|
| |
Bad Business
by Robert B. Parker
This Spencer mystery has a bit less action than usual, but any book where Hawk shows up is OK with me.
In “Bad Business,” Robert Parker's latest Spencer novel, the witty Boston private detective is hired to investigate marital hanky-panky at an Enron-like company called Kinergy. Spencer hardly has time to find out the name of the person he is supposed to investigate before the man is found dead. Some of the Spencer mysteries score high on action and low on plot (e.g. “Potshot”). “Bad Business” is just the opposite. There are murders here, but they take place “off camera,” so to speak. I knew this book was getting cerebral when Spencer asks someone if he is familiar with the character Pandarus in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde. Later, he discusses various kinds of accounting practices with a C.P.A….very heavy.
Many of the regulars who populate Spencer's world show up—Belson, Quirk, Healy, Vinny and Hawk— but other than Hawk throwing a couple of punches, the boys spend a lot of time sitting around eating donuts. Of course, Spencer's inamorata Susan Silverman provides psychological insight, along with the occasional double entendre.
The suspects here seem especially slimy because they are physically attractive, successful and supposedly educated. For all their sophistication though, they are about as deep as black ice on a highway in winter. Most are involved with a charlatan radio sex counselor. As the business and personal life complications multiply, Spencer digs deeper into the muck and finally comes up the solution.
The lack of action might be a problem for some tough guy detective novels. However, as I noted in a review of an earlier entry in this series, devotees of the Spencer stories read them for the crackling dialog, and there is still a good supply of that. If “Bad Business” isn't quite as exciting as the last few books in this series, there is still enough entertainment value here to keep Spencer's regular readers happy until Parker writes the next installment.
Title: Bad Business
Author: Robert B. Parker
Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
ISBN: 0399151451
Review written by: William Keogan
Reviewer's Rating:8
Reader's Rating: 10.00
Reader's Votes: 1
Talk to other readers about this story.
|
|
|
|
|
|
