Title: Spenser, we hardly knew ya ...
Product review: RBP's best works (with Spenser of course) take the world as it exists, poke fun at the pretension found there, and provide surprising Spenserian solutions to crimes, situations, etc. that are based on a view of justice that is wise, pragmatic and morally pure. In HM however (and some of Parker's other more recent efforts) the emphasis is on sexual situations, PC, and recycled 'cute' repartee. Spenser himself is more pretentious than real and the reader hopes that his main squeeze (Susan Silverman, a PhD Harvard shrink who is vanity personified) will float down the drain as she sits in the sink putting on her makeup.What's wrong here? The plot is ludicrous, Spenser is sleep-walking, Hawk is in Paris, Tedy (who appears as a Spenser sidekick in at least one other RBP effort) is a PC cardboard character, and Susan is too much with us. There is little action and no suspense, and the conclusion is unsatisfying by almost any measure.
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