Rating: 
Summary: typical parker
Review: I was a big fan of this series for a long time but I find it to be a little stale. It's not that back story is bad, it's just not anything new. If you've read one Spenser isthe last ten years you have read them all. It's the same cast of characters, Hawk, Susan and Vinny and Quirk. Same storyline. Spenser takes a job for no money, angers people, someone tries to kill him and he calls in backup. Parker needs to take a break and come up with something new for this series.
Rating: 
Summary: Parker shows no signs whatsoever of slowing down!
Review: I was about a third of the way through BACK STORY, the new Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker, when I happened to get a call from an older friend who had coincidentally first thrust a Spenser novel, PROMISED LAND, into my hands many years ago. I told my friend that I was reading the new Spenser novel and he mentioned that his grandson, who is now in college, had just started reading them. The reason that this is worth relating is that Parker is now writing for three generations of Spenser fans, with no sign of slowing down and, if BACK STORY is any indication, no sign of rust.BACK STORY marks the return of Paul Giacomin, Spenser's almost-son; though he has little involvement in the story, he is its indirect catalyst. For he brings with him Daryl Gordon --- part friend, part acquaintance, part associate and all troubled. Gordon, who is in her thirties, has decided that she needs to put the death of her mother, Emily Gordon, to rest. Emily was murdered some thirty years ago when a leftist revolutionary group calling itself The Dread Scott Brigade robbed a bank in Boston. Emily, who was visiting the city at the time, was shot and killed in the bank while cashing traveler's checks. No one saw who shot her and security cameras were no help. And The Dread Scott Brigade simply...disappeared. Giacomin now brings Daryl to Spenser in order to help solve this coldest of cases, a 30 year-old murder with no clues. As Spenser begins to investigate, he is troubled by the lack of clues and an apparently missing FBI file. Hawk is there to help, as is the mysterious Ives who, in the short course of a page or three, almost steals the book away. As Spenser follows the trail of the missing FBI file and questions Emily's friends and family, he begins to receive warnings from several quarters to back away from the matter. This, of course, makes him all the more determined to discover the truth behind the woman's murder. As the trail leads from San Diego to Boston and back again, Spenser slowly but methodically uncovers a web of passion, deceit and betrayal that has lain fallow for decades. He is also confronted with a dilemma: the truth is something that Daryl may not be prepared to handle. Should he tell her, or should he let things stay as they are? Parker, with BACK STORY, remains as amazingly consistent --- or should that be consistently amazing? --- as ever. He also makes a brief, but poignant, change in a major character, one that was inevitable and not necessarily unexpected, but nonetheless surprising. As always, highly recommended. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Rating: 
Summary: Don't bother
Review: If I could have given this story zero stars I would have. The story wasn't interesting and the characters were flat. Hell after thirty books you would think that they would get better. The average chapter length is only two and a half pages, making it difficult to really get into the story. I have read reviews from past novels that said that Parker is the heir to that icon of the hard-boiled dectective story, Raymond Chandler, but even Chandler had more than two pages per chapter. Marlowe and the supporting cast in all of Chandler's books are more interesting than any in this book. For some reason I felt compelled to finish the book but it was a struggle. I just couldn't get into the story. I will have to try some of Parker's other, non Spenser stories. Hopefully they will redeem him in my mind. Don't bother purchasing this book it isn't worth the money, or the time really.
Rating:
Summary: Should Spenser retire?
Review: If you're from the Boston area, and you haven't read at least a couple of Spencer novels, you're missing a cultural icon. Boston and environs are as much a star as the erudite ex-boxer turned detective, Spencer.
This is the 30th book of the Spencer series, and it's tired and formulaic. There's no real tension, the ending isn't particularly surprising (or interesting). It's not clear to me if the characterizations would hold at all if you hadn't read some of the other Spencer books.
Maybe it's time for Spencer to retire.
Rating:
Summary: Big mistake
Review: It was fun to visit with all the old characters, and the Spenser/Susan/Hawk interplay is very enjoyable, but there's a big plot mistake. On pp. 180-181, Spenser, looking at Anne Fahey's college yearbook, is struck by the resemblance between Emily and Daryl. Emily's photo "could have been Daryl with a protest sign." "Her daughter looks just like her," he says. Later in the story, Daryl turns out to be the child of Bunny/Bonnie, the gangster Karnofsky's daughter. Emily had unofficially adopted Daryl. So how could Daryl resemble Emily?
Rating:
Summary: Dead Men on Campus
Review: It's always a pleasure to hear Joe Mantegna read what Robert B. Parker writes. His flat delivery of the "I said, he said" dialogue along with distinctive accents and inflections for Spenser's supporting cast produce an almost melodic presentation. Spenser and friends continue to age gracefully, projecting the wisdom and perspective of those not too far from cashing their first Social Security checks. True, their libidos are at least a decade younger than they are, and when it comes to dealing with the bad guys, of course Spenser and Hawk are still in their prime. There's no neo political correctness either. Ethnic stereotypes are fair game when describing any character, and Parker has a gift for crafting observations that are irreverent, but fair and in no way offensive. The story unfolds with great dialogue and pace as we become reacquainted with Martin Quirk and Vinnie Morris and meet Nathan Epstein, the savvy Special Agent in Charge of the Boston FBI office. Pearl the wonderdog who was showing sighns of age in "Widow's Walk" is gone. No rehash of how, just a side trip to Toronto to pick up the new Pearl. Hanging around with Parker's core characters is so much fun that it's actually disruptive when he sends Spenser off to solve a twenty eight-year-old murder. Daryl Silver the stunning actress friend of Paul Giacomin who starts Spenser on this quest is little more than a mannequin. I wish Parker would give his damsels in distress a little more substance a la Elmore Leonard. Mob boss Sonny Karnofsky is now pushing eighty. He has lived in the same North Shore mansion for more than forty years, so it's a bit of a stretch that nobody knows he has a daughter in her 50s who lives a couple of towns away, the wife of his ex-bodyguard Ziggy. But that plot line does create an opportunity for Spenser and Hawk to meet Jesse Stone. The two leading men from different Parker stories turn out to be surprisingly compatible. Don't even try to figure out why Parker chooses "Taft" University and Harvard Stadium for the book's two shootouts. As to how a bunch of pot smoking college drop outs from the sixties, a couple of ex-cons and the FBI all fit together in the cover up of and old murder - well let's just say the ending is the weakest part of the story. But I think you'll enjoy the pictures Parker paints of Spenser's Boston, dialogue that seldom contains a superfluous word and an old action hero who really is getting better with age.
Rating:
Summary: A slow move in the right direction
Review: Let me say first, I am honored to own all 30 Spenser novels. I consider myself a collector to be sure but a consumer first and foremost. For those new to Robert B. Parker (RBP) and Spenser, Spenser is "Shakespeare meets Mike Hammer (and then some)." What's not to like? Well, with the last few offerings, RBP has, in my opinion, slipped a bit. In his last Spenser offering, WIDOW'S WALK, I was thoroughly disappointed in the uncharacteristically slow pace and lack of Spenserisms; not to mention the total lack of identification of the killer. In BACK STORY, RBP makes a partial comeback to the wit all Spenser fans have come to love, but it is still substandard. And, call me sadistic, but where the heck is Hawk? Yes, he's still in the storyline but his role is somewhat geriatric. I enjoyed the brash, somewhat dark side of Hawk. A bit more mystery and a lot less familiarity. To the story...Spenser's "surrogate" son, Paul Giacomin, turns up in Boston with a bag of Krispy Kremes and introduces Spenser to a young woman friend, Daryl Silver (nee' Gordon). Daryl asks Spenser to solve a 28-year-old murder (remember, 28, not 30-year old!!). The victim was Daryl's mother, shot to death in a Boston bank when a radical group calling itself the Dread Scott Brigade staged an armed robbery in 1974. The crime was never solved, and now Daryl has come to Spenser for closure, though his fee will have to be the price of a bag of donuts. With true Spenser brio, he readily accepts.
Spenser immediately begins to see the facts of the old case don't add up. For one thing, the Dread Scott Brigade allegedly took responsibility for the robbery, and there are photos of the perps. However, strangely enough, no one was ever caught. As Spenser dives deeper into the case files of the authorities, he discovers the FBI knows things it won't share, and Daryl's perpetually-stoned father has sources of income Spenser can't explain. Not only was the case seemingly dropped before it got started, it has been covered up. A key FBI intelligence report is missing from both the Boston Homicide and FBI files. And, in a contrasting twist, Spenser discovers the mob wants the case closed as well. After an author successfully writes 30 novels with the same main character, achievement isn't at issue. And this story is worth the read if for no other reason than the author is RBP and the main character is Spenser. The combination is difficult to resist and I'll continue to read all of RBP's Spenser iterations. However, and this will be unpopular, RBP is not focusing on Spenser and Hawk in the fashion he used to. Pinpointing my issue, Spenser's wit is present but laconic relative to past offerings. Hawk is present but impotent relative to past offerings. The ending, well, let's just say it passed with a wimper. Not the usual RBP blast. All-in-all, BACK STORY is worth the read if one is a Spenser fan. However, in this reviewer's opinion, this book just barely reaches the 4-star level. I'm hoping for more wit and action in the next offering.
Rating:
Summary: He's An Old Man
Review: Lots of white space around every page as usual. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if I hadn't done the math. Spenser and Hawk are over 60, probably pushing 70. Spenser fought in Korea in the 1950s and was at least in his mid-thirties in the first novel in 1974.
Parker still writes fight scenes as if Spenser and Hawk are 40 and can stand up against younger, stronger, faster bad guys.
I think Spenser has passed his "willing suspension of disbelief" date.
It's time for Spenser to retire.
Rating:
Summary: In defense of Spenser
Review: Many of the reviews I've read about Robert B. Parker's latest Spenser novel, Back Story, suggest that it is unlikely to win any new Spenser fans. This may be true, but Parker's 30th Spenser offering seems to be designed not with new fans in mind, but for old Spenser junkies like myself who have grown older along with the gumshoe, Susan, Hawk, Lt. Quirk, and the rest of the series characters. After several novels, a series become less story-driven and more character-driven. Back Story is a classic example. Hired by surrogate son Paul Giacomin for a box of six Krispy Kreme donuts, Spenser sets out to solve the murder of a woman who died in a 1974 bank robbery. Following a trail that's nearly thirty years old, he soon discovers that several people don't want the murder solved -- and that some people are willing to kill to keep it under wraps. Character-wise, Parker pulls out all the stops. In addition to Hawk, Paul, Quirk and Belson, we are re-united with some of Parker's more colorful characters: former Joe Broz gunman Vinnie Morris; Junior and Ty-Bop, two enforcers for black crime kingpin Tony Marcus; and Ives, the mysterious Company man (too bad Parker didn't find a way to weave Rachel Wallace into the story). There is very little suspense in the book, but that's never been Parker's strong suit anyway. Action-wise, the series peaked with A Catskill Eagle, but there are just enough punches and bullets here to keep the story rolling, culminating with a shootout in Harvard Stadium. And of course, there's the fabulous verbal interplay between Spenser, Hawk, Susan, Quirk, Frank Belson, and just about everyone else. Susan, whom I've often found superfluous to the series, shows her value here, as she helps Spenser through a brief bout of self-doubt. Hawk is -- well, he's Hawk: unfailingly loyal to Spenser and Susan, deadly to just about anyone else. And Spenser never lets us down, working a dangerous case for no money, finding out things his client (a co-worker of Paul's) would rather not know, determined to see the case through to the end. Not many people can understand the complex moral code he lives by, but Susan does, Hawk does --and maybe that's enough. If you're a fan of detective fiction and you've never read a Spenser novel, I would recommend that you begin from the beginning and pick up The Godwulf Manuscript, the inaugural novel of the series (I would also wonder what planet you are from, but that's neither here nor there). The Spenser novels truly are one of the great treasures of contemporary American fiction. Back Story is a satisfying read, but it is nothing special -- unless you spend a little time with the characters first.
Rating:
Summary: So delightfully Parker!
Review: One reads the Spenser series not for the convoluted plot but for the characters we've grown to love. The witty repartee that takes place among Spenser, Hawk, Susan, Quirk and Belson is worth the price of admission. I guess I don't care how old Spenser and Hawk are nor do I feel the need to be judgemental about their unique code of honor or set of rules that govern their behavior. I simply enjoy the Spenser series or what it has been and continues to be for me - a fun read!
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