I'm back to Spenser after a long layoff. Eventually, I may even finish the series.

This one's good. The story is interesting because the case isn't really a sympathetic cause. Once he's committed to it, though, Spenser won't give it up. The gang's all here for this one, too. It's not just Hawk, Susan, and Pearl. We have also: Healy, Quirk (who's been promoted to Captain), Belsen, Farrell, Vinnie, Gino Fish, Paul Giacomin, Henry Cimoli, Patricia Utley, and her butler Steven. Parker was apparently feeling good about it, too, 'cause there are lots of quotes from Eliot. He even invented a word. I know, because I tried to look it up to find what it means. It's not in any of the online dictionaries I use. I found it by tracking fan commentary on the book. The word: contumescent. Go!

With Parker, it's always the character interactions and dialogue that make the books work. The interactions between Hawk and Spenser are worth the price of admission. Best line of the book goes to Henry Cimoli, though. I'll leave you to find it.

If you like Parker, this is a good read.

Other people have written the Cliff Notes so I’ll skip that.
This is one of the better Spenser stories in a while. I enjoyed meeting old friends. And the training interlude built my tension like else nothing he could have done.
As ever, the answer is clear very early. But Parker makes the trip to the end a stomach churning ride.
Susan humanizes the story… and watching her discovery of Spenser give the story a dimension that takes it up a level.
And I hope We see Ruger again.

My first Spencer story. Excellent.

Robert Parker's Spenser novels are classics of their genre.
Often, it's not the actual mystery or plot that makes them so absorbing; it's Spenser's somewhat erudite style of wise-cracking, his relationship with Susan and Hawk, and various police individuals, plus, his accounts of going around the Boston area (when I am somewhat familiar with the area).
I always enjoy a Spenser novel.

Spenser comes very close to his final end! Unusual for him! He and Susan navigate their usual disparate relationship. Hawke is the best wingman ever. Two bad men go free. And we have Spenser to thank for that!

Burt Reynolds narrates! Really? How cool is that? What a perfect voice for Spenser!

I’m so in love w the terse, clean style of the Spenser novels. Spenser confronts his own mortality a little more than usual in this one. Very fond of this one.

The cover of most middle and late Spenser novels tend to say something about "the best Spenser in years" or "Parker rises again." But this one really does rise above. It feels like Parker put more of himself into this one. The spare language, as always, helps propel the story. But there are also whole pages without a paragraph break - shocking for RBP. His descriptions of the Gray Man are great, especially his eyes - bottoms of bottle caps, washers (of the hardware type). Underlying the book is a sense of mortality. Susan wants to adopt, Spenser not so much. And when he almost is killed, the tremendous effort he puts into survival is breath-taking. But more so is Susan and Hawk's support. They never question - they're just there. By the end, Spenser finds a way, but Spenser, and perhaps RBP, is feeling the rub of time.

Spenser gathers all the clues but is unable to provide proof to convict a perpetrator and free an innocent man from prison.

"Are you following me?" he said.
"I prefer to think of it as you and me forging ahead together." I said.

In spite of being the second (I think of two) Spenser novels narrated by Burt Reynolds, this was absolutely wonderful. It had all of the normal good stuff... a solid mystery, excitement, a look into interesting minds of the antagonists and plenty of action. It also stands out because Spenser comes up against an adversary arguably stronger than himself. Fairly early on, this antagonist nearly kills Spenser.

This brush with death gives Parker a chance to delve deeper than before in several directions. We've always known Spenser is strong in all sorts of ways, and tough both in the sense of being a favorite in most fights and the sense of mental toughness. In Small Vices, his recovery shows just how deep the toughness runs. We get to explore just what it is, deep inside, that makes Spenser what he is.

Parker finds numerous opportunities to tell us about various aspects of love, including the special relationships he has with people like Hawk. This takes it much further. Hawk constantly at his side might just make the recovery possible, and the characters even admit to each other that Spenser might not have made it through that year otherwise. We see the love from Susan broaden as she seems to reach a new level of really accepting, and loving, what Spenser is. We even learn a lot about Spenser watching his resolution with his antagonist. Parker is fond of describing Spenser, Hawk, Vinny and a few others as men who will "do what they say they'll do," and fans of the series will understand this means much more than the surface interpretation.

"Doing what he says" presents much greater challenges in this book than in any other. He's seeing to the conviction of a promising, young college boy who is guilty, but mostly made a stupid mistake and his father, who broke the law to save his son -- which Spenser admits he might have done himself. In exchange, he gets to free a rapist thug from prison after proving he hadn't committed the specific crime of which he had been convicted. He also frees a man who deeply frightens him, who nearly killed him and who threatened Susan, knowing that he may even tangle with the man again and that he's good enough to get Spenser. It's all utterly consistent with who and what Spenser is, and he couldn't act otherwise. Through this, we get get to know him even more deeply.

If you are coming to the Spenser series out of order, this one would be fine, but not particularly special. For long-reading fans of the series, I suspect this one will often be a favorite.

Spencer is hired by a law firm to find out if a conviction that one their attys won was legit and did the perp actually commit the crime. The defending atty is now a member of the firm and questions the conviction.

Spencer uses his contacts to search for the truth and it almost cost him his life...

I've lost track of how many times I've read and reread the Spenser novels. This is one of my favourites, but, really, it's like a first among equals thing - there's no such thing as a bad Spenser book. This one has some great scenes with Quirk, Belson, and Farrell (who we don't see enough of).

Burt Reynold's reading of the audio books is absolutely fantastic. I love his intonation, the way he uses accents and tones to differentiate between characters, and the way his delivery seems almost intimate. What I found most delightful is the way he *sings* the songs at the onset of the road trip. Honestly, the whole thing is worth a listen just for that.

The lawyer who defended Ellis Alves on the murder charge of a young college coed, was fresh out of law school and now, four years later, she doesn’t feel she gave him an adequate defense. Also, she isn’t sure he was guilty. Enter Spenser, who is hired to look into the case more closely. He isn’t prepared for the trouble this seemingly simple request will bring. He runs into constant lies with the rich folks he encounters, police corruption and coverups and finds his life threatened.