Looking For Rachel Wallace

Rating:
Summary: He's better when he's less than perfect
Review: Aside from EARLY AUTUMN, there is no question that this is Parkers best novel. It's funny, fast, lots of action, and a big ending. I read all of Parkers Spenser novels in a row, twice, about six years ago, and I've gone back and re-read this one a few more times.
Parkers short 200 page books are like movies, as you can have a bad day, come home, have a few beers and plow through a book in one evening. This is the one that always lifts my spirits.

Rating:
Summary: The best Spenser yet!
Review: I think Robert B Parker is a genius! I really liked this book. I felt he chose a very controversial topic for the time and weaved it into a Spencer story very nicely. He also showed his talent in character development, exposing Spenser's vulnerability and showing him as a sensitive, emotional guy. Parker is also a master at humorous dialect.
Spenser is asked to protect a lesbian who is touring around Boston giving speaches and making appearances after publishing a book that exposes discrimination of women (specifically gay) by organizations in the Boston area. She has had threats against her life. Rachel and Spenser do not always agree on how to handle situations which leads to her firing him. And just after his termination of employment, she disappears. Even though he did not see eye to eye with Rachel, I think he admired her and saw the emotion and sensitivity behind her abrasive front. Therefore, he is determined to find her with the emotional support of Susan, his girlfriend.
For those Spenser fans, I think this is one of his best and I am totally devoted to the series.

Rating:
Summary: true blue
Review: In LOOKING FOR RACHEL WALLACE, Spenser is hired to bodyguard the title character, an outspoken lesbian author. Ms. Wallace and Spenser don't see eye to eye, and after she fires him, she gets kidnapped. Spenser spends the rest of the book looking for her.
I've read almost all of these books, and this one contains I think the best description of Spenser's personality,when Susan compares him to Sir Gawain. There's some comedy in the early scenes with the juxtaposition of Spenser and Rachel, but Rachel is characterized a little broadly, humorless and cranky. Spenser figures out the mystery pretty early on and spends the rest of the book trying to find Rachel. This is worth a couple of hours of your time on a Saturday afternoon.

Rating:
Summary: A Spenser tale where things do not go well for our hero
Review: It is always interesting to begin one of Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels and find out what sort of case it is going to be this time around, keeping in mind that the absence of a pattern is still a pattern. In this sixth book in the series, our hero is hired to protect the title character, a radical lesbian feminist who has been receiving death threats because of her latest book "Tyranny," which is about people in high places who discriminate against gay women. To no one's surprise Rachel Wallace does not take well to Spenser's sense of humor, the way he dresses, his chosen avocation--okay, she does not like ANYTHING about him. But she needs protection and he can carry on an intelligent argument, so there is some level of respect. Everybody is worried or at least wondering what Spenser thinks about lesbians and radical feminists, and there are several feisty conversations along such lines between the pair, but the actual subject under examination in this book turns out to be Spenser himself, although most of the insights come from Susan Silverman instead of the Rachel Wallace. There is a point where Spenser explains if anything happens to him, Hawk should take up the case. Susan points out she does not know how to contact him and Spenser assures her that if anything happens Hawk will show up and ask if she needs anything. Susan talks about the implicit code that binds Spenser, Hawk, Quirk, Healy, etc., and I suddenly realize that Spenser has been NETWORKING! The first half of "Looking for Rachel Wallace" deals Spenser trying to do his job until he offends the writer's political sensibilities and is dismissed. As you can tell from the title, the second half of the novel brings changes the nature of the case and even though he is no longer employed to care, of course he takes responsibility for everything that has happened. The most unique part of this novel is that Spenser makes some serious mistakes (I even spotted a key clue way before he did), so he is not as on top of his game as usual. You especially know this is true when Spenser gets beaten up in a fight and apologizes several times for what he says. More than any other novel to this point in the series, "Looking for Rachel Wallace" gets to the heart of the character, understandably knocking him off stride to reveal the true nature of the man.

Rating:
Summary: What a read!!
Review: LOOKING FOR RACHEL WALLACE is a fantastic book, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a fan of the series. Spenser is his usual funny, witty, tough self, but here, more than any other book before this, his sensitive side is exposed. The book is basically broken into two parts. Part one is Spenser being hired to protect Rachel Wallace, a feminist lesbian author. The two clash beautifuly and the pages are full of humorous dialogue between Spenser and Rachel. The two are like oil and water; Spenser standing for everything that Rachel speaks out against. Basically, he's not PC enough for her. Although there is mutual respect there, Rachel eventually fires Spenser.

Part two is the "looking" part. Spenser finds out that Rachel has been kidnapped and he is rehired by the publisher to find her. Without Rachel there, Spenser is able to do his job his way. The Of course our hero finds her in the end. The poignant part of the story is that they both learn from each other. Spenser realizes that his machismo isn't always the answer, and Rachel learns that without a little muscle, she would've probably died.

It's a quick, fun read. Like always, Parker writes with a poetic beauty, realistic dialogue and action-packed adventure. I not only recommend this as a fan of mystery novels, but as someone who loves to read and can appreciate good writing. If you hven't read Spenser, pick up this book. Or better yet, start from the beginning and start the adventure.

Rating:
Summary: What a read!!
Review: LOOKING FOR RACHEL WALLACE is a fantastic book, and I'm not just saying that because I'm a fan of the series. Spenser is his usual funny, witty, tough self, but here, more than any other book before this, his sensitive side is exposed. The book is basically broken into two parts. Part one is Spenser being hired to protect Rachel Wallace, a feminist lesbian author. The two clash beautifuly and the pages are full of humorous dialogue between Spenser and Rachel. The two are like oil and water; Spenser standing for everything that Rachel speaks out against. Basically, he's not PC enough for her. Although there is mutual respect there, Rachel eventually fires Spenser.

Part two is the "looking" part. Spenser finds out that Rachel has been kidnapped and he is rehired by the publisher to find her. Without Rachel there, Spenser is able to do his job his way. The Of course our hero finds her in the end. The poignant part of the story is that they both learn from each other. Spenser realizes that his machismo isn't always the answer, and Rachel learns that without a little muscle, she would've probably died.

It's a quick, fun read. Like always, Parker writes with a poetic beauty, realistic dialogue and action-packed adventure. I not only recommend this as a fan of mystery novels, but as someone who loves to read and can appreciate good writing. If you hven't read Spenser, pick up this book. Or better yet, start from the beginning and start the adventure.

Rating:
Summary: Dead Boring
Review: Looking for Rachel Wallace is more Boston street guide than anything else. Spencer does almost nothing in this book except eating and drinking with Susan, eating and drinking with Rachel at the Ritz bar. This is the worst Spencer book I've ever read. Thank god it was short.

Rachel doesn't say anything worthwhile.
Rachel was obnoxious.... which in my 15yrs. (1974-'89) experience of living/working in San Francisco and working along side or in the homes of lesbians is their typical behavior....... so Parker did get that right.

Rating:
Summary: Spenser studies gay and feminist issues
Review: Spenser has a lobster dinner and is contracted to bodyguard a lesbian author, Rachel Wallace. Rachel has received death threats after writing an expose of discrimination in the workplace.

You have to remember this is '80 while reading it - Spenser makes several "questionable" comments, and her foes are definitely many and bigoted. Right from the start Spenser has to protect her, although their personalities clash. He tromps all over her while trying to "save her" because of course she can't take care of herself. Rachel fires him, and *poof* she's kidnapped.

Spenser finds a bigoted family with some deep conflicts. He traces through a KKK member, some loansharks, gets beaten up and drives in the snow in his 1968 Chevy Convertible. Lucky he didn't try it in Susan's MG. Spenser drinks Becks, Molsons and Asti Spumanti. Rachel, of course, is rescued in dramatic fashion. The book ends with her curled up in Spenser's apartment, holding his hand as she sleeps.

My Notes: Well, I suppose even now bigotry exists, maybe I fool myself that it's not as bad as the book makes it out to be. It was pretty nasty for a woman who was just writing books. Spenser, who later has a gay police officer friend, is seriously offensive himself a few times. But I suppose to have him "supporting" a lesbian activist in '80 was a reasonably strong move. He has at various times lobster, shrimp, and oysters, even though he claimed earlier to not like fish.

Susan pokes her head in for a scene and *poof* is gone - not much for a woman he swore eternal love to and couldn't live without only a short while ago. As much as Susan can generally be annoying, I like when she and Rachel talk, and Susan is gently helping the Rachel-Spenser interaction go more smoothly. Rachel says "Jeez does Spenser protect you?" and Susan replies "No, we protect each other, sort of how I'm looking out for him now." Rachel grudgingly admits this is true, and healthy.

Interestingly, Susan knows how to cook in this one - onions, peppers, mushrooms. She even makes ham sandwiches (with the ham from Millerton NY, hickory smoked, no nitrates). She must have forgotten soon thereafter. Susan's power is growing - in this story it says "Her interest in people was emanating. One could almost feel it." It won't be long before the perennial word, "Palpable" shows up!!

Spenser is definitely relaxing into his role in the world - I think (bigotry aside) this is the first book that he's really "comfortable with himself" in. He doesn't question his right to do things, he just does them. He punches the picketer. He jumps in when people try to drag her off. He does his job, period. Susan calls him a "Sir Gawain".

It's interesting to hear Rachel bashing Spenser all the time but admit in the end that she needed him to be what he was to rescue her. I wonder if this is a pre-emptive strike at those reviewers who criticize Spenser for being so "macho" - right in the book you have the arguments both ways. Very entertaining. Sadly, no Hawk at all in this one.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat below par but still quite good fun Spencer story
Review: This is the sixth instalment of Robert Parker's long series of Spencer novels. Spencer - who, like Dexter's Morse - appears wholly to eschew his Christian name, is a Boston-based private detective and general all-round troubleshooter who combines extreme toughness and a degree of machismo with a certain gentleness and decency. The novels are perhaps a bit on the trashy side but very readable, fun, pacy and entertaining. In some ways this promises to be one of the more interesting as Spencer with his very traditional masculine virtues is assigned to act as a bodyguard to a radical feminist lesbian writer, the Rachel Wallace of the title, who has been receiving threats as her new book heads for the press. Relations between Spencer and Wallace are indeed decidedly strained and after a sort time she fires him. Foolishly as it turns out as she soon afterwards disappears. The rest of the book is Spencer looking for her.

In fact, while the personality clash between Spencer and Wallace is quite entertaining, it's soon over, replaced by a lone Spencer on her trail. Here it does flag a bit and is a little less gripping and readable than the few others in the series I've read. Entertaining enough nonetheless.


Rating:
Summary: Off His Game
Review: This Spenser novel was hard to finish, something rare in the world of Robert B. Parker. Spenser was okay, although I never got a clear feeling as to why he would care about a bad-tempered, humorless, vicious (...) like Rachel Wallace. Like most humorless people, she took herself and her ideas way too serious. And like most feminists I have known (and I am a female), she hates being stereotyped yet attacks Spenser over and over again with her own sterotypes about masculine men. Just another loud-mouthed hypocrit. Parker did have her character down cold, but just didn't create a believable interaction between her and Spenser. Maybe next time.