Playmates (Spenser, No 16)

The setting for this Spenser novel is the Taft college basketball team that is challenging for the NCAA title. A story has been published in the campus paper alleging that some of the players are engaged in point shaving. Dwayne Woodcock is on the team and the best college basketball player in the country. He is a tough, underprivileged man from Brooklyn and a man of street principles. Spenser is asked to investigate and while it takes a bit of time, after studying game tapes and looking over the records of the games, he concludes that Dwayne is shaving points. Being Spenser, he encounters the gambler behind the plot and the gambler hires people to kill Spenser, which of course fails miserably. As he continues his investigation, Spenser learns that Dwayne does not know how to read and there has been a go-along plot among the faculty at Taft to keep Dwayne eligible. Nobody specifically changed grades, just gave Dwayne extra opportunities to succeed where reading was not required. After working the problem for some time, Spenser manages to find a solution where no one learns of the point shaving or the complicity of others in the scam. My favorite character in the book is the Taft basketball coach, Dixie Dunham. A fiery guy who demands a lot from his players, he makes the mistake of fighting with Spenser. However, after he gets beat up, he agrees to cooperate with Spenser and even benches Dwayne during the NCAA tournament when he will not give the name of the gambler. Despite all of his bluster and obnoxiousness, Dunham proves to be an honest man who does the right thing, even if it will cost him the national title. This is a good book with Spenser once again proving to be a thug with a moral compass and an overgrown sense of decency. As an academic, I could also relate to the attitude of the faculty and staff at Taft. While there is no overt bending of the rules for an athlete, s/he is quietly helped along a path that avoids their weaknesses.

This is a bit of a relief after the very intense predecesser. Here, you're dealing primarily with point shaving in college basketball, not with serial murderers.However, as usual in a Spenser novel, there's more here than just the primary plot. There's insight into racial relations, a theme that Parker explores deeper in the later PASTIME. There's also the very human theme concerning dealing with a person who's abilities you admire, but who is an insufferable so-and-so.It's a typical fast read and yet leaves you with a feeling that you've picked up something of value from the reading.

In this edition of the exploits of Spenser and Hawk, it appears that there is a case of points shaving going on involving Tate University?s basketball team. The faculty board employs Spenser to investigate the allegation and report to them. As soon as he begins to dig, he receives a warning to back off or he will be killed. Although the threat was delivered in the nicest, most charming way, it only prompts him to dig harder and this brings the ever-reliable Hawk onto the case.I was particularly amused at the outrage expressed by Spenser when he discovered the paltry sum his would-be assassins were being paid to take him out. What an insult, such a blow to the ego. You feel that Spenser and Hawk are always in control of the situation, no matter how dire or what the odds are. Not very realistic, true, but hey, it?s very entertaining and that?s what counts. The original sharp tongued, smooth and competent private investigator with the faithful sidekick/partner, Spenser books are always great reading and this is no exception.

This is the first Spenser novel I have read, and I think I am off to a good start. I never really watched the tv show and I don't know if it was indicative of the books. I am a big fan of both Harlan Coben and Robert Crais and I feel that their characters and sidekicks are very similar to Spenser and Hawk. Obviously Parker's novels precede those two authors, so I have to say he originated a good trend of the witty private detective and his cool but dangerous partner. I am also a big sports fan, so this book was all the more appealing. It's a quick read, so pick it up.

This was the first of many Spenser novels I've read and I must say, It was fantastic. The characters are3 so alive and the character development was just marvelous. The subject of point shaving in college basketball was a good subject to write about since it probably happens all the time. A 5 star rate book