Potshot

Rating:
Summary: The master is getting stale
Review: I actually feel guilty saying it because i have been reading Spenser since 1985, I was pretty young then and Parker's style and Spenser's morals both had a big influence on me. Spenser will always be one of my favorite literary characters but at this point I feel like Ive read every line before. I dont think he could ever top the passion or epic feel of "A Catskill Eagle" my personal favorite and i think the most character-defining of them all. Other favorites of mine include"Valediction" "Judas Goat" "Mortal Stakes" and "Early Autumn". Read those to see Parker in top form. I guess its forgivable if recent additions like Potshot or Hugger Mugger are predictable and contain no character development. Parker's one of the best and has contributed alot of great books to the world, not every artist has new things to say forever.

Rating:
Summary: Potshot
Review: A total waste of my time. I found the narration dull. I have not read any of the other novels by this author, nor do I ever plan to. N

Rating:
Summary: Not Worthy
Review: I am not sure why Parker wrote this book...just cashing in on the series I guess.

Rating:
Summary: The Magnificent Seven ala Parker
Review: While this is an entertaining read, it is one of the least complex of Parker's books. This is very obviously Parker's take on the Seven Samarai/Magnificent Seven story. My biggest issue with the book was the lack of any complication to the climax. After a great deal of lead up, the story is resolved far too swiftly. If this were any other characters except for the beloved Parker characters, I would not be retaining my copy of this book.

Rating:
Summary: 40 Pages turns into 335!! That's magic - NOT!!!
Review: Potshot is a 40 page Western abstract quickly turned into a Spencer novel by cutting and pasting chapters from earlier books in the series to fill the first few hundred pages.

Several chapters refresh existing characters, allowing Parker plenty of pages to rehash their histories and personalities. Too bad the characters are too cartoony to work as a believable ensemble.

Then Parker pipes in the standard Hallmark Susan chapters, typically used to refresh the story-so-far, but unnecessary when it's so simple. Further pages are added with the obligatory eating chapters and Spencer's-morality discussion.

This made me lay this book down several times in disgust.

Things pick up a bit as the big shoot-out nears, but all of the hired hands Parker spent chapters retrieving go largely missing, only to show up for an injury count at the end! And then Spencer lets the bad guys go anyway... Parker must have told him to wrap it up because the contactual page count was reached.

Rating:
Summary: Seven Samauri meet Wyatt and Doc
Review: The lovely and fetching Lou Buckman travels from Potshot, Arizona to retain our favorite sleuth to investigate who murdered her husband, Steve Buckman. Potshot is trembling in the shadow of a bunch of hoods (cowhoods?) demanding weekly "pertecksion" money. Spenser travels out west (this is only peculiar if you haven't read the preceding 30 odd novels) and realizes it's time to call in some favors. There's Hawk of course, equally literate and only a shade less Homeric, his gay friend from Atlanta, Vinnie from the mean streets of Boston, Chollo, a Mexican hitman from LA, his (Chollo's) native american friend, the homophobic Bernard from Las Vegas, hmmmm, there might be a couple more. And of course the unsinkable Susan.

This is great Spenser. Still blinded by Susan, like Caesar's wife, above reproach, jabbing with the left, hooking with the right, quoting Shelley and Keats.

My favorite still remains 'Rachael Wallace' and some of the more definitive views of a man of high values for himself, who like Stills sang in the same generation, having " . . a code that he can live by."

If you've missed the Spenser series, pick up some of the early ones and see where Crais and Lehane and Coban earned their spurs. It's still great stuff. Unpretentious. Inspirational. Funny. Worthwhile.

Rating:
Summary: Not a bad read except those chapters with Susan around.
Review: I've dropped RB long time ago since his writing became more and more pretentious. But this one actually was okayed enough to keep me read along to the end by technically skipping all the disgusting and pretentious chapters with the totally unnecessary heroine, Susan. Thank God RB put Spencer together with the disgusting Susan always and only with separatable chapters that could allow me to skip them fast enough and would make the reading a bit more fun and speedy. Tell you what, RB, drop Susan Ok? Spencer really doesn't need this woman at all in his life as yours and mine, and then, well, amigo, we could all be spared and saved by the bell, Amen.

Rating:
Summary: "POTSHOT" IS BETTER THAN SOME OF THE OTHERS!
Review: I liked Potshot better than some of Parker's last ones. I guess because less of Spencer and Susan and the goo-goo eyes between them. Spencer is hired by Mary Lou Buckman to find out who killed her husband. Everybody says it was someone from the Dell, which is a gang of thugs outside of Potshot, Arizona. They are shaking the town down and Mary Lou's husband would not pay them now he is dead. But is all as it appears to be. Did the people from the Dell do the killing or did someone else have a reason to? I liked the thugs Spencer rounded up: Hawk, Vinnie, Tedy Sapp, Bernard J. Fortunat, Chollo and Bobby Horse. All people from previous books. As it said in the book, Spencer hopes his thugs are better than their thugs. Please be sure and notice what it says on page 182 about dogs and heaven. Reminds me of book I read some time ago, I think by William Johnston. A group of mountain men cleaned out a town named Potshot and the leader of the good men in that book was named Preacher. Maybe Parker read it also. All in all a good read, bring back more Spencer and more Hawk and less Susan.

Rating:
Summary: The slipper begins to smell
Review: For the last 18 years, reading a Spenser novel has been like putting on a pair of old, comfortable slippers. It feels good, it's enjoyable, and it's familiar. Alas, with Potshot it's clear that the Spenser slippers are beginning to smell . . . .

Potshot is still, like all of Parker's works, a fast and painless read. It is only when you're finished that you realize just how stale and disappointing it was. Spenser is once again away from Boston (always a bad sign), this time rounding up five mafia hitmen, a gay bouncer, and Hawk to fight some thugs from a place called "the Dell."

Neither Spenser nor Susan have had any life-altering experiences since A Catskill Eagle in the mid-80s; surely it is time for them to develop? Instead, the Spenser in Potshot is little more than a facade. The old Spenser cared about people, tried to find out *why* people behaved the way they did; there was no "black and white" in Spenser's world. Why, then, doesn't Spenser explore the culture of the Dell? Why aren't we told what motivates the Dell denizens to follow the mysterious Preacher? Once upon a time Spenser, while respecting their abilities, would not have voluntarily associated with mafioso like Vinnie Morris and Chollo - their lack of moral code (as opposed to honor code) being repugnant to him, Hawk the only exception; now he's as comfortable with them as with Susan. Hawk himself has become one of the crowd, having lost his uniqueness; he's now little different from Vinnie, Chollo, or Bobby Horse.

I seem to recall that in the early 80's (around the time of Valediction) Spenser began to show signs of age. He needed to write things down on cardfiles, he may even have needed reading glasses. That stopped fairly quickly, and it seemed as though Spenser and Susan stopped aging; there were no more references to Korea (as if Spenser had never been), and even Paul Giacomin(?) stopped coming around after he hit his early 20s. That Spenser in Potshot reflects back on Korea is then all the more jarring. Even assuming he was 18 in 1953, he's 66 in 2001! Time for Susan to start getting senior discounts in her shopping sprees. And, alas, perhaps time to throw away the slippers.

Rating:
Summary: One of Parker's best Spenser books in years!
Review: I read Potshot and then listened to it on tape, where I appreciated it even more. I think that it is one of the best Spenser books written in recent years. Some of the dialogue made me laugh aloud and rewind the tape! The best Spenser books have Hawk in them so this title appealed to me right away. Finding other characters from previous books made Potshot very interesting, too.This technique made me want to re-read and remember where these "bad men" fit in to the chronicles of Spenser's cases and life. I recommend this book to all, but if you haven't read a Spenser, start somewhere in the beginning with a book such as Early Autumn or Looking for Rachel Wallace. They only get better.