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Book Review of Chance (Spenser, Bk 23)

Chance (Spenser, Bk 23)
Lenore avatar reviewed on + 193 more book reviews


Great Series. I've read every book by Robert Parker. I think he does the best dialogue in the business! The TV series, Spenser for Hire, starring the now deceased Robert Urich, was based on this series. A fast, smart, funny read.

FROM THE COVER:

The search for a Mafia princess's errant spouse lands Spenser - "one of detective fiction's best hard-boiled gumshoes" (People) - on the firing line in a gangland turf war.

When big time Boston hoodlum Julius Ventura approaches Spenser and his redoubtable sidekick, Hawk, about locating his only daughter's missing husband, it's clear he's not telling them the whole truth about the blushing bride and the ardent groom. In fact, he may be lying.

So begins an odyssey into the netherworld of disorganized crime: from the throne rooms of crime lords to the Vegas strip; from two-bit wiseguys with a genius for dangerous liasons to gangsters' molls in jeapardy; from larceny to homicide. And that's just for openers. All to soon, it becomes clear that what's at stake is not young love, but control of gangland Boston. Spenser and Hawk find themselves dead-center in a circus of violence whose shadowy ringmaster is all too familiar to a private eye with a past.

Set against the bright lights and seamy side streets of Las Vegas, Parker's latest novel proves that "he can still create characters who live and dialogue that talks" (The New York Times Book Review).