It isn't all Braising Bullets and Bad Ape Booze. The P.I. guy runs a Jazz/Blues scene. Ya gotta have...

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	• Promised Land (A Spenser Novel) Robert Parker Dell Books, 1987 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 19 reviews view larger image
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Strong prose, well written

The prose is well-written, the characterizations are vivid and the whole story fits together like a hand in a glove. That said, much of the book is filled with rhetorical politicalization - which, admittedly, was much the topic of the day - that became a bit thick at times. I don't know many people who actually hold conversations like those held in the book. Again, although I lived through those times, I was very young - so maybe people DID talk like that back then. Anyway, the constant rhetoric rubbed me the wrong way after awhile, reducing my enjoyment of the story after awhile.

However, I love the way Robert Parker describes characters and actions, and I love Spenser's internal dialog. Hawk was an awesome new character and I hope we run into him again. Despite its faults, this was a book that I enjoyed reading overall, and recommend to anyone who enjoys PI novels with a bit of intelligence behind them.

*disclaimer* written in the middle of the night under the influence of medications that make me stupid dumb*

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Another Key Spenser Novel

PROMISED LAND is the fourth Spenser novel, and definitely one of the better ones. The plotline deals with Spenser trying to find a runaway wife, only to discover that the husband who hired him has some very serious problems of his own.

This novel is important for two reasons. First, it introduces the character of Hawk, who would later become a key figure in the series. Second, this is the first novel to fully define the parameters of Spenser's relationship with his girlfriend, Susan Silverman. This book is therefore a must read for fans of the Spenser series.

PROMISED LAND has a relatively strong plot with an exciting conclusion. But this is also the first Spenser novel with a big philosophical component. Many of the characters have long, thoughtful dialogues about the nature of love, commitment and marriage. While many of these exchanges are interesting, most of them are overlong and struck me as stilted and unrealistic. I knock off a star for this reason.

You can read the Spenser novels in any order, but I personally believe the earlier ones should be read first. So my advice is to read this novel, along with GOD SAVE THE CHILD as your first Spenser books.

Highly recommended.

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The Case of the Run-Away Wife

Robert B. Parker has written a series of detective novels featuring "Spenser". Parker finished Raymond Chandler's "Poodle Springs" and wrote a novel that continued Chandler's "The Big Sleep". In Chapter 1 Spenser is working on his new office when Harvey Shepard hires him to find his run-away wife. Spenser explains the philosophy of wives who run away (Chapter 2). The details describe the Boston locale. Chapter 3 describes the drive to Hyannis and this city. Spenser meets Hawk at Shepard's house; are there complications? Spenser meets Millie the daughter. The Chief of Police gives Spenser a lead to the Silver Seas Motel where he learns something (Chapter 5).

Does Chapter 6 remind you of Chandler? Telephone bills and credit card receipts tell of a person's habits. One address is watched, and Pam Shepard is seen. [Too easy?] Spenser learns about Pam's friends in New Bedford (Chapter 8). [Parker could use language that Chandler could not forty years earlier (Chapter 9)] When Spenser returns to Harvey he learns more about his problems. [Would Marlowe refuse to report to a client?] Chapter 12 has a new complication for Spenser. There is shocking news in Chapter 14, and just the right amount of satire. The conversations and details date this book (Chapter 15). Harvey Shepard explains his problems (Chapter 17). Spenser comes up with a scheme to save the Shepard's from their foolishness (Chapter 20).

There is subtle satire in the meetings (Chapter 21). Spenser psychoanalyzes his clients (Chapter 22). The deal is arranged (Chapter 23). Spenser meets with the police (Chapter 24). Spenser discusses things with Susan in a restaurant! [Who could be listening?] Everything goes according to the plan (Chapter 26). There is a happy ending to this story in Chapter 29. This story has a good plot but seems incredible in parts. Some of the characters seem like cartoon characters. Raymond Chandler's Marlowe was a trouble-shooter for the very wealthy. Spenser is a down-market version but perhaps more interesting for that.

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It isn't all Braising Bullets and Bad Ape Booze. The P.I. guy runs a Jazz/Blues scene. Ya gotta have moaning melancholy ...

Ya gotta have moaning melancholy ... and ... and ... thoughtful, teaching t'ings.

For me, this # 4 in Parker's Spenser series was a key novel, a turning point for honing purpose and direction for future offerings. With PROMISED LAND, the baseline ingredients were set. It almost seemed to me as if, in writing the early parts of this plot, Parker had scrambled to the top of a mountain and surveyed the territory he had acquired in his first three books. "I've clearly opened something successfully long-term here," he might have concluded. "What do I want to do with it. Where do I want to take it."

A third into the plot of PROMISED LAND, a short paragraph from Spenser's narrative soured a trumped-up deal, like flat beer worn down:

>> Living around Boston for a long time you tend to think of Cape Cod as promised land. Sea, sun, sky, health, ease, boisterous camaraderie, a kind of real-life beer commercial. Since I'd arrived no one had liked me, and several people had told me to go away. Two had assaulted me. You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod. > There ain't all that many of us left, guys like old Spenser and me.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

Acclaimed mystery author Robert B. Parker continues to win an even greater audience with each new Spenser novel. For all crime fiction lovers who discovered Parker through his latest bestsellers "Pastime" and "Double Deuce", his entire Dell backlist is now available in attractively repackaged editions.