Rating: 
Summary: Spenser tackles white collar thugs...
Review: It seems quite en vogue to take the current dirty laundry in today's white-collar world and use it as a backdrop for a novel or television show. Robert B. Parker (RBP), widely renowned for his Spenser novels, has taken a page from this trend as the setting for his latest Spenser iteration, BAD BUSINESS. And, while the company could be one of many, RBP sure sounds as though he's chiding Enron in this one.BAD BUSINESS begins with the introduction of a new client, Marlene Rowley. Ms. Rowley is depicted as something of a haughty socialite, one borne of entitlement and very accustomed to having things her way. Veteran readers of Spenser know these types of attitude are fingernails on Spenser's chalkboard. As Ms. Rowley explains her plight, a wayward husband who she desperately wants to catch and "hang," she continues directing Spenser as to what he will do, when he will do it, and how he will do it. Spenser slowly but directly pops Ms. Rowley's balloon of self-importance in typical fashion. After the preliminaries are out of the way, Spenser agrees to follow Mr. Rowley in an attempt to catch him in the act. Spenser has a very easy time finding, following, and ascertaining that Mr. Rowley is indeed seeing another woman. However, while bird-dogging Rowley, he spies someone shadowing Mr. Rowley's paramour. After confronting this private cop, Spenser further discovers that Ms. Rowley is also being tailed by yet another private cop. Oh, how the plot thickens. This plays directly into the Spenser psyche as he begins moving his investigation into areas peripheral to the primary investigation...and what juicy nuggets he finds! And, as he does so often, Spenser enlists the help of Hawk, the dark anti-hero, who all Spenserians have come to love. While Hawk does not flex his muscles in BAD BUSINESS, he and Spenser do engage in their give-and-take dialogue that is, as always, fabulous. As RBP delves into white-collar criminal elements, the reader is introduced to a new character, Marty Siegel, a self-proclaimed "best accountant in the world," to read the tea leaves, as it were, given that Spenser and Hawk are clueless when it comes to financial reports. Although one would think the dialogue between Spenser and a "bean counter" would be somewhat prosaic, leave it to RBP to cast an accountant with an attitude. RBP has recreated the drama present in so many earlier Spenser novels and has managed to weave the backdrop of current events into this offering, which, from this reviewer's perspective, gives BAD BUSINESS tangible credibility. While I love the physical barbarity of Hawk and Spenser against the "bad guys," BAD BUSINESS manages to hold the same spell with very little "B" violence. Four and one-half stars. A great read.
Rating: 
Summary: Spenser is always a delight
Review: No case is ever easy for Boston private detective Spenser. Wealthy socialite Marlene Rowley hires Spenser to find evidence that her husband Trent, the CEO of Kinergy (an energy trading business), is cheating on her. He tails Trent and quickly learns he is having an affair with Ellen Eisen and that another sleuth is following Ellen, whose husband Bernard also works at Kinergy. Spenser's case becomes ludicrous when he realizes that a third private detective is following Marlene. On only Spenser's second day of surveillance, Trent is murdered in his office during working hours and nobody saw a thing. Marlene wants Spenser to find out who made her a widow, which leads Spenser into a cesspool containing sexual predators, financial finagling and serial killers. It has been three decades since Robert B. Parker write the first Spenser novel and the series is as fresh, innovative and appealing today as it was then. The sublime but well written story line is fun to follow as private sleuthing seems like a lucrative business at least in the Boston area. Told in the first person from Spenser's point of view, BAD BUSINESS is a work of humorous prose and fantastic characterizations. Harriet Klausn
Rating: 
Summary: Feh.
Review: Oh isn't Susan just so wonderful? Shouldn't all women be like Susan Silverman? And isn't Spenser lucky to have her? Everybody says so. Indeed, all women who are not Susan Silverman might as well kill themselves. They are mere peons who should not even be allowed to bathe in the shining light which emanates from Spenser's perfect girlfriend. So what if she cannot cook. Her perfect and devoted boyfriend can so all is right with the world.
Hence, the problem with this and all of the other Spenser mysteries I have read. Spenser and Susan are so wonderful and perfect that they become nauseating. They never have any conflict. As a result, these books, while quick and enjoyable reads, are insubstantial. The prose that makes Hemingway sound verbose only makes the story even thinner.
Perhaps, Parker should write a book entirely devoted to Hawk, who, although as improbably perfect as Spenser and Susan, is a much more interesting character because he could kill you as easily as look at you.
One virtue of this book, Spenser is irreverently funny and I did laugh out loud at some of his quips.
Rating:
Summary: Parker continues to surprise, please and entertain
Review: One of the finest gifts the first few months of a new year can bring is a new Spenser novel. Spenser and his creator, Robert B. Parker, have become, at least in some circles, cultural institutions. Parker is on record as stating that he will continue to write Spenser novels as long as people want them, and certainly there appears to be no flagging of interest in them. He has been careful to make changes only on minor elements of Spenser's surroundings, while keeping the primary elements, such as friends and personalities, pretty much intact. The result is a comfortable but dependable familiarity that kicks in as soon as one begins a Spenser novel. This leaves Parker free to gently experiment with plot lines and the secondary characters who populate them. Reading a Spenser novel is like walking once a week down a familiar street where everything is slightly different: here, there's a new store, there, a fresh and different coat of paint on some shutters, and there, yes, right there, a new and interesting face with a story to tell. All of those elements make the walk worthwhile; so, too, is the annual visit with Spenser. BAD BUSINESS, the latest Spenserian saga, finds fiction's most self-satisfied detective with a new client named Marlene Cowley. Cowley is a slightly difficult woman, and Parker almost immediately displays one of his many strengths as he describes Spenser's slow but steady deflation of her through the use of lighthearted, deprecating repartee in the course of extracting information. Cowley retains Spenser because she suspects that her husband, Trent, is cheating on her and wants, shall we say, to catch the cad in flagrante delicto. Spenser has an easy enough time catching Trent in compromising circumstances, but discovers not only that there is someone shadowing Trent's paramour but also that Cowley is being shadowed as well! This doesn't just pique Spenser's curiosity; it impales it. As he is wont to do in such cases, Spenser is soon operating far beyond the boundaries of the investigation for which he was retained. All the investigatory roads lead back to Trent's employer, Kinergy, more so when Trent is found murdered in his own office. Trent's position at Kinergy was chief financial officer, and Spenser is accordingly suspicious that greed, and not passion, may be the motivating factor behind Trent's unexpected demise. When a second Kinergy employee is also murdered, Spenser begins kicking over rocks to see what comes crawling out. Hawk is there to help, as only Hawk can, and of course Susan Silverman is on hand as well, acting as soul mate, foil and even occasional Devil's advocate. The financial element of BAD BUSINESS also permits Parker to bring Marty Siegel, the self-styled best accountant in the world, into the mix to explain some basic but questionable accounting principles to Spenser. The dialogue between Spenser and Siegel is some of Parker's best to date, instructive without being burdensome, and always entertaining. Parker in fact relies a bit more on dialogue and somewhat less on violence than he has in more recent novels, which should please those readers with more delicate sensibilities. Regardless of his underpinnings, however, Parker never lets his story flag, and when Spenser assembles the cast for the explanatory denouement, the motive, opportunity and instigator are at once surprising and obvious. If Parker is tired of writing Spenser novels, he certainly shows no signs of it. He continues to surprise, please and entertain. What more can one ask for? A guest appearance from another Parker series, perhaps? Well, BAD BUSINESS has one of those too, at least by reference. Careful readers will be rewarded, if only momentarily. --- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Rating: 
Summary: Getting Old
Review: Parker has been doing these characters so long that he's begun giving them all the same pat lines. I hate doing a negative, but they're getting boring. How many times do we have to see the line "We'd be fools not to." Not only Spenser, but Susan, Hawk, the cops, Jesse Stone and at least two characters in the Sunny Randall series. This particular book...and I have copies of virtually all the others.. is wooden and uncreative. I guess the style became so successful that it seems smart to just continue. However, I got no sense of creativity or caring in this one.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding addition to the series
Review: Parker is in top form as Spenser investigates financial and sexual escapades in an Enron-like company. The book is heavier on plot than some of his later works which is a welcome development. As usual the dialogue is amusing and literate. Susan, Hawk, Rita Fiore, and Vinnie Morris all return. Hawk has a new girlfriend and it appears to be a serious relationship. I hope we see more of her in the next book. I was interested in another reviewer's comment that Spenser was the new Travis McGee. I remember that when John MacDonald died, I wondered if there was another author whose new books I could anticipate with the same eagerness, knowing that reading them would be sheer joy. Then I discovered Parker and Spenser!
Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly Mediocre
Review: Parker takes Enron, throws in some wife-swapping, adds a psycho radio talk show host and a few murders, mixes them together and gets a recipe that turns out a not so great mystery novel.
There is the usual repartee of Spenser and Susan (a lot)and Hawk (not enough), but the plot just does not flow. Spenser follows and questions, and meets, greets and questions some more, but there is never any tension and virtually no conflict. The wife-swapping characters are barely introduced so you really don't care about them in any fashion. The substance of the book is the dialogue, which is good, but not good enough to carry a novel.
This is pure low to middle of the road Spenser fare. A quick read that is probably worth passing up to look for a more inspired earlier effort of Mr. parker.
Rating:
Summary: This one is weaker than most of the books in the series
Review: Robert B. Parker as always provides crisp and interesting dialogue and once in a while, laugh out loud humor. However, the plot seems cobbled together using disparate elements from an Enron-like business scandle, an unlikely sex club and one really evil guy. For Spenser fans, the humor and dialogue are worth the price of the book. I agree that newcomers to the series will enjoy "Early Autumn", "Pastime" or "Playmates" much more.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Spenser Novel in Many Years
Review: Robert Parker's remarkable characters, stunning dialogue and his quixotic focus on seeking the impossible dream are present in all of the Spenser books. In recent years, the plots have been getting thinner and thinner, however . . . and even the repartee seems mostly for show rather than to build naturally on a great story. But in Bad Business, the original Parker genius reappears for a time. As in the best of the early books in the series, Bad Business has a fascinating and often surprising plot involving the twin sins of adultery and greed. The opening of the book has some of the best plot development I have ever read, filled with clever misdirection that plays on our assumptions from having read too many boiler-plate mystery novels.
In fact, if the book had concluded after 125 pages, I would have described this as one of the very best Spenser novels. Unfortunately, the book bogs down in solving the mystery. Although the slow pace was probably intended to maintain an intriguing suspense, the pace just seems to drag instead to an inevitable conclusion. I think the mistake was to base part of the plot a little too closely to a recent corporate collapse. That connection telegraphed part of the ending too soon. I won't attempt to describe the situation of the book, for I will risk spoiling the book for you. Instead, let me advise you to read carefully and keep an open mind as you do. As I finished this book, I realized that part of the appeal of popular novels is that they take us places where we would never go on our own. When done well, they pique and satisfy our curiosity in harmless ways. I look forward to taking future such excursions with Mr. Parker and Spenser in the future.
Rating:
Summary: Enronning ahead of the pack
Review: Series detectives live in leap-year time, as if they were all born on February 29th. Thus, although they dwell in "real" time, they age about one year for every four the rest of us mortals face. This explains how Spenser, who has been around for something on the order of 20 years, seems at most about 5 years older (physically/mentally) than he was when the series began. More amazing, however, is that Robert B. Parker seems to age at about the same rate! This latest Spenser has all the drive, wit, style, and (OK, the word choice is not the best) spunk of any of the best of the breed. Using a fictionsalized Enron-type corporation as his starting point, Parker gives us all the fun and ferocity that are the hallmark's of the series. To be sure, as with any series, Parker has his ups and downs, but, like the girl in the parody, when he is good he is very, very, good, and when he is bad he's terrific (well, better than most, anyway). This is one of his best.
|
