Here is Briar Patch Book’s second review. Mick Scott is an editor and connoisseur of good literature who lives in Winston-Salem, N.C.<\/p>\n
By Mick Scott<\/p>\n
<\/em><\/p>\n PAINTED LADIES. By Robert B. Parker. Putnam. 304 pages. $26.95.<\/em><\/p>\n Spenser is observing the day outside his office window when someone with unusual characteristics walks in to hire him.<\/p>\n That\u2019s how every Spenser novel begins, but this regularity, far from being shopworn, is reassuring; \u201cprofessional thug\u201d Spenser is on the case; excitement will follow.<\/p>\n This case is that of Ashton Prince, an art expert who hires Spenser to accompany him as he ransoms a stolen rare painting. There\u2019s really not much for\u00a0Spenser to do but wait in the car and watch in the rear-view mirror as Prince returns from the exchange with a package \u2014 until the package explodes, killing Prince.<\/p>\n At this point, Spenser\u2019s singular sense of responsibility leads him to investigate Prince\u2019s murder. His main tactic is the same as always: Stir things up and see who jumps out at him. Along the way, he bangs heads with academics, professional cops and a couple of assassins who are no match for the detecting skills of his dog, Pearl.<\/p>\n Painted Ladies<\/em> is not a good starting point for the unfamiliar reader. Those who do not love Spenser can find plenty to criticize in this series, especially the latter entries. The titles are generic to the point of abstraction. Premises are somewhat repetitive. It can seem as if developments \u2014 somebody taking the bait and attacking Spenser \u2014 are inevitable and predictable. These are hardly mysteries in the classic sense; there are no clues to interpret, and there\u2019s no real surprise at any sort of twist in the story. Robert Parker has stated that what winds up in print is very much like his first draft, and there\u2019s no reason to doubt him.<\/p>\n The power of Spenser is in the characters; the mildly humorous, insightful and knowledgeable dialogue; and the personalities that revolve around Spenser.\u00a0A few stories are\u00a0propelled by significant personal events \u2014 such as when Spenser\u2019s paramour Susan Silverman leaves him in Valediction<\/em>, or when a hired assassin nearly kills him in Small Vices<\/em>. Most, like Painted Ladies<\/em>,\u00a0are more low-key. The reader is mostly riding shotgun with Spenser, a strong, self-assured, wise-cracking figure whose success is never in doubt, and that trip would be just as much fun if it were to Harris Teeter.<\/p>\n Spenser\u2019s brother-in-arms, Hawk, is missing from this entry, which will lessen the delight for some fans.<\/p>\n Publisher Putnam says that Painted Ladies<\/em> was completed a year before Parker\u2019s death in January, and it\u2019s nice to think that this is true, that no meddling editor has left his fingerprints on the manuscript. There\u2019s no reason to think this happened; the writing is characteristically sparse and tidy, and the case resolves as they so often do, with no repercussions but echoes in the distance. (The main development in this installment is in the character of Otto, whom it will be left for the reader to discover.)<\/p>\n There\u2019s supposed to be one more Spenser novel in the pipeline: Sixkill<\/em>, scheduled for release in May. It seems disconcerting that Spenser, often the target of crooks, guns and bombs, survives while his creator does not.<\/p>\n Along with his other writings, Parker completed an unfinished\u00a0manuscript by Raymond Chandler, Poodle Springs<\/em>, which came out none the worse for this time-lapsed collaboration. Still, Spenser is just as unique as Philip Marlowe, and it would seem a desecration to mar him in the hands of lesser writers. Let\u2019s hope for no further Spenser novels, at least not for\u00a0another 50 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here is Briar Patch Book’s second review. Mick Scott is an editor and connoisseur of good literature who lives in Winston-Salem, N.C. By Mick Scott PAINTED LADIES. By Robert B. Parker. Putnam. 304 pages. $26.95. Spenser is observing the day outside his office window when someone with unusual characteristics walks in to hire him. That\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mysteries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions\/25"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}