Small Vices (Spenser Mystery)

Robert Parker writes like a skater on ice who floats effortlessly. He may put a lot of work into his writing, but he does not groan and grunt for our benefit. He presents the reader with polished pieces. This is elegance. I have read a dozen of Parker's books, and enjoyed every one. However, I would say Small Vices is the most heroic, in that this book deals with grand themes. Academics may sneer at mystery novels, or come slumming, but these are our myths for the modern world. If you haven't read the book, please stop reading this review here, because I wouldn't want to spoil anybody's enjoyment. The book has the classic Spenser scenes: the Threat, Displaying the Weapons, Pearl the Wonder Dog, great dialogue, vivid character sketches, and so forth. Spenser is careless, though. He shouldn't have been out running alone with the Grey Man on his trail. Curious. In the end, everybody gets off. Spenser gets off with wounds, the Grey Man gets off without jail, the parents get off, the murderer gets off, the wronged prisoner gets off, and Hawk gets off with no pay for ten months' TLC. The only person who really loses is the victim, and she died happy.

This is my second reading of 'Small Vices'. I'd read it before, years ago, and all I remembered was that this is the one in which Spenser gets himself shot and very nearly killed. (The beauty, I guess, of having so many Spenser novels is that it is hard to keep them all straight so I can go back and re-read them like they're new every few years). If you are familiar with Spenser, most of your favorites see some action. If not, this may be a good one to start with, although I would recommend some of the older ones to begin. The never-aging Spenser lives through an entire year of his life in this one, but don't worry, he still doesn't age. Neither do Hawk or Susan. They're like James Bond in that respect. It used to bug me but I know that I don't want to read about Hawk and Spenser's adventures in a nursing home.

This is one of my favorite Spenser tales. And we love him because . . . . I guess it's kind of that John Wayne feeling, you like to have a big guy around who can always be relied upon to take care of business. Here, he almost fails, and that's the magnetism of Small Vices.Spenser is hired by the now successful, leggy Rita Fiore. There is the usual overt flirting ". . . too bad you didn't . . ." and "Boy, if you only had . . ." and "you had your chance . . " that we've come to chuckle at and with the honorable sleuth.Here he's asked to track down 'the real murderer' which will free a man wrongfully doing life in the hard place.It's hard to pity the imprisoned man Spenser is asked to free. It seems most feel he doesn't really deserve to be freed . . . even the loyal friend Hawk feels that Alves belongs in jail, "either for this crime or one he got away with."But Spenser, who again tells someone his first name but not us, gets too close and takes three slugs to the shoulder, leg and chest.It takes Susan, Hawk, Quirk, Belson, Lee Farrel and Vinnie nearly a year to rehab Spenser, who loses 40 pounds in the process, has a hard time making his limbs do what he wants them to, and basically can't walk. But they do and honor and heroism prevail, villains are suitably thrashed, and Susan and Spenser hook up. Again. And again.There's a lot of vulnerability in Spenser this time. Like Joe Pike in The Last Detective, his body has betrayed him and he is lost. Sadness, even tears. The pages describing Spenser trying to get up the hill in Santa Barbara after again learning how to walk again are riveting. Good stuff.If I had a disappointment, it was Spenser's laissez faire attitude towards Hawk who took a year off to mentor/train/help him. But maybe that's part of the mystique, he knew how he felt and so did Hawk.Great stuff. Rachel Wallace is still #1 for me but Small Vices is a close second.

I give this the highest rating because I consider it one of the important Spenser books. Basically, Spenser is confident that he's going to be better than his adversary, and so when he is nearly killed by an expert, he needs to deal with his mortality. The ironic part of this is that he's working to find out if an absolute loser of a gangbanger is guilty of the murder he's accused of. This novel poses questions both of mortality and of morality. There's the question of how important is "The Truth". Deals are made and those who end up in prison may be more worthwhile to society than those who don't.This is a Spenser novel which, although a quick read, gives you ethical problems to ponder. Very highly recommended.

I have listened to most of the Spenser series in unabrdiged format from my local library, and this certainly ranks as one of the best I've heard.The production version is unquestionably the best. While I have loved Michael Pritchard's voice as Spenser in the past, Burt Reynolds does a remarkable job of portraying all of the Spenser cast. The hardest is always Hawk, and Reynolds brings it off beautifully. The music cues actually add to the novel, which is something I have never heard before in years of listening to books.The story is one of the more imaginitive ones I have yet heard from Parker. A good adversary for Spenser is something I have been longing for, and the "Gray Man" fits the bill. The plot is engaging, we see sides of Spenser and his relationship with Susan previously unexplored, and deeper glimpses of Spenser's friendship with Hawk.And this has got to be the only appearance of a rifle chambered in .458 Magnum in a novel. I gotta know where Parker gets his weapons information.I'd give it 4.5 stars if I could, but I can't, and it's closer to 4.6, so I give it 5. Not perfect, but wonderful. I hated to hear the ending.