Small Vices (Spenser Book 24)

Back in the mid 70’s a literate friend of mine suggested a new author called Robert B. Parker and his book, The Godwulf Manuscript (Spencer #1/1973), as a good read. Ate it up and by the end of Parker’s second entry, God Save the Child (1973), I was hooked. Previous gen tough guy/private eye/crime thriller types emphasized the manly aspect to the detriment of other qualities, but Spencer had tough in spades along with a fully blossomed humanity, a truly caring and compassionate hero that protected the weak and innocent (and occasionally the not so innocent). Add in a snarky sense of humor and the voice of a generation was alive and well. Parker gradually established himself as the doyen of modern crime fiction and one of the the all time greats of the genre. Then along came Looking for Rachel Wallace (#6/1980) where the outspoken Spenser was hired as a body guard for the militant lesbian Wallace. They immediately did not hit it off. He shrugged off Wallace’s scorn and abuse, was fired by her and then hiked across Boston in the middle of a blizzard that had shut the city down and rescued her from the bad guys in a feat of derring-do. The book ends as he is sitting by a traumatized Wallace’s bedside holding her hand while she sleeps. The ending bit deep and changed my ideal of what a man and a decent human being should be. I considered Spencer an influential role model of the person I matured into over the next decades.Lets talk limits, being a human is all about limits, your IQ, your height, how long you will live, there seems to be an upward limit to what a human is capable of and that includes how many first rate books one person can write. The number of classic texts one author is capable of penning is open to debate but in my reading I have not yet run into an author that has written more than ten first rate pieces of work and that includes Robert B. Parker, a human just like the rest of us. The effects of having to produce a fresh episode with the same characters every 12 months for decades on end seems to encourage formulaic plots and phoned in manuscripts. Back to the Spencer oeuvre-I have read every Spenser Parker wrote but soon found the non-Spencer books just did not work for me, I was spoiled and knew it. I didn’t really stop to think about how good the individual entries were, the glow of fandom had me just assuming all of them were first rate. Then, years ago, reading the Parker release for that year, Hugger Mugger (#27/2000), where Spencer spent day after day sitting on a porch somewhere in Georgia and calling it investigating I found myself dozing off, terminally bored. I shook it off but the worm of doubt continued to eat away at my belief in the sanctity of every Spencer episode being hallowed ground. By the time Parker died in 2010 I was burned on the series. The post Parker Spencer ghost writers after a mildly promising start only ended up throwing the final spadefuls of dirt on the coffin. Or so I thought, a few years later as I was discarding my core paper book collection and replacing it with digital I grabbed some Spencer entries and found they were fresher after the break and I decided I would read the entire series from start to finish. I found I had to struggle through some while others were fresh and powerful but less than halfway through Parker’s 39-41 Spencer novels (count varies, why is a can of worms best left for another time) I was ready to scream from too many entries that did not do Parker justice or keep me awake. What I discovered was that for me Parker’s early but not the very first stuff tended to be his best. Here is the list of what I consider his timeless works:Looking for Rachel Wallace (#6/1980), Early Autumn( #7/1980), A Savage Place (#8/1981), A Widening Gyre (#10/1983), Valediction (#11/1984), A Catskill Eagle (#12/1985), Small Vices (#24/1997), Rough Weather (#36/2008) with an honorable mention for the last entry in the series, Sixkill (#40/2011).That's it for what I consider Parker’s best, they all have earned their high spots in my Kindle’s rereads collection.I have found a keeper from the later Spenser novels in this book, Small Vices (#24/1997). The book opens as Spenser is getting what should be an easy money slam dunk of a case from Rita Fiore, a walk on from the past featured previously as an assistant district attorney. She now works for the biggest law firm in town and is doing some pro bono (‘for the good’-in a sense a freebie by the firm for a good cause) at the request of a newly hired lawyer of the firm who remembers what a mess she made of her first case as a public defender ending in her client getting sent up the river for a long stay when she thought he was innocent. Spenser is tasked to reinvestigate the case and ensure that justice was served. Things gradually snowball as Spencer stirs the pot and soon it seems a good fraction of Boston wants Spenser dead. He will come up against his most formidable opponent to date and only one man will walk away. A easy read with tight world building, enough of Spenser’s old buddies including Hawk make appearances to move the plot briskly, and the clear concise writing harkens back to Parker’s best work. While lacking the gravitas of some of his earlier work it was such a smoothly written, entertaining read that it ranks with Spenser’s best for me.$5.99 Kindle book price divided by Amazon typical read time of 6 hours, 36 minutes=$.91/average hourly reading cost

This Spenser story is so good it was made into an excellent movie with Joe Mantegna, Marsha Gay Harden and Ving Rhames a few years later.

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. <<A scene of Hawk washing his hands in Spenser's office was very telling of the above quote: >> He (Hawk) dried himself on a white towel that hung beside the sink. The towel said "Holiday Inn" on it, in green letters. It was one of my (Spenser's) favorites. I had picked it up in Jackson, Mississippi once, when I was driving back from Texas, with Pear the Wonder Dog. Whenever Susan came in she replaced the Holiday Inn towel with a small pink one that had a pale pink fringe, and a pink and green rosebud embroidered in one corner. As soon as she left, I put out the Holiday Inn towel again. <<During a conversation with Susan, Spenser narrated to himself: >> 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 the long days and months were done here, Spenser and Susan were again at one: >> "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

When Melissa Henderson's body was found and there was a rush to convict a career criminal, Ellis Alves, for the crime, DA Rita Fioris knew something was wrong, but her job was to get convictions, and she did. The public defender was fresh out of college and unable to handle the task, but she honestly believed Alves was innocent. Rita is back in private practice and she hires Spenser to prove whether Alves is guilty, or whether he was innocent. Spenser knows the answer pretty quick when he realizes the principal witnesses and individuals he talks to are lying, and when he is warned to get off the case or his life is in danger. A little bit of a different Spenser story, but it is great.

I was confused and had several orders going at the same time when I made the first review. My apologies to those that deserve them.This book was exactly what I was expecting and, like all Spenser books, was a great read!!!! Hail to the late, great Robert B Parker!!!!

Typical Robert B.Parker. Characters are well developed. Dialogue (banter) is witty. A few plot twists and turns maes a fun read.

PI Spenser is hired to free a man wrongly convicted of rape. While investigating the case, Spenser finds that everyone doesn't want him looking into the case. Forging ahead, Spenser kicks up enough trouble to have the hitman, the gray man, try to kill him.The great thing about Spenser stories, is that most of the time, situations seldom end neatly.

Enjoyable reading as always. The characters are at their best and their worst. Looking forward to the next Spenser case.

The Spenser novels are in the tradition of Hammet and Chandler with his deceptively well educated private detective always ready with witty reply and a sense of justice. Aided by his partner Susan and his dangerous friend Hawk Spenser investigates the wrongful imprisonment of a man who is of questionable character who is guilty of many things but not the crime he was convicted of. This investigation nearly kills Spenser but our hero is nothing if not persistent!! What I like about the Spenser novels is that they are well written tales but what makes them really fun to read is the food Spenser is never short of a good meal after reading a chapter you can end up feeling mighty hungry !! in this novel the lamb risotto sounds particularly delicious. So a novel that is not just a thriller but a culinary adventure.

I love the Jessie Stone books and this is the first Spencer. It is so clever, the descriptions, the logic behind all his thinking, make it a book I want to read quickly to know the end, but a book for my library to keep and to read again. Robert B Parker is for me the original crime writer.

Spencer looks for proof of wrongdoing in the murder of a young student and uncovers how money really does talk! Usual high standard of witty and insightful dialogue. Another great read.

I have only just discovered the Spenser books, and i cant read them fast enough. The Jesse Stone books are good, but these are better, cant put them down.

Have read many Robert B Parker crime novels and found this as enjoyable as usual.