Potshot

Rating:
Summary: disappointing
Review: Longtime Spenser fans have long since resigned themselves to Parker's uneven efforts. It's been many years since he reliably turned out first rate stuff. For at least the past decade, each new Spenser novel can go either way -- pretty good or pretty bad. I'd say Spenser is never awful, but it's been a long time since one of his outings was great. Somehow, I keep coming back to the well anyway.

This one teeters toward awful. The idea of having Spenser gather up a bunch of the bad guys that he has more or less admired in past outings to create a posse is pretty interesting, but it goes nowhere. Most of the posse are reduced to cardboard cut-out characters with accents.

I would say that the fundamental problem is a lack of effort from Parker. Spenser novels frequently feel a little short, but this one just doesn't have any substance at all. There is also a glaring plot problem which is difficult to describe without giving away what little mystery there is in this book. Let's just say that the motivation for one of the lead characters is inexplicable once the facts come out.

Also increasingly painful is the banter between Spenser and Susan. Actually, Susan is altogether an irritating distraction. Spenser novels are about violence and a macho code. No one reading a Spenser novel has the smallest interest in hearing about Susan's shopping trips.

If you've been reading Spenser for many years, like me, you'll want to read this and probably will plod through the next one, etc. until Spenser finally goes to the grave. He's an old friend gone to seed, but we can't abandon him now. If you're new to the series, start with the first book and go forward. If you like the early ones, you'll probably get hooked too, but if you start with this dog, you'll never read another, and will miss out on some good stuff that has happened along the way.

Rating:
Summary: Eastern Western???
Review: Great dialog, little action, no closed ending. Borrow this from the library - or a friend.

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written, but overused plot
Review: I adore the writing in the Spenser novels. When I get the latest book, I grab it and make the few hours of time it takes to read it - something I rarely do for any other book. I'll relish the puns and savor the literary thrill of it all. Unfortunately, though, the plots seem to get weaker each year.

I hate to give away what happens - I don't even read the jackets of the books. However, this one could be guessed at without any specific clues. Spenser is approached by a woman in trouble. He and Hawk go out to assist her. It's Not As It Seems. Spenser is bullied and refuses to back down. He tries to protect the woman. People lie to him. Other people who "should" be bad are honest to him. Women want to sleep with him. There's a big confrontation and things are resolved the Spenser Way.

I love this writing so much that it's almost painful to see the way the plot unfolds. The way this one ends is especially disappointing. Again, I don't wish to give it away, but if the males had been female and the females male, I think the reaction would have been completely opposite. Being female, this bothers me a lot. Adults should be treated with equal weight and responsibility whether they're female or male, and Spenser seems to feel that it's OK for women to do whatever they want to because "they're just women". I'm sure Susan would have something to say about that ...

If you love Spenser, definitely get the book. It's a great read, and you get to meet a bunch of his favorite partners all in one group. Reading about their interactions is priceless. Read it as a character study, and not as an actual story with a destination. If you start questioning the results, you might be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Missed you, Spenser!
Review: It is so nice to have another Spenser book to read. I have missed Spenser and Hawk and their verbal jousting. Another decent read from Parker, but not one of his best!

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing release
Review: Having been a Spenser fan since the beginning I was anxiously awaiting his newest release "Potshot" to see what web Parker would weave for our favorite character. What a disappointment! "Potshot" reads like a TV screenplay set for the next A&E segment. The first 2/3's of the book was predictible with no surprises, twists or turns. Getting out of Boston created an excellent opportunity for Parker. However, this reunion of all of the "good" thugs that have helped in the past didn't leave the reader wanting more but wanting it just to end. Let's hope this was just a bump in the road for Parker and there are still many great stories left in him. This deserves a C minus!

Rating:
Summary: Spenser's All Stars
Review: Lean to the point that it could be mistaken for a script, this entry in the series unites several of the good bad guys, that we have met before, to help our hero rid a town of bad bad guys. No one does smart dialogue like Parker and he doesn't disappoint. A very quick read.

Rating:
Summary: Truly abysmal - plumbing the depths!
Review: I think Robert Parker has just about run the Spenser series into the ground. This latest book shows just how jaded Parker's efforts have become - a hackneyed plot, a list of characters from Casting Central, dialogue that is boringly predictable. And Parker didn't do anything original by choosing the title 'Potshot'. I remember that Gerry Boyle had a book by the same title in his Jack McMorrow series some years back.

Coming back to Parker's latest Spenser opus. You couldn't assemble a more pc group of characters - let's see: a sensitive,yet tough PI; his tough-as-nails African-American sidekick, a native Indian, a Mexican and a gay bodybuilder among others. Oh yes, add in an Italian-American kid learning the ropes from Spenser. The plot is as humdrum as they come - bad guys terrorise a town, grieving widow hires PI to investigate, PI gets hired to clean up the bad guys, PI goes and hires a posse (carefully multi-ethnic), the obligatory shootout, the classic twist at the end (the grieving widow is found to be less than innocent, surprise surprise). I only wish Parker had included a Chinese-American martial arts expert to complete his tokenism.

What else can I say? How about 'bah, humbug'?

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but it could have been so much more.
Review: As always Robert B. Parker has written a fast paced and at least mildly entertaining novel featuring Spenser. You can always count on Parker not to bore you. But overall I was greatly disappointed. Parker blew a fantastic idea -- Spenser gathering seven of his thug friends, Hawk included, to clean out a gang of nefarious low-life thugs in the Arizona desert -- on a shallow plot.

The plot, a typical one for Parker lately, a cute young woman comes in with a case, Parker takes it, though doesn't quite trust her, and heads out to the desert to find her husband's killer. There he runs into the aforementioned gang terrorizing the town, and a town chief of police that he doesn't quite trust. Eventually he is faced with the prospect of having to "clean up" the gang -- 40 violent ruffians headed by a cult like figure called "the Preacher." Even though Spenser and Hawk could have probably taken care of the gang between the two of them, Spenser wants to be on the safe side and recruits six other familiar faces as well.

Yeah, it was a fun ride -- but it could have been so much better. First, the plot is one Spenser fans have all seen before. Second, while I like the quick, fast paced banter that makes up a lot of the dialogue in Parker's novels, he goes overboard on it here, rendering Spenser more shallow than clever and providing no substance for his actions. The "gang" is a caricature of illiterate, semi-homeless, violent vagabonds and given the context of the novel, not that terrifying. The most interesting characters, like the police chief, are given no time to develop. Parker wasted a great idea on mediocre effort.

But in the end, was I entertained? Yes. Will I read Parker's next novel? Of course.

Rating:
Summary: Potshot; or The Magnificent Seven Revisited
Review: Only Robert Parker fans will let him get away with this effort. With Spenser in the Yul Brenner role and Hawk as a supporting Steve McQueen, the good guys round up a collection of politically correct compadres (black, gay, American Indian, hispanic, Italian enforcer from Vegas) to clean the bad guys out of Potshot, Arizona. The dialogue, as always, is worth the effort of reading the book but the plot is pure Hollywood B western. There is a sub-plot of murder, greed, and land speculation but these seem to become secondary to the ambush of the bad guys at the Spenser compound. Spenser and Hawk are urban cowboys. Taking them out of their environment detracts from the legitimacy of what they do. Parker has seen the movie The Magnificent Seven too many times. If this trend continues in the future...

Rating:
Summary: Spenser Back on Top
Review: I would agree with most reviewers that the last few Spenser books were at best poor efforts. With Potshot, Parker is once again in great form. It was great to see some characters from past books appear in this one.

One can only wonder what Parker will do next. I'd like to see a bit more about Spenser's past and have him grow in character, but if it ain't broke why fix it?