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Title: Chance by Robert B. Parker, Burt Reynolds ISBN: 0787107123 Publisher: Dove Books Audio Pub. Date: 1996 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 4 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.53
Rating: 4
Summary: Another Spenser novel -- Same as usual but still good
Comment: One problem that many authors have is keeping audiences interested after dozens of books. We become accustomed to a certain style of writing, a certain cast of characters, and it's easy to get bored. Robert B. Parker is one of the few (only?) authors that can successfully write novel after novel in the same way with the same main characters and still weave an engaging story.
Chance is your basic Spenser novel; if you've read a few of them, you know just what to expect. Our hero is hired to find an errant husband, and ends up focusing on a damsel in distress. Most of the way he has no idea what he's doing. It's refreshing, actually, to have the investigation end at one point, with Spenser more clueless than when he began. Of course he figures it all out in the end, but more by luck than anything else. There isn't too much byplay with Susan here, so if you're interested more in that relationship than in Spenser's wisecracking and dogged persistence, try another book (perhaps Small Vices).
I hope Mr. Parker keeps Spenser going for a long long time.
Rating: 3
Summary: snake eyes
Comment: Robert B. Parker is an excellent author -- he could pull three stars out of a description of Spenser getting audited on his income taxes. Maybe four.
But of his recent work, Chance is a bit of a disappointment. Mystery? There isn't really a mystery here the reader can solve. Character? The new characters are all rather shallow, structureless, and uncompelling. This may be a statement about the type of people attracted to Vegas, a city which plays a promonent role in the story, yet no insight is gained into the shallowness, no real new perspective is offered. Suspense? There really isn't much. Drama? No, not much of that either.
Really there isn't much here, globally. Locally, it's better. The interactions between Spenser and the others is, as usual, a joy to read. And Spenser's verbal quips, cultural references, and interesting insights are worth the read. But the book needs a bit more. And Parker's shown before that he can provide it.
Note : This review is based on the book as a part of the Spenser series. The Spenser books are best read in chronological sequence. As a standalone book, this is probably only two stars.
Rating: 3
Summary: Dull characters, sharp observations
Comment: I had a good enough time with this book -- partly because I always enjoy Spenser and partly because I recently travelled to Vegas for the first time in a decade. Parker's observations on the Strip and its denizens are very accurate, and very funny. And all the essentials that give the Spenser saga its charm are all here: banter between Spenser and Hawk, Susan's idiosyncracies, even Pearl eating Chinese food. It's the mystery, such as it is, and the characters that are lacking. Shallow, dumb thugs and their pathetic womenfolk get themselves all tangled up, and Hawk and Spenser unravel it. Yawn.
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Title: Walking Shadow by Robert B. Parker ISBN: 0425147746 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 1996 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Thin Air by Robert B. Parker ISBN: 0425152901 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 1996 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Sudden Mischief by Robert B. Parker ISBN: 042516828X Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 1999 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Double Deuce by Robert B. Parker ISBN: 0425137937 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 1993 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Small Vices by Robert B. Parker ISBN: 0425162486 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 1998 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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