who don't.

This is a Spenser novel which, although a quick read, gives you ethical problems to ponder. Very highly recommended.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Spenser novel so far!
I'm an avid fan of several of Robert Parker's heroes, particularly Spenser and Jesse Stone. The last Spenser novel I read (Hugger Mugger) was somewhat disappointing, but Small... Read more
Published 21 months ago by SuzieB

4.0 out of 5 stars the best of the lot
consider this the best of Parker's Spencer novels. All the ingredients are there, a very good and plausable plot; our hero recovers from a near fatal shooting and the recovery... Read more
Published on 16 Mar 2002

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