The Widening Gyre (Spenser)

This book explores the changes relationships go through while delivering the action/adventure Spenser fans crave. Finally some changes are occuring in his relationship with the too perfect Susan Silverman; this portrayal of her as perfection personified has palled a long time ago. Not enough Hawk though; need more Hawk.

This book is an absolute must-read in the Spenser series. Not that the mystery is all that thrilling; it isn't. No real surprises. But for the development of the character of Spenser, flaws and all, it can't be beat. You may not like Susan - I'm not even sure that Spenser himself really likes her - but this book explains his deathless attachment to her. The theme of less-than-perfect relationships, and commitment to a flawed partner, plays through both the mystery (the wife of a fundamentalist congressman is caught cheating on film, and he is loyal to the point of self-sacrifice) and the interraction between Spenser and his own lady love (Susan sells out). One of the things that elevates Parker above other writers is his attempt to tell a universal truth, as all fine authors do. He doesn't always achieve it, but in this book he does. (Not enough Hawk, though.)

I listened to the unabridged audio cassette of this book, while traveling around town. I prefer not to get the condensed versions of the books where you miss the development of the story and characters and get only the basics. While this book did get a little too sentimental, I have to say that it was for the better. To get the insight into Spenser and how he feels in lieu of always getting the stony detective that defeats all his enemies and solves the crime was interesting. I thought the story itself was intriguing. Okay it wasn't as complicated as plots can be, but I definitely didn't find my interest wandering. I have read one Spenser book and listened to a couple of others on tape, and I have to say that this book will keep me going. If you haven't read or listened to a Spenser book before I do not feel that you will be lost out jumping into this one.

This is the 10th book in the Spenser series.Spenser is hired as a guard on the U.S. Senate campaign of ultra-Christian Meade Alexander. He soon finds out that Alexander is being blackmailed with the threat of making public a video of his wife in bed with a young man. Alexander truly loves his wife and would rather give up his political aspirations than humiliate her.Susan is in the midst of a one-year internship in Washington D.C. for her Ph.D. Spenser goes to D.C. on his case and finds Susan different in significant ways. "Her face was as it had always been: intricate, beautiful, expressive. In the last year somehow it had also become faintly remote, as if always she were listening to a whisper, barely audible, from someplace else: her name, maybe, tiny and hushed." Spenser is also very sensitive concerning the middle-aged women he sees having sex with four "college boys" who are secretly taping the rendesvous. "These women were real, with the fine roughening of skin here and there, the tiny sag at the breast, the small folds across the stomach that real women, and men, have. . . . That kind of vulnerability shouldn't be handed around. It was for someone who loved you and was vulnerable too."