Well, I'm surprised. Having read every Robert B. Parker Spenser novel, I didn't expect that anyone could pick up where Parker left off and do it so well. The pacing and rhythms felt natural and just like Parker's. The descriptions and word choice were just like Parker at the top of his game. And the book has everything a long time fan of Spenser would appreciate, such as lots of Hawk, nods to earlier books, plenty of recurring supporting cast, and solid action along the way. Some things might have actually been improved over Parker's more recent Spenser novels: there were fewer Spenser/Susan banter/recaps (which get old after awhile), there was more violence, action, and peril (which had been phased out in the last few years), and the "he/she said" and "I said"s have be trimmed way down (which when you read these books aloud, like I do, is a tremendous blessing. If anything was not up to Parker snuff it was the amount and quality of the humor. Don't get me wrong, I did laugh and felt like the wisecracks were up to snuff for Spenser, but it just wasn't quite as funny as I remember Parker's dialogue being. This may be a very subjective thing, so don't be deterred by my opinion. I noticed too that Pearl didn't get much attention here, which ties in with the humor comment since Parker often used Pearl for humor. All and all, I am impressed. One last note about the profane language: that seemed more extreme than I remembered it being before. However, the enemies are organized crime thugs which have to be characterized as foul-mouthed (it's a rule or something). On the other hand, the young girl who hires Spenser has a pretty foul mouth as well. That made me uncomfortable. The language is a big problem when reading aloud to your wife, so I had to work pretty hard at editing as I read. And that decreased the fun a bit. This is probably a non-issue though for the average Spenser reader.