I give Robert Parker credit for being amibitious enough to try something new, something more profoud than his genre novels. But this novel simply does not live up to the challenge. The central romantic relationship is rendered as if this were a Harlequin romance -- corny, to say the least. And the plot, after a credible opening set in 1920's Ireland, degenerates into cliche after cliche. The characters are never believable. Sorry to say, the book is not very compelling or interesting.

I love Robert B. Parker's books. He is the only author I buy in hardback because I think the man can write better than anyone in the market today, and I never want to wait for the paperback, or for the new ones to come back at the library. Parker isn't really a one-note author, as his critics claim; he's more of a one-tune author, but if you happen to like the tune, he's always fun. This book is very well-plotted at the action is great, and all three of the main characters are every bit as appealing as Spenser. But please, oh please, pretty please, Mr. Parker, stop buying into the "Playboy" philosophy that men are made more powerful by their uniforms, but women acquire power only when they take their clothes off! And that those women who aren't "picture perfect" aren't worth anything at all! Please? This is the very same attitude that you skewered - and beautifully - in "Taming a Sea Horse," the book about the sleazy smut-peddling Crown Prince Club. Whose side are you on anyway? Other than that major irritation, this book is a very good read, and in my opinion Parker makes the transition from pot-boiler to mainstream well. But....Please??

OK, here's the deal. Robert B Parker wants to write something different, and he's just cranked out about 6 Spenser novels in a row. So, he sits down and writes this, All Our Yesterdays, a very good thriller, but often trashed novel. Why? Its easy... Robert B Parker is a simpistic writer, often taking for granted that you have read all the earlier novels,and you want no background material and no filler. Well, this isnt a Spenser novel, so background material is needed, you just met these guys. That for one agrivates Spenser fans, they like there novels to start on page one and never drag, but you do need a little background here. Heres the catcher, Robert B Parker also hates background material and explanitory writing. So he writes a vast, sprawling novel existing on three generations, with as little writing as possible.He does it in about 460 pages, (about the lengh of 2 Spenser novels). Does it work? Yes, its a gritty, fun yarn that is fast pased and slightly dark at times. Its also a little sterotypical towards the Irish, but Robert B Parker is Irish, so let that be. Its a welcome change of pace, more filling than most of his Spenser novels. Not a steak dinner filling, but more filling than say a Snickers.

"A Savage Place," the eighth Spenser novel from Robert B. Parker, is very reminiscent of "Looking for Rachel Wallace." This is not only because Rachel calls up our hero to inform him she is sending him a client, but Spenser is again being hired to be a body guard for a feminist character. However, if you thought things went wrong went Spenser tried to protect Rachel Wallace, wait until you read what happens with Candy Sloan, a television reporter in Hollywood investigating corruption and racketeering in the movie industry. This is also another Spenser novel where he is away from Boston, this time dealing with the tawdry glory of Tinsletown (the author must have been out for an extended visit at some point), so do not expect to see Susan and Hawk, or for Spenser to spend a lot of time cooking. As a matter of fact, our hero does not spend a lot of time doing much for most of this book, mainly giving advice to the woman he is supposed to be protecting. Of course Candy is aggressive and ambitious, insisting that she has to break the case even if the smarter and safer thing to do would be to let the police do it. She is also very sexy, which leads to an interesting distinction from Spenser on various definitions of "cheating." The bad guys are your traditional stereotypical assortment of blustering idiots but Lieutenant Samuelson for LAPD is one of the better kindred spirits Spenser has run across outside of the environs of Boston and I enjoyed their discussions of the case much more than Spenser and Candy going head to head on feminist issues. This is an average Spenser novel, although I do appreciate the fact that Parker always makes a concerted effort not to double-back on what he has done previously. As always, the Spenser novels are easy brain candy for those of us living the commuter lifestyle or who have a couple of hours to kill on a lazy afternoon.

Are you tired of the typical formula novel or tv series? Parker isn't afraid to give Spenser, and his readers, a kick in the gut with this plot twist. As Spenser visits L.A. (a savage place) and experiences its cold indifference, he finds his own savage side. Spenser is such a poised but quick P.I. We see his (rarely shown) visceral reaction to brutality. Candy Sloan, his reporter/client, is a woman making her path (any way that she can) in a man's world.

Perhaps no other writer has had so pernicious an influence on modern detective fiction as Robert B. Parker. Paradoxically, having immersed himself in the writings of the genre while he was an academic, Parker proceeded to violate the conventions which made it great when he became an author. Now, I'm not saying that a writer has to slavishly follow the conventions of the genre, but if he's going to violate them, it should be for reasons that add something to his text. I believe that Parker, and his successors, have instead produced inferior work.

The most important convention of the genre that Parker has tampered with is, "the hero as loner". Bad enough that Spenser has his ongoing relationship with the profoundly annoying Susan Silverman (supposedly their relationship is modeled on Parker's with his own wife; God help him), he also has a virtual child in Paul and his relationships with Hawk, Belsen, Quirk, etc. are so close, that people who hire Spenser, essentially get a whole team.

One result is that Spenser ends up maintaining an emotional distance from his cases, at a couple points he has even told clients that he would protect Susan before them. Compare this with the quintessential private eye series, Ross MacDonald's Lew Archer novels. Archer was continually getting over involved with clients, their wives & children, as each case became the emotional focus of his otherwise empty life. This emotional vulnerability is a key element of the best novels of the genre.

Likewise, Parker has eliminated the physical and legal risks that the hero faces. Spenser's friends are all so powerful that there's never a sense that Spenser is vulnerable. Of course, we know that he won't ever lose a fist fight or be beaten up. But we, and his opponents, also know that even if he gets in trouble, his cronies will bail him out--Hawk will shoot them, Quirk will arrest them or, at least, not arrest Spenser & even the Mob will come after them.

The result of this genre busting is that the Spenser tales are largely devoid of dramatic tension. His emotional distance from cases and physical invulnerability have combined to make for stories that are rather flat and formulaic; an ironic result considering the attempt to escape the classic p.i. formula.

A Savage Place demonstrates all of these points by removing Spenser from his familiar background and transplanting him to Southern California. Candy Sloan is an ambitious TV reporter who has stumbled onto a story about union corruption in the movie industry. When her life is threatened, the TV station hires Spenser to guard her.

With Susan back home in Boston, Spenser is free to focus on the case and become involved with Candy. And, removed from the protection of Hawk and Quirk, he finds himself vulnerable to hoodlums and lawmen alike. These factors combine to provide us with the most satisfactory entry in the long running Spenser series and provide a bittersweet peak at what this series could have been.

GRADE: A

This book is more than 20 years old, and it hasn't aged well. Spenser is flip and condescending as he deals with women in search of themselves in the long-ago days of Phil Donahue, Alan Alda and Patty Hearst. At times, he is so smug (Susan's word, by the way) that I was sorry I picked up the book. For diehard fans of the series, this edition is noteworthy for the introduction of Hawk. Now that gentleman has indeed aged well.

This book holds a few surprises. It is also quite interesting how Spenser manages to handle these surprises. In the process it makes a few valid observations about the feminist movement. Enjoy the book, then if you have the opportunity to see the movie with Robert Urich, enjoy that as well.

Robert B. Parker's THE PROMISED LAND lives up to its promise. In this novel, Spenser finally hits his bestselling stride. All of the major series characters are in place, and this is the novel that was dramatized to launch the original SPENSER series. Read it and enjoy it.

Robert B. Parker, Taming a Sea-Horse (Delacorte, 1986)

One of the fun things about Robert Parker's Spenser novels is that way folks keep popping up and making Spenser's life miserable. In this case, the poppee is April Kyle, a prostitute Spenser encountered a few years before. That story didn't end to anyone's satisfaction, least of all Spenser's. Now it's time for him to find out why. April has left the employ of the madam with whom Spenser set her up to turn tricks for her new boyfriend, a woodwind player struggling through Julliard. Or so everyone's been told. Spenser starts asking around, and the more he asks, the less he finds out. Typical, huh?

In no time, one of April's associates who Spenser talked to is dead, and the pimp has had his face rearranged. There's more to this than a runaway streetwalker. Enough "more," at least, for another Spenser novel.

This isn't one of Parker's more elegant works, but then, a bad Spenser is still better than most anything else. It has all the hallmarks of Robert Parker. There's some cooking, some literature, a lot of snappy one-liners, and inherent readability. What's missing is the necessity to down the whole thing in one long swallow that pervades such Spenser gems as A Catskill Eagle and Early Autumn. But that's comparable to a pizza with one slice gone; the rest will still taste good. ***

Is Susan the only woman in Spenser's life who isn't a hooker? I know I'm reading the books out of order, but just in grabbing them off the shelves randomly-Ceremony, Mortal Stakes, Thin Air, Taming a Seahorse all feature Spenser riding to the rescue of once or current hookers. Oh well, in this one April Kyle, the teenage girl that Spenser and Susan thought would have a nice life as a prostitute disappears from the fancy upscale house they put her in and is doomed to work the streets. While searching for her, Spenser meets ***gasp in amazement*** another young hooker. Naturally she's not a coked-up, used up street walker, she's another in Spenser's long line of beautiful street corner girls. The girl ends up dead which leads to Spenser beating up her father, tracking her to a Hefner/Flynt clone whose men's clubs are actually highclass whorehouses, and to the club's Caribbean resort which leads to another gorgeous hooker and so on. Who killed the hooker and her pimp? Don't know, April, I assume, will go back to hooking in a manner Spenser prefers. I found the ending very puzzling-almost like Parker had to maintain a page count and he had to finish it up with no time for tying things up. There were about 20 more pages of story could have been wrung out of this one.

This book Is another novel about the beloved April Kyle. If you read the first book Ceremony you leave with a feeling that you want only the best for April and you wish she could catch a break in life. Well in this book it just gets worse but in the end you get the feeling that she might just finally give up her current life of prostitution. This book I found to be another good Spencer novel and I couldn't put it down.

The recipes in this book are simple and easy enough to prepare. I'm dissapointed not to find any descriptions of ingredients that give hints as to which kinds of beans can be substituted for which other kinds, and along the same lines, an index of recipes by primary ingredients would be nice.

Also, the emphasis on lima beans is very heavy and I find it difficult to pick out which recipes will have a strong lima bean flavor, and which will not.

This book was one of the first vegerarian cookbooks that I purchased, and it has remained one of my favorites. Not only are the recipes very tasty (the "Cuban Black Bean Soup" recipe has become a family favorite--even though my parents are meat-eaters!), but the cultural/historical information given about each dish makes for an interesting read.

Before I bought this book I had never cooked with dried beans. However, Patricia Gregory's clear directions (a detailed introduction to working with dried beans is provided) convinced me that using dried beans really is easy (and economical).

Moreover, a good number of the recipes in this book are time-tested...they're classic dishes from around the world (like a wonderful lentils and rice dish from Lebanon [mujaddara] and a recipe for the sweet red bean paste found in lots of asian pastries). There are also "non-traditional" recipes like "Bean and Leek Chowder" and "Creamy Mexican Soup" that will become classics in your kitchen once you taste them.

There are two points to consider before you buy-- All of the recipes in this start with dried beans, and if you want to cook with canned beans, the conversion could be tricky. Also, if you usually use a pressure cooker to cook your dried beans, this book might not be for you (unless you're a whiz at converting standard recipes to pressure-cooker recipes) because the author doesn't provide any guidelines for using them.

However, if you're seriously into vegetarian bean dishes, this book is a must-have. In my opinion, this is one vegetarian cookbook that should be better known than it is...

My disappointment in this Spenser book is probably my fault. Reading the jacket, I thought that hey, Parker is going to see what he can do with Spenser in a Dick Francis type story. I shoulda known better.

The race horse element in this book is strictly peripheral to a rather tired and typical Spenser storyline. Even Spenser himself sounds like he's getting tired of the series. When he's let go early in the book, he actually says okay, goes home, takes a ho-hum case and is ready to forget all about the job he was first hired to do, until he's hired by another of those involved. When he goes back, those he wants to question refuse to talk to him, and be darned if he doesn't accept that. Hey, this isn't the Spenser we've known and loved!

I'm not going to tell you not to read this book. If you're a Spenser addict like me, you'll read it anyway. However, this book convinced me that it's time for me to investigate his two new series.

but it is not as polished as most of the Spenser series.

It's hard not to enjoy all of Parker's wisecracking characters, (Susan is featured in the cast, and brings her own style & humor to the forefront) but the wordplay between Spenser & Susan in this book is a little too much like foreplay, and the female villain is not believable. The ending has a twist, because not all of the guilty are made to pay.

There is some good character support to supplant the missing Hawk (Spenser stories are never as good without Hawk!) in the form of Deputy Sheriff Becker and Tedy Sapp, a gay bouncer who Spenser befriends in his latest out of state foray, this time to Georgia. The Clive family is drawn too broadly as goofy, indulgent southerners, but all in all, the novel moves fast and a middle of the road Spenser novel is usually more entertaining than much of the other detective genre.

Read on a road trip...it will keep you entertained!

Who else but Robert Parker could tackle three different mystery characters in three different novels a year and still be one of the most consistently entertaining writers in the mystery field? But (with apologies to Jesse Stone and Helen H...er, sorry, Sunny Randall), it's Spenser we love the best. My two favorite mystery novelists are Robert B. Parker and Dick Francis, and this mystery, set in Georgia horse country, is the best of both worlds: Spenser must track down the murderer of horses at a training farm, populated by (as Spenser says) the cast of a Tennessee Williams play. As always, much of the fun is the dialogue--no one's better than Spenser taking the wind out of a pompous twit's sails, and no one's better at writing that wise-guy with an intellectual edge than Parker. Any complaints? Well, sure, there's a big one. No Hawk! Luckily, Susan's around, and so is Pearl the Wonder Dog. Spenser's sidekick in this book, a gay ex-cop named Tedy Sapp, is interesting enough, but Mr. Sapp, you're *no* Hawk! (But who is?) My other quibble is a broader one. This is a fine standard Spenser mystery, but it's nothing more than that--Spenser gets a client, scouts the case, matches wits with the suspects, flirts a bit (but stays loyal to Susan, of course) and cracks the solution. But a truly exceptional Spenser book, while it contains all these elements, can be so much more. I've been reading Spenser's adventures for nearly 20 years, and the ones that make the most impression on me--those I consider the best, in which Parker transcends the normal mystery novel--are the books in which Spenser as a character moves forward dramatically, in which something major happens to Spenser *personally* to change or influence his life. Don't get me wrong--that kind of approach would not be welcome in every book...but after nearly 30 Spenser books the ones that stand out in my mind are "Early Autumn"..."A Catskill Eagle"..."Small Vices"...Spenser adventures that bring us more into the personal life of Parker's hero than the others. That Parker is capable of such sublime heights between the more-standard Spenser (and Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall) mysteries is the most important reason I keep reading him.

Robert Parker's newest character, Boston P.I. Sunny Randall, returns in "Perish Twice," but this time she's juggling the role of relationship counselor along with her usual sleuthing duties. Her snooty sister learns of her husband's mistress and plunges into bouts of self-pity mixed with revenge; her best friend, bored with her marriage, has an affair, and a lesbian feminist becomes increasingly unhelpful when it's revealed that her stalker might know her more intimately than she's willing to admit. Through it all, Sunny struggles with her own relationship with her ex-husband Richie and comes closer to danger with each new twist of her case.

It's still too early to tell where Parker will take the character of Sunny. At this point, she still seems like the female equivalent of Parker's most famous character, Spenser, albeit a bit more ladylike. The book itself is fairly typical, uninspired Parker--the plot is reminiscent of an early Spenser novel, "Looking For Rachel Wallace." Sunny's relationship with Richie echoes a similar situation with Parker's other character Jesse Stone. Parker fans will experience a lot of deja vu with "Perish Twice," but it's still a fairly enjoyable read.

Robert B. Parker is best known for his Spenser novels. A hallmark of the Spenser stories is the sensitivity of the tough but not-so-hard-boiled private eye and the relationships among the supporting cast. Parker's new series about a female private eye closely parallels the old series. Perish Twice is the second go-around for Sunny Randall, introduced last year in Family Honor. This time she has three parallel "cases." (Like Spenser, she doesn't let little things like having paying clients affect her desire to investigate. After all, what she really wants is to know the answers.) Her paying client (for a while, at least) is a militant feminist who wants protection from whoever is making threats. But she doesn't want to call in the police because they are sexist pigs and her business is none of theirs. So Sunny is her body guard, escorting her to and from work. When Sunny quickly spots and identifies the stalker, the client does not want her to do anything, and is angry at Sunny for making the ID. Strange! Then a staffer in the client's office is murdered and Sunny is fired by her client because she, against the client's orders, identifies the stalker to the police. The stalker is then found dead with a suicide note and a pistol in his hand, so the police wrap up both cases. Murder followed by guilt-induced suicide. Sunny is not satisfied, however, and pursues the case on her own. Along the way she also has to deal with her pre-feminist-consciousness sister, who thinks her husband is cheating on her and with a mid-life crisis on the part of her best friend, who is a counselor who doesn't want to deal with her situation. Sunny's ex-husband (who shares custody of their dog and is a frequent date) and friend Spike complete the main cast. There are also assorted cops and bad guys who are typical of Parker's menagerie. The conversations are clones of those among Spenser, Hawk, and Susan - and that is a favorable recommendation. Sunny Randall is not Spenser - but then again she is in many ways. We enjoy Spenser time after time, and now we can enjoy Sunny for all of the same reasons.

It's always been my prayer that Robert Parker would live a long life and keep writing so I'd have him to look forward to twice a year even if his new PI, Sunny Randall, is just Spenser in a dress. She. like, Spenser, has attitude and a dog she shares with her ex-husband Richie, who, by the way, is a lot more likeable than the fit, trim, beautiful, brilliant and accomplished Susan Silverman. They're both tough but sensitive. Spenser cooks and Randall paints. The setting, as always, is Boston.

There are murders and Sunny solves them, like Spenser, with the help of cops and criminals, but the essence of all Parker's work is the character of Sunny/Spenser and the people they know and accept.

For those who may be new to Parker,please read his books in the order in which they were written. You'll be glad you did. There are three series, the most famous being the Spenser novels. There are many of them and that's the wonderful part. There are two books each in the Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall series.

All of Parker's books are alike because it seems the author wants to reinforce his message until he's sure we're getting it, and that is that a "normal" life is like a medicine prescribed for everyone, even those who are allergic to it, and that we have to accept the differences in the people around us while believing in ourselves and our values, and that the most useful body parts are ears that listen.

I found this book to have little redeeming value. The dialog is particularly crude and the "detective" work is simplistic.

Well, boys and girls, here we are at the fourteenth Spenser novel and it is probably too early to tell if our hero is in decline or if Robert B. Parker is just idling at this point. Our hero is hired by a newspaper to investigate the murder of one of its reporters who was checking out the cocaine trade in the central Massachusetts town of Wheaton. Spenser shows up, starts asking questions of practically everybody in town, but the responses are all the same: nobody knows anything except that maybe he should stop asking questions. But since the police are tailing him and the local Columbian cocaine kingpin threatens him, Spenser figures he must be on the right track and that if he just keeps making a nuisance of himself sooner or later something will slip through the cracks.

In the wake of the epic storyline in which Susan Silverman leaves Spenser and eventually has to be rescued by our hero and Hawk, it is not surprising we are getting a series of more intimate adventures. The sense that Parker is going through the motions at this point comes from the little things: Spenser and Susan are happy and content without any mention to the personal traumas that compelled her to head to California in the first place, and their happiness consists of lots of sex, even more looking at one another, and virtually no cooking. On top of that I do not think he hits anybody in the entire book. No, this does not sound like the real Spenser to me either. For the first time I get the feeling Parker is starting to repeat himself a bit, since he continues his streak of getting people killed by just asking the wrong questions and Hawk always need to show up to help save the day. However, Susan does provide necessary psychological analysis at a key moment, so that degree from Harvard is getting good use. My main complaint would be that the resolution is rather abrupt and smacks a bit too much of just being over and done with, which knocks it down one star. I admit looking forward to the next book with some trepidation (But I have started reading "Crimson Joy" since I wrote my first draft of this review and its off to a VERY good start). As always, these books are easy reads well suited to the computer lifestyle: I have been polishing off at least one of these a day and that is without really trying to sneak in chapters here and there all day long at work.

Spenser is hired to find out who killed reporter Eric Valdez. Valdez's assignment was to get to the bottom of the cocaine trade in Wheaton, Massachusetts, but the town is owned by the Columbians, including the police force. So Spenser does what he does best. He parks himself in town and asks questions until he annoys enough people and something shakes loose.

I read this book years ago and just re-read it. I think it stands up well. I've always liked the Spenser series because of it's dialog between Spenser and Hawk. Actually the dialog between Spenser and whoever he's talking to always crackles. I also like the fact that the story makes sense. Many mystery/crime novels today depend on the serial killer schtick but to me Parker's mysteries are always grounded on something believable. Cocaine trade in Wheaton, Massachusetts? Might seem ridiculous at first but after it's explained it makes perfect sense. It could happen that way and the story that follows also could have happened that way.

Anyway, like all of the Spenser series I enjoyed it and recommend it. It's not deep literature but it is a fast enjoyable read.

Unfortunately, being published in 1983, "Boston, Then and Now" should be titled "Boston, Then and THEN". It has been almost 20 years since the "now" photos were taken and Boston has changed greatly in that period. I would love to see a reissue of this book with updated photos. Right now, it makes little sense to purchase a book so out of date.

I'm not so certain that a book like this should be judged solely on its age. If anything, it now serves the same purpose as the original round of pictures did when it was first published.

This is a very different Boston from the modern one, you see -- Boston of 1980-82 was a crime-ridden, economically crunched failure of a city that had suffered the indignity of its historical places being ripped out for poorly-thought-out highway projects. A chronically depressed waterfront had been converted first to parking lots, then to high-rise apartment and office space; an architecturally conservative but rich city had disappeared under haphazardly built skyscrapers and prematurely decaying public works. And yet it still provides a view of places that in some ways haven't changed at all over the years, like Park Street, or places like Boylston St. near the Common that have changed profoundly yet are still very recognizable.

It's not as good a book as its successor, Cityscapes of Boston, as it has a tendency to avoid some things that were too weird (the Borders bookstore on School and Washington where I used to work -- used to be the Five Cent Savings Bank) or too blighted, and shots of some notorious Boston events like the Great Molasses Flood are missing, but it's still a very interesting book. I do hope Vanderwarker and Campbell have a third book in the works to cover Boston during and after the Big Dig, but get this one and Cityscapes together anyway before your next walk around Boston.

Spenser's caustic sense of humor made this book an easy read with many twists. Parker keeps you guessing as to the outcome every time. As for someone who grew up watching the "Spenser For Hire" Television show, this was a fun read for me. I am looking forward to reading the rest of Parker's books.