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Title: Good dialogue, undeveloped plot
Review: I have read several of the Spenser books. This one started very promisingly, with witty dialogue and an interesting background. But about halfway through the book, the plot gave out. Spenser gets a lucky (too lucky) break when he spots a certain photograph, but the thread it offers to unravel the mystery is only minimally drawn out. The murdered woman remains a cipher to the end, her secrets barely unveiled. Too many secondary characters are mere page-filling red herrings (the sexy secretary, the sexy Southern detective, the overaggressive teenager). The murderer eventually just confesses his/her guilt to a passive Spenser. And, worst of all, at the last moment, to create the illusion of closure, the author invents a new, unrelated crime, both nameless and motivationless, so that Spenser can have one of the suspects arrested in a sham climax. A good premise gone nowhere.
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