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Book Reviews of Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30)

Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30)
Back Story - Spenser, Bk 30
Author: Robert B. Parker
ISBN-13: 9780399149771
ISBN-10: 0399149775
Publication Date: 3/10/2003
Pages: 320
Rating:
  • Currently 4/5 Stars.
 55

4 stars, based on 55 ratings
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons
Book Type: Hardcover
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

30 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 31 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This was another good Spenser book with a satisfying mystery that I didn't figure out and, of course, with all the Spenser wit and charm intact.
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 9 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
It's Spenser & Hawk trying find out who killed Daryls Mother during a bank Heist, after 28 yrs. And its been covered up from as high as the FBI. It's disturbed bee's nest and that just makes Spenser want to know even more.
batgirl avatar reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 284 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Another excellent Spenser mystery. Paul brings a friend who wants to know about her mother's murder....28 years before. Spenser uncovers more than his client wants to know and even more than he can tell her.
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 533 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Spenser's respectable 30th outing (he debuted 30 years ago in The Godwulf Manuscript) finds the veteran Boston PI teaming briefly with Jesse Stone, the cop hero of a newer Parker series (Death in Paradise, etc.). The move works because Parker plays it low-key, presenting Stone as just one of many characters who cross Spenser's path as the PI-hired by a friend of his adoptive son, Paul, for the princely sum of six Krispy Kremes-digs into the 28-year-old murder of a woman during a bank robbery; the friend is the slain woman's daughter and wants closure. Before Spenser bumps into Stone, the top cop in Paradise, Mass., he connects the killing to the daughter of big time Boston mobster Sonny Karnofsky, an old foe. When Spenser won't back off, Karnofsky threatens Spenser's girlfriend, Susan, then orders a hit on the PI. Enter as protection longtime sidekick Hawk; other series vets make appearances too on Spenser's behalf, including cops Belsen and Quirk and shooter Vinnie Morris. An interesting new character, a Jewish FBI agent, also helps out. The repartee between Spenser and Hawk is fast and funny; the sentiment between Spenser and Susan and the musings about Spenser's code are only occasionally cloying; and there's a scattering of remarkable action scenes including a tense shootout in Harvard Stadium. Series fans will enjoy this mix of old and new, but the title kind of says it all: this series, probably the finest and most influential PI series since Chandler, could use some forward momentum.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY REVIEW
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 48 more book reviews
Robert Parker does it one more time with a good Spencer story.
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 66 more book reviews
Spenser is asked to solve a decades old murder. Spenser and his strange friends follow one lead after another before untangling the sad story.
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 346 more book reviews
Another NYT Best seller piece of crap. PI trys to solve a 28 yr old murder. A waste of time
pigwoman avatar reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 82 more book reviews
Another great read by Parker. I love Spenser and Hawk.
shaft avatar reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 7 more book reviews
Typical Spenser story, with a little more intrigue than most. I love this series and always wish the books were longer.
mtngal avatar reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 8 more book reviews
I'm quickly becoming a big fan of this author. Great story, fast paced, funny. Read it in one day.
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on
After a few mechanical Spenser books with poor endings, this one was more like the classic good ones. Very fun read.
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 50 more book reviews
Classic Parker with characters that are like old friends. Always a good read.
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 12 more book reviews
Typical Parker Spenser tale, combining mystery, humor, a dash of classical literature/philosophy, and Parker's trademark Hemingway-ian (don't tell me it's not a word - I just made it up!) spare style of narration. A pleasant afternoon/evening of reading.
Char avatar reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 135 more book reviews
An unsolved thirty-year-old murder draws the victim's daughter out of the shadows for overdue justice and lures Spenser into his own past, old crimes and dangerous lies.
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 200 more book reviews
An unsolved thirty-year old murder draws the victim's daughter out of the shadows for overdue justice... and lures Spenser into his own past
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on
I love the Spenser novels!
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 16 more book reviews
Robert B. Parker is always a fun fast read and this story is no exception.
chat avatar reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 28 more book reviews
A unsolved 30 year murder draws out the victim's daughter out of the shadows for a overdue justice- and lures spenser into his old crimes and dangerous lives.
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 18 more book reviews
If you like Spenser books by Robert Parker, you will like this one.
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 66 more book reviews
Spenser just the way we like him
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 80 more book reviews
Another fun Spenser thriller
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 158 more book reviews
Fast and funny. "Spenser is still the top dog"
a quote from People Magazine
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 22 more book reviews
Another great Spenser novel about an unsolved 30-year-old murder.
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 48 more book reviews
A great story invovling a revolutionary group that holds up a bank, the customer that was killed and her daughters hunt to bring closure in her death.
Readnmachine avatar reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 1440 more book reviews
Asked by a young woman to find who shot her mother in a bank robbery nearly 30 years before, Spenser follows a trail through Sixties hippie-dom and Black Power radicals to uncover the truth. There's a new dog in the picture, but Susan and Hawk remain their irreplaceable selves.
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 29 more book reviews
Love all of his books!
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 683 more book reviews
Spencer solves a thirty year old murder.
redrose451 avatar reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 33 more book reviews
Who doesn't love Spencer?
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 9 more book reviews
Spenser for hire book.
reviewed Back Story (Spenser, Bk 30) on + 16 more book reviews
didnt read