A boilerplate mystery, for a change.

Blue Screen by Robert B. Parker

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Some books are meant to be savored, each word rolled around in your head like fine wine over your palate. Then there are books meant to be devoured whole, like a cold beer on a hot summer afternoon, refreshing, generic, and eminently satisfying.

This was one of the latter. The late author was famous for creating Spenser, of the TV show Spenser for Hire. (people used to say I looked like Robert Urich.) In this book, he writes from the perspective of a female detective, Sunny Randall. It is full of smartass dialogue from Sunny and all the other characters, a not so complicated mystery, and sex between chapters. That means that the leadup to Sunny getting laid is the end of one chapter and the aftermath is the next. I liked that. Less gratuitous than the explicit crap a lot of writers seem to feel they need, but still fun. None of the book was particularly realistic, but it was a fun ride and well constructed.



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