Once upon a time, in a college far, far away, I had a Creative Writing Professor declare "Write what you know."

If this is the case, there are two things Robert B. Parker knows.

First, how to find food just about anywhere, how to eat in nearly every chapter, even if it is just a cinammon bun. Seriously, the references to food, to coffee, and other edible things just get annoying. It is almost as if he has to insert something to fill in the spaces between his witty dialogue. Judging by Parker's references to food (and the picture on the back of his books) Parker must know something about eating. and eating.. and eating.

Second, the pain of being cheated on must have been very real for Mr. Parker. Since both Jesse Stone and Spenser have relationship problems, severe hurt, because of being cheated on by their ex-wifes or significant other. This hurt plays such a significant part in the dialogue and characterization of Spenser (and Stone in the Jesse Stone novels) that the reader has to believe that Parker was really an emotional mess.

This time, Parker does a good job of throwing up a mystery, this time sort of interesting. A cheating wife of an F.B.I. agent and a revolutionary with a mysterious past. Spenser does a good job of investigating and resolving the mystery, but once again, Spenser sets up the bad guys, gets into a huge shootout and that's just about the extent of the novel. A modern-day western novel.. with a big shootout climax... And once again, Spenser manages to skate away without any legal consequences, because in Parker's fantasy world that's what happens to the good guys.. the law ignores their illegal activity.

Parker is fun to read.. but his novels all seem the same to me. I won't go out of my way to get ahold of anymore of them, but if they fall into my lap that's okay. They read quickly and are usually a little fun. However, the food references really get annoying..