A Savage Place

To this point, Spenser's adventures have been (relatively) light-hearted - some kidnappings, shake-downs, things of that nature. However, when he travels to Tinseltown to work as a bodyguard for Candy Sloan, an up-and-coming young investigative reporter on the trail of corruption in a movie studio who has been threatened, things turn very serious, very fast. The very first night he is in town, after Candy drops him off at his hotel - assuring him she will be fine on her own this first night - she gets grabbed off the street and beat up. Not too much later, a man she has been seeing is murdered. I don't want to get into more than this, as I do not want to ruin the story for those who have not read it - but this is not a story with a shiny-happy feel to it - this is detective noir at its grittiest. Beautifully envisioned, wonderfully written - filled with Spenser wise-cracks - but dark and gritty nonetheless. I loved it. This is life. Thank you, Robert Parker, for giving us this day our Spenser.

Who could wash clean in a savage place. Who decided Spenser was too perfect. Parker? A reader? An editor? Who would have the John Galt clarity to dictate Spenser's path through literary annals and genre pitfalls. Galt would have the clarity but, by character, couldn't dictate. Whatever the concept or motivation, the result was another good story; I can go with perfect or imperfect. This one was a soul wash, and left me pensive long past the last lines. Paul Giacomin's EARLY AUTUMN (# 7 in series) had blown away with crisp golden leaves. He was off-stage developing his dance; the Shrug had Shuffled. New York was yesterday; today it was L. A., in THE SAVAGE PLACE, # 8 in series. Spenser's views of cultural geographics were, of course, always a gas. A kick. A fun farce of the first fizz water. Until the heavy rain drained the fizz, the fuzz did the dilemma, and Spenser flew. Yeah, there was symbolism in that, which came quietly when the read was done. Candy Sloan was a good name for a California blond "bimbo" who slid out of the stereotype by not being broke in the brawny brains bailiwick. Would she escape her feminine fate? Since Spenser was again playing the bodyguard, this time to a News Anchor, SAVAGE gave an interesting contrast to LOOKING FOR RACHEL WALLACE (# 6 in series), especially since Rachel referred Spenser to the case (giving a small, scrumptious sample of their past repartee ripping along phone lines). How many different angles could the X Chromosome carry? Only Spenser would know? His Shadow was still sleuthing. The relationship between Candy and Spenser developed with sensual starts, spurts, and a few "slim pickings," providing contrasts to his so far female connections, and expanding the underpinnings of his soul-mate code. I was intrigued by the way Parker played the Spenser ethics off "his and hers" choices, actions, and justifications. Candy was as different as "day-and-night," blond and brunette, etc., compared to Suze, and who could help comparing? Observing the differences I flashed to Brenda Loring and the previous novel's mention of Spenser's receipt of an invitation to her wedding, which he noted studying for a long time. Of course all that caused a care to contrast the three characters. Given Parker's established subtle complexities of composition, I continued to wonder how much the name Candy would relate to cultural implications of the term. Was she a contrast to the salt developing with Susan? Was she a sweet to balance the sour of losing Brenda, even though Spenser realized that his life partnerships were evolving as they should and must? And, of course you had the social-situational-tragicomedies, the thematic surety. Here was an ambitious news anchor lady working beyond her name to get a name. When she bagged her serious "mob bought" story would she change her name to Caramel? To Creme Brulee? One of my favorite scenes which was worked toward a chapter's closing line, occurred in SAVAGE, ab

In many ways, Spenser is just another tough private detective. He is good with his fists and will not hesitate to kill anyone who gets in his way. The plots and villainous characters are not terribly unique and in this case the client is the standard lovely lady in distress. However, what distinguishes Spenser from other fictional detectives is the quality of the dialogue. He is a habitual smart aleck, forever doing what he can to offend friend and foe. Those on his side are charmed by it; his opponents relish the chance to beat his head in. In this story, a beautiful TV reporter named Candy Sloan is investigating corruption in the Hollywood movie industry. Spenser takes the job as her bodyguard and Candy proves to be a very determined woman, willing to use her body to extract the information she needs. Spenser handles himself well, but Candy is not as clever as she thinks and she is murdered. At that point Spenser continues on the job, tracking down the murdered and completing the case. Despite all of his macho antics, Spenser is an intelligent, honest man who will risk his life in an attempt to see that justice is done. The combination of intelligent dialog and noble actions are what makes the Spenser novels my favorite series of detective fiction.

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.