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Search - Pastime

Pastime
Author: Robert B. Parker

Series: Spenser Mystery Series, #18 — From The Critics — Publishers Weekly — Boston sleuth Spenser trails a woman to her gangster boyfriend's hideout in a mystery that spent eight weeks on PW 's bestseller list. (Apr.) — School Library Journal — YA-- Parker's latest mystery features his likable sleuth Spenser (spelled ``like the poet''); the shady, e... more »nigmatic Hawk; and Spenser's longtime love, Susan Silverman. In this sequel to Early Autumn (Dell, 1987), Paul Giacomin (now 25) asks Spenser to locate his missing mother, who has become involved with the mob and disappeared under mysterious circumstances. This is one of Parker's strongest novels of late, reminiscent of his earlier works. The emphasis is on character interaction and relationships as opposed to the visceral slasher novels glutting supermarket or newsstand racks. Reading a Spenser novel is like a family reunion--it makes one feel good. --John Lawson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA

Kirkus Reviews

Parker continues his high rebound (begun with his Chandleresque Poodle Springs and last year's Spenser yarn, Stardust) with a sequel to Early Autumn (1980) that's even more vibrant than the original, which Spenser fans will remember as one of the Boston p.i.'s most personal, resonant cases. In Early Autumn, Spenser tutored lost-teen Paul Giacomin in the ways of manhood. Now 25, Paul's still not quite grown up and is again asking Spenser's help?to find Paul's weak-willed mom. Paul's need to confront his mom about why she left home without notice proves the crucible for his true coming of age?a transformation echoed in Spenser's revelations (unique to the series) about his own young adulthood, and mirrored in the parallel attempt by wild young hoodlum Gerry Broz to step into the shoes of his top-mobster dad, Joe Broz. After some low-key sleuthing (much in the company of a winsome dog), Spenser learns that Paul's man-crazy mom has run off with a lowlife who's stolen a million-plus from Gerry?and that Joe, determined that his son show himself man enough to one day take over the mob, is demanding that Gerry get it back. As usual, Spenser's girlfriend Susan hovers around the case, exchanging the usual pompous endearments with the p.i. ("there's a kind of purity about you," she says. "Everything is inner-directed"); and Spenser's shadow-side, Hawk, provides some minor support?but the emotionally tense focus here is on male passages, centering in a gripping test of Spenser's own manhood as he is shot and must escape through the woods with murderous Gerry and a pack of mobsters at his heels, and climaxing in a cathartic shootout as Gerry, backed by a distraught Joe, guns forSpenser?and for his own chance to be a man. Vintage hard-core Spenser?told in burnished prose, skimpy on the mystery-detection but rich in soul-satisfying macho action and in the mystique of the p.i.

ISBN: 74397
Pages: 159
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: G P Putnam's Sons
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio Cassette
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Write a Review

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Judy B. (jdyinva) - , reviewed Pastime on 9/26/2010 + 408 more book reviews

Fabulous - as usual. One of my favorite Spenser novels.

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Genres:

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense >> Thrillers & Suspense

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