Satanic Voice of The Gray Blues. A Good Man is the child to nurture. He saves us from Evil physical and...

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	• Small Vices (Spenser) Robert B. Parker Berkley, 1998 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 45 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

One of the best books in the Spenser series.

This is my second reading of 'Small Vices'. I'd read it before, years ago, and all I remembered was that this is the one in which Spenser gets himself shot and very nearly killed. (The beauty, I guess, of having so many Spenser novels is that it is hard to keep them all straight so I can go back and re-read them like they're new every few years).

If you are familiar with Spenser, most of your favorites see some action. If not, this may be a good one to start with, although I would recommend some of the older ones to begin.

The never-aging Spenser lives through an entire year of his life in this one, but don't worry, he still doesn't age. Neither do Hawk or Susan. They're like James Bond in that respect. It used to bug me but I know that I don't want to read about Hawk and Spenser's adventures in a nursing home.

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This is a must-read in the Spenser series!

When Spenser's old friend Rita Fiore hires him to investigate a case where she believes her client was framed, he pokes a hornet's nest. The man in jail is a career criminal and no one wants to see him out; the young woman who was killed was dating a young up-and-coming tennis star who is the adopted son of a very wealthy man and there are two eyewitnesses who swear that they saw the murdered woman being pulled into a car by the suspect.

To make matters worse, an assassin is called in who is good enough to get a drop on Spenser and puts Spenser into a coma. When Spenser wakes up, he finds that his friends have put out the word he is dead and he, Hawk and Susan head to California where he spends almost a year rehabilitating himself before he returns to Boston; first to take out the Gray Man, then to finish the case he had started.

Confronted with his own mortality, Spenser and Susan have to come to terms with the fact that this is his life and that it is not going to change.

I strongly recommend this book - it was one of the best in the series so far.

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One of Parker's best...

Just when I think that Robert Parker can't get any better with his Spenser series, I read something even more superior than the last. Small Vices ranks up there with one of his best.

Spenser is hired by Rita Fiore, one time assistant DA and now working for a private law firm with deep pockets. A black man, Ellis Alves, has been convicted of murdering a young girl from Pemberton College. The firm believes that he was framed. Alves is a career criminal and not many people are sorry to see him behind bars. But as Spenser starts reinvestigating the case, it is obvious that someone very powerful will stop at nothing to prevent the truth from being discovered. Spenser matches wits with a professional hetman nicknamed Gray Man, who is the most dangerous and talented nemesis that he's ever faced. An encounter with Gray Man almost costs Spenser his life.

As usual, the old gang is back including friend Hawk, psychologist-girlfriend Susan Silverman, and Pearl the Wonder Dog. There is also a subplot where Susan wants to make a major change in their relationship (I can't say that this change entails without spoiling the book). There is always great dialogue and good observations. Spenser evaluates his relationship with Susan: "The way I loved her never varied. But how I liked her could go up and down; and it went down most when she was being professional."

After reading a number of Parker's books, I'm tempted to go back and watch some of the old Spenser For Hire television series. I remember them being thoroughly enjoyable, but I'd now like to compare them to the books.

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Satanic Voice of The Gray Blues. A Good Man is the child to nurture. He saves us from Evil physical and deadly.

This may be the pinnacle (or nadir) Spenser novel dramatizing an ultimate personification of Evil. An investigation of that concept seems to be Spenser's underlying and ongoing pursuit. SMALL VICES, # 24 Spenser, deals with the primary issues of Life, as individuals within the human species are struggling to get through it, comprehend it, and relish it (as often as possible), in the transition into The Third Millennium.

Hawk's analysis of a dichotomy of desires between Spenser and Susan deserves a Grand Prize for capturing the core of conflict here. Of course any fan of the series would know that Hawk's conclusion would be drawn in a couple short statements including the perfect phrases in blue. It was amazing how refreshing it could be to have precise differences stated in such dry, clear terms.

A scene with an apparent Shirley Temple type child took the show for humor, even though no one could one-up The Highest Dark Child of The Species (who was neither young nor female, in this case). The Gray Man was possibly Parker's most complexly captivating character. The battles between Good and Evil in SMALL VICES were of the best I've read in Literature. FYI, an equal (yet different) exposure of the essence of Evil Incarnate was in the film, Suspect Zero (Widescreen Edition) (See my review), in which the dank presence reduced itself to boneless worm jelly. The difference is that Parker's evil character was given solid strength and deadly substance (in varied shades of gray).

Dealing with the issues of types of parenting and the heartbreaking, absolute lack of it in all types of ghettos, a cop named Jackson voiced the lack of awareness of "Do Gooders" without a clue about how impoverished families live. A small sample of Jackson's "right on" diatribe: "Like there's a bunch of white Anglo kids in the inner city, walking around looking for the f...ing malt shop. So I say, you people simply have got to stop talking `bout f...ing inner city when you mean black."

In reality, a quintessential Malt Shop did exist in a small town in Colorado, a light in a desert of dark styles of poverty, with a single Mom who was a parent, see the Amazon Short, Coal & Coca-Cola.

As is the case with each Spenser novel, many excellent quotes could be listed from this # 24 in the series. I couldn't help but notice a change in mood here, in the dedication (quoted below) to Joan, Parker's wife. Of course I wondered how Parker evaluated and passed through the road forks in his life, in contrast to what Spenser chose in SMALL VICES, in the issues brought forth between Spenser and Susan. It's obvious that the Parkers are parents with full presence, and that they love their children. This # 24 in series is worth reading for Spenser's takes on these issues alone.

In contrast to the always flowery dedications to Joan in Parker's novels, the dedication in SMALL VICES read: >> For Joan: You may have been a headache, but you've never been a bore. The way I loved her never varied. But how I liked her could go up and down, and it went down most when she was being professional. > "I'm not criticizing you, in all of this," Susan said. "I know you're not." I said. "The confusion of guilt and innocence just looks a little starker in this case and it interests you."

I believe that Spenser's comment there explains one of the reasons many readers, including me, retain a high degree of curiosity in how this series separates good and bad guys, good and bad acts. Stand-up-and-cheer support surfaced in SMALL VICES from various bad guys, in ways and in dialogues which added warmth, and continued discriminations between what's admirable and what's disgusting in examples of our species.

Once again, the author prevailed and the tale fell deep and rose high,
Linda Shelnutt

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Bravo!

Robert Parker writes like a skater on ice who floats effortlessly. He may put a lot of work into his writing, but he does not groan and grunt for our benefit. He presents the reader with polished pieces. This is elegance.

I have read a dozen of Parker's books, and enjoyed every one. However, I would say Small Vices is the most heroic, in that this book deals with grand themes. Academics may sneer at mystery novels, or come slumming, but these are our myths for the modern world.

If you haven't read the book, please stop reading this review here, because I wouldn't want to spoil anybody's enjoyment. The book has the classic Spenser scenes: the Threat, Displaying the Weapons, Pearl the Wonder Dog, great dialogue, vivid character sketches, and so forth. Spenser is careless, though. He shouldn't have been out running alone with the Grey Man on his trail.

Curious. In the end, everybody gets off. Spenser gets off with wounds, the Grey Man gets off without jail, the parents get off, the murderer gets off, the wronged prisoner gets off, and Hawk gets off with no pay for ten months' TLC. The only person who really loses is the victim, and she died happy.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Ellis Alves is no angel. But his lawyer says he was framed for the murder of college student Melissa Henderson...and asks Spenser for help.

From Boston's back streets to Manhattan's elite, Spenser and Hawk search for suspects, including Melissa's rich-kid, tennis-star boyfriend. But when a man with a .22 puts Spenser in a coma, the hope for justice may die with him...

* A New York Times bestseller
* Fantastic reviews from The New York Times, Kirkus Reviews, Chicago Tribune, and many more
* A Book-of-the-Month Club Main Selection
* Parker's newest hardcover, Night Passages, will be on sale from G.P. Putnam's Sons September 22nd.

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