Search - Cold Service (Spenser, Bk 32)

Another in the LOOOOONG series of Spenser novels by Robert Parker. It's fully as good as any of them. In this one, Hawk has been bushwacked and seriously injured. As he heals and slowly regains his strength, he and Spenser set out to find the people who did this to him and set things to right.

It involves rival ethnic gangs (Ukrainians!) and a variety of other interesting things (Afghan warlords, anyone?).

It has tight, crisp dialog--as all Parker books do--and speeds quickly to a satisfying conclusion. Recommended.

Parker/Spenser fans will remember Small Vices (1997), wherein the Boston PI was shot nearly dead and his sidekick Hawk nursed him back to health. This strong new Spenser novel flips that scenario, with Hawk shot and Spenser helping him first to get better, then to take revenge. Their targets are Boots Podolak and his army of Ukrainian thugs who run the black/Hispanic Boston satellite city of Marshport. Their goal is more complicated than just vengeance, though. When Boots's henchmen shot Hawk, they also killed the man he was protecting--a rival of Boots--as well as the man's wife and two of his three children, and now Hawk wants not only to destroy Boots and his operation but to channel millions of Boots's money toward the surviving child. To get at Boots, Spenser and Hawk tap on several series regulars, most notably black gangster Tony Marcus, who is doing business with Boots, and the Gray Man, the assassin who nearly killed Spenser in Small Vices; meanwhile, Susan, Spenser's psychiatrist girlfriend, dispenses sage advice, but stays mostly in the background. The novel features a complicated plot, numerous tough guys and plenty of tension that builds to an (interestingly) off-page mano-à-mano shootout between Hawk and Boots. This isn't Parker's best, nor his best Spenser, and the novel has a slightly rushed quality, but it's sincere, visceral entertainment that will more than satisfy the author's fans.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW

I really liked this book. It is a story about what happens when Spenser helps Hawk track down the men who wounded him and left him for dead. It tells about Spencer's thoughts about what he is doing and why.

Another great effort in a long line of great Spencer efforts by Robert Parker.

Good book. Passed it on to a friend.

Hawk is shot from behind and almost killed . After a long recuperation it's Payback Time. And even though Spencer has some moral reservations about what they have to do, he is there to help Hawk through this to the end.
Fast paced thriller with sprinkles of humor. This is Parker and his characters at their best.