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Spenser #27
Hugger Mugger
Parker presents Spenser with a deceptively dangerous and multi-layered case: Someone has been killing racehorses at stables across the south, and the Boston P.I. travels to Georgia to protect the two-year-old destined to become the next Secretariat.
When Spenser is approached by Walter Clive, president of Three Fillies Stables, to find out who is threatening his horse Hugger Mugger, he can hardly say no: He's been doing pro bono work for so long his cupboards are just about bare. Disregarding the resentment of the local Georgia law enforcement, Spenser takes the case. Though Clive has hired a separate security firm, he wants someone with Spenser's experience to supervise the operation.
Despite a veneer of civility, Spenser encounters tensions beneath the surface southern gentility. The case takes an even more deadly turn when the attacker claims a human victim, and Spenser must revise his impressions of the whole Three Fillies organization--and watch his own back as well.
With razor-sharp dialogue, eloquently spare prose, and some of the best supporting characters to grace the printed page, Hugger Mugger is grand entertainment.
When Spenser is approached by Walter Clive, president of Three Fillies Stables, to find out who is threatening his horse Hugger Mugger, he can hardly say no: He's been doing pro bono work for so long his cupboards are just about bare. Disregarding the resentment of the local Georgia law enforcement, Spenser takes the case. Though Clive has hired a separate security firm, he wants someone with Spenser's experience to supervise the operation.
Despite a veneer of civility, Spenser encounters tensions beneath the surface southern gentility. The case takes an even more deadly turn when the attacker claims a human victim, and Spenser must revise his impressions of the whole Three Fillies organization--and watch his own back as well.
With razor-sharp dialogue, eloquently spare prose, and some of the best supporting characters to grace the printed page, Hugger Mugger is grand entertainment.
307 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2000
415 people are currently reading
1211 people want to read
About the author
Robert B. Parker
489 books2,296 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database named Robert B. Parker.
Robert Brown Parker was an American writer, primarily of fiction within the mystery/detective genre. His most famous works were the 40 novels written about the fictional private detective Spenser. ABC television network developed the television series Spenser: For Hire based on the character in the mid-1980s; a series of TV movies was also produced based on the character. His works incorporate encyclopedic knowledge of the Boston metropolitan area. The Spenser novels have been cited as reviving and changing the detective genre by critics and bestselling authors including Robert Crais, Harlan Coben, and Dennis Lehane.
Parker also wrote nine novels featuring the fictional character Jesse Stone, a Los Angeles police officer who moves to a small New England town; six novels with the fictional character Sunny Randall, a female private investigator; and four Westerns starring the duo Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. The first was Appaloosa, made into a film starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen.
Robert Brown Parker was an American writer, primarily of fiction within the mystery/detective genre. His most famous works were the 40 novels written about the fictional private detective Spenser. ABC television network developed the television series Spenser: For Hire based on the character in the mid-1980s; a series of TV movies was also produced based on the character. His works incorporate encyclopedic knowledge of the Boston metropolitan area. The Spenser novels have been cited as reviving and changing the detective genre by critics and bestselling authors including Robert Crais, Harlan Coben, and Dennis Lehane.
Parker also wrote nine novels featuring the fictional character Jesse Stone, a Los Angeles police officer who moves to a small New England town; six novels with the fictional character Sunny Randall, a female private investigator; and four Westerns starring the duo Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. The first was Appaloosa, made into a film starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 316 reviews
September 16, 2017
I somehow skipped this book in the Spenser canon, and once I had read it, I wished that I’d read it much sooner. It’s as if Parker longed to return to the early days of Spenser, and wrote a throwback. He sheds — for the largest part — most of the formulaic earmarks of the series readers have come to expect at this point — i.e. Boston, because this one is set in rural Georgia, and Hawk, who is in France with a woman. There is a phone conversation with the most interesting character in the series, Vinnie, and with Captain Martin Quirk, for nostalgia’s sake, but overall this is more like the early books in the series.
The vain and annoying Susan Silverman is still around, of course — just to make Spenser appear like a love-sick wuss, apparently — but it’s easy to glide over the couple's snobbish banter — lustful and otherwise — and just enjoy the refreshing Georgia setting and an array of interesting characters. The most interesting of them is Penny, who Spenser — and the reader — initially find adorable. So much so, that I heaved a wistful sigh that this wasn't an early entry in the series, because like Linda in Valediction, she is, at least at first, a breath of fresh air, and it was certainly no mistake that Parker wrote her that way. Even the ending is refreshing in this one, with a conclusion more Ross Macdonald in nature than Parker, as if he is doing some vague homage to him.
In essence, though this is about Georgia horse country, and horse racing, it is more about a Georgia family of immense wealth and social standing which is as damaged and dysfunctional as it is powerful — Ross Macdonald territory. There is even an enjoyable and unexpected detour when Spenser is booted off the Georgia case and returns to Boston. What transpires back on familiar turf again harkens back to the early Spensers. Also woven into the fabric of the narrative is a nice trip to San Francisco to question an aging flower-power child. It turns out to be more important to the story than we’d thought.
Parker creates great atmosphere in this one, and in tune with the setting, makes the pace more languid than usual. This serves to give Parker room to write a story a bit more nuanced than many of the later formulaic entries. I can definitely see fans of the series being divided on this one, especially if they're not fans of Lew Archer, but I enjoyed it a lot. I'm probably giving this one an extra star, just because Parker changed the setting, seemed to be paying some sort of vague homage to Ross Macdonald, and because of Penny.
Hugger Mugger begins with Spenser hired to find out who is shooting at race horses, and for a while, this one appears to come up lame. If you stay with it, however, it makes a quick move along the inside rail during the final furlong, and by a nose becomes one of the better entries in the series.
The vain and annoying Susan Silverman is still around, of course — just to make Spenser appear like a love-sick wuss, apparently — but it’s easy to glide over the couple's snobbish banter — lustful and otherwise — and just enjoy the refreshing Georgia setting and an array of interesting characters. The most interesting of them is Penny, who Spenser — and the reader — initially find adorable. So much so, that I heaved a wistful sigh that this wasn't an early entry in the series, because like Linda in Valediction, she is, at least at first, a breath of fresh air, and it was certainly no mistake that Parker wrote her that way. Even the ending is refreshing in this one, with a conclusion more Ross Macdonald in nature than Parker, as if he is doing some vague homage to him.
In essence, though this is about Georgia horse country, and horse racing, it is more about a Georgia family of immense wealth and social standing which is as damaged and dysfunctional as it is powerful — Ross Macdonald territory. There is even an enjoyable and unexpected detour when Spenser is booted off the Georgia case and returns to Boston. What transpires back on familiar turf again harkens back to the early Spensers. Also woven into the fabric of the narrative is a nice trip to San Francisco to question an aging flower-power child. It turns out to be more important to the story than we’d thought.
Parker creates great atmosphere in this one, and in tune with the setting, makes the pace more languid than usual. This serves to give Parker room to write a story a bit more nuanced than many of the later formulaic entries. I can definitely see fans of the series being divided on this one, especially if they're not fans of Lew Archer, but I enjoyed it a lot. I'm probably giving this one an extra star, just because Parker changed the setting, seemed to be paying some sort of vague homage to Ross Macdonald, and because of Penny.
Hugger Mugger begins with Spenser hired to find out who is shooting at race horses, and for a while, this one appears to come up lame. If you stay with it, however, it makes a quick move along the inside rail during the final furlong, and by a nose becomes one of the better entries in the series.
August 23, 2018
Do you know how some network television shows, after being on the air for years, seemed to be running on fumes, basically cutting and pasting tried and true character and plot devises around a barebones story line?
We’ll the Spenser series at this point was taking long drags from the oxygen tank. It was basically getting by on wit, charm and the ennui inducing familiar. I’ve enjoyed these books over the years, especially the early ones where he gave the PI genre a much needed goosing, but the later stuff, exemplified by this volume, was Parker on automatic pilot.
As I read this volume and got to certain parts – woman gets flirty with Spenser, Spenser, the big lug, demurs; Spenser and his girlfriend exchange retch-inducing cutie/sex talk; Spenser and the good guy sidekick exchange cutie/tough guy talk; Spenser talks his way through giving a bad guy a beat-down; the job Spenser was original hired for goes south in a big way (read: somebody gets murdered); Spenser eats donuts – a small clarion-like sound tripped off in my brain. The clarion-like sound of familiarity. It’s like driving to work every day, seeing the same scenery and buildings and acknowledging, yet briefly, that everything is still in its place, yet wishing secretly for the apocalypse.
The plot: Spenser gets hired by some guy to protect a horse from getting shot. Things don’t go as planned for Spenser; yet, pretty much follow the same well-worn path for the reader.
At this point in his career, maybe Parker should have changed it up a bit and wrote some Westerns.
Or maybe Spenser could have learned to play the banjo.
I realize I’m being an incredible hypocrite after what I’ve previously typed above, but I’m giving it three stars anyway because sometimes we all need a little bit of the comfortable and familiar.
Favorite inexplicably oft repeated phrase (I stopped counting around the seventh time): “I/he gestured for more coffee”. I don’t know why this struck me. Maybe it’s because I dig coffee.
We’ll the Spenser series at this point was taking long drags from the oxygen tank. It was basically getting by on wit, charm and the ennui inducing familiar. I’ve enjoyed these books over the years, especially the early ones where he gave the PI genre a much needed goosing, but the later stuff, exemplified by this volume, was Parker on automatic pilot.
As I read this volume and got to certain parts – woman gets flirty with Spenser, Spenser, the big lug, demurs; Spenser and his girlfriend exchange retch-inducing cutie/sex talk; Spenser and the good guy sidekick exchange cutie/tough guy talk; Spenser talks his way through giving a bad guy a beat-down; the job Spenser was original hired for goes south in a big way (read: somebody gets murdered); Spenser eats donuts – a small clarion-like sound tripped off in my brain. The clarion-like sound of familiarity. It’s like driving to work every day, seeing the same scenery and buildings and acknowledging, yet briefly, that everything is still in its place, yet wishing secretly for the apocalypse.
The plot: Spenser gets hired by some guy to protect a horse from getting shot. Things don’t go as planned for Spenser; yet, pretty much follow the same well-worn path for the reader.
At this point in his career, maybe Parker should have changed it up a bit and wrote some Westerns.
Or maybe Spenser could have learned to play the banjo.
I realize I’m being an incredible hypocrite after what I’ve previously typed above, but I’m giving it three stars anyway because sometimes we all need a little bit of the comfortable and familiar.
Favorite inexplicably oft repeated phrase (I stopped counting around the seventh time): “I/he gestured for more coffee”. I don’t know why this struck me. Maybe it’s because I dig coffee.
February 15, 2019
Spenser is hired by Walter Clive, the owner of the Three Fillies Racing Stable in Georgia, to find out who has been shooting at his horses. He is particularly worried about the two-year-old thoroughbred Hugger Mugger, who has the temperament and instincts of a champion. Clive has hired a firm to guard the horses, but wants these apparently random attacks to stop, and figures Spenser is just the man to do it.
Soon Spenser is enmeshed in family intrigue, featuring the three fillies themselves, widower Clive’s grown daughters (daddy’s favorite, the single lady who runs the business, plus her two randy sisters and their feckless husbands), their hippie "artistic" mother from San Francisco, and Clive’s mistress Dolly (who unabashedly describes herself as a “courtesan”). Eventually one of the family ends up dead, and Spenser begins to suspect this case isn’t really about horses at all.
Hugger Mugger is an enjoyable entry in the long-running Spenser series. The mystery itself is absorbing, the characters sharply drawn, the murderer a bit of a surprise. There is even a subplot, short and diverting, which is thematically related to the Three Fillies mystery. Also, this is the novel where we are introduced to Tedy Sapp, a local Georgia bouncer and protector of the gay community, who turns out to be almost as tough as Hawk.
Oh, I have a confession to make. I may just be getting old and soft, but I’m beginning to like gal pal Susan more and more in these later books. In Hugger Mugger she actually does important things besides periodically satisfying our hero's desires: she helps Spencer interview the hippie mother, makes a few choice observations, and —most important— she reveals to Spenser the philosophical significance of the subplot, thus making it possible for him to solve the Case of the Three Fillies. (Yeah, I know. He probably would have solved it anyway. But still.)
There is a downside, though. Although the resolution of the plot is effective, the book sort of runs out of gas in the last couple of chapters. The writing sounds tired, the ending is brief and anti-climactic.
Still, taken as a whole, the book is entertaining. You could do a whole lot worse.
August 6, 2016
Spenser tracks down a vicious mugger who has been terrorizing Boston, and then he gives him a great big hug.
No, I was just making sure you were paying attention. Actually Spenser gets hired by Walter Clive who is the wealthy owner of a racing horse stable in Georgia. Someone has shot several of Clive’s horses, and an attempt was made on his prized thoroughbred named Hugger Mugger. Spenser journeys south but the attacks on the horses seem so bizarrely random that finding a suspect is impossible. Also, he's hampered by Clive’s dysfunctional family that has all kinds of secrets as well as an overzealous security chief.
We’re well into that last stage of Spenser where I’d realized that I should stop buying the books in hardback when they came out, but not where the wheels had completely fallen off the wagon. There’s a fair amount of annoying Susan stuff and some familiar scenes like a drunken woman hitting on Spenser, but all in all, it’s not too shabby. No Hawk in this one either and that almost always makes for a less enjoyable book. However, the mystery is decent enough, and RBP introduced another interesting new friend for Spenser in the form of Tedy Sapp, the proud homosexual ex-cop turned gay nightclub bouncer.
There’s also some oddness to the story structure in this one. Spenser goes down to Georgia and investigates, some stuff happens and he ends up off the case. He drops the whole thing and does an odd little job back in Boston involving a nanny being stalked by an ex-boyfriend. Then he gets re-hired and returns to the original problem.
It’s almost like RBP came up with the whole horse shooting scenario, got into it, but then couldn’t figure out what to have Spenser do with it, so he sent him home while he came up with a new plot because what occurs in the first and second halves of the book could be unrelated cases despite the same characters being involved.
Oh, and there’s this.
Another adequate but uninspired late entry in the series.
Next up: Spenser does his own remake of The Magnificent Seven in Potshot.
No, I was just making sure you were paying attention. Actually Spenser gets hired by Walter Clive who is the wealthy owner of a racing horse stable in Georgia. Someone has shot several of Clive’s horses, and an attempt was made on his prized thoroughbred named Hugger Mugger. Spenser journeys south but the attacks on the horses seem so bizarrely random that finding a suspect is impossible. Also, he's hampered by Clive’s dysfunctional family that has all kinds of secrets as well as an overzealous security chief.
We’re well into that last stage of Spenser where I’d realized that I should stop buying the books in hardback when they came out, but not where the wheels had completely fallen off the wagon. There’s a fair amount of annoying Susan stuff and some familiar scenes like a drunken woman hitting on Spenser, but all in all, it’s not too shabby. No Hawk in this one either and that almost always makes for a less enjoyable book. However, the mystery is decent enough, and RBP introduced another interesting new friend for Spenser in the form of Tedy Sapp, the proud homosexual ex-cop turned gay nightclub bouncer.
There’s also some oddness to the story structure in this one. Spenser goes down to Georgia and investigates, some stuff happens and he ends up off the case. He drops the whole thing and does an odd little job back in Boston involving a nanny being stalked by an ex-boyfriend. Then he gets re-hired and returns to the original problem.
It’s almost like RBP came up with the whole horse shooting scenario, got into it, but then couldn’t figure out what to have Spenser do with it, so he sent him home while he came up with a new plot because what occurs in the first and second halves of the book could be unrelated cases despite the same characters being involved.
Oh, and there’s this.
Another adequate but uninspired late entry in the series.
Next up: Spenser does his own remake of The Magnificent Seven in Potshot.
May 5, 2023
As anybody knows who has read a few Spenser novels as written by the late Robert B Parker 75 percent of these books are generally witty banter with Spenser talking to himself, Susan or somebody else currently involved in de case Du jour.
This one is about somebody shooting horses somewhere in the beautiful state of Georgia. It takes our PI away from his comfort zone and the usual crowd he associates with. With the exception of Suzan his love and headshrinker extraordinary, he shares banter and his body with her.
Spenser is not very successful with the horse assassin and gets fired after his employer meets an unfortunate ending while meeting this horse shooter. And this is what happens one third into the book, so another two thirds towards a solution has to be read.
Robert B Parkers heroes talk a lot before you receive an answer to the puzzle that was created solely for our pleasure and on this case the solution may not be to anybody’s liking. But crimestopping is not always a black and white picture, it’s these darned shades of grey that make life so much more interesting.
Another stay in a pleasurable Spenser world, by the way the title of this book is the name of a horse that was supposed to be targeted.
Please enjoy this book as it is meant to be enjoyed, not taking it too serious.
This one is about somebody shooting horses somewhere in the beautiful state of Georgia. It takes our PI away from his comfort zone and the usual crowd he associates with. With the exception of Suzan his love and headshrinker extraordinary, he shares banter and his body with her.
Spenser is not very successful with the horse assassin and gets fired after his employer meets an unfortunate ending while meeting this horse shooter. And this is what happens one third into the book, so another two thirds towards a solution has to be read.
Robert B Parkers heroes talk a lot before you receive an answer to the puzzle that was created solely for our pleasure and on this case the solution may not be to anybody’s liking. But crimestopping is not always a black and white picture, it’s these darned shades of grey that make life so much more interesting.
Another stay in a pleasurable Spenser world, by the way the title of this book is the name of a horse that was supposed to be targeted.
Please enjoy this book as it is meant to be enjoyed, not taking it too serious.
March 16, 2013
O Parker, you must have had an idea for this book but could not put it all together. A very weak 3 stars, ladies and gentlemen. In a way, I am pained after reading this novel. All of the quirky Parkerisms are present: pithy dialogue, interesting set pieces, Susan and her psychobabble (although I could live without this), and Spenser and his humor. But the pieces all seemed to be forced into place. For me, Parker said to himself: "I have an interesting idea for a novel. It is going to take place in Georgia, and it's going to involve horses." After that, he just started writing and soon found that he really did not know the details of this story. Perhaps leaving the confines of Boston put Parker off his game, I don't know.
The story itself appears straightforward: a gunman is shooting horses at the Three Fillies Stables. Spenser is called to investigate. That's about it. Sure there are other aspects of the story: infidelity, poisonous relationships (marriages), haunting pasts, crooked security officers, and the meeting of Tedy Sapp who makes his debut in the Parkerverse. But all of these elements were lackluster, boring, dare I say, droll. For me, the titular horse, HUGGER MUGGER, was more interesting than most of the supporting cast in this one. Which is pretty sad because Hugger graces very few pages.
The dust jacket proclaims that this novel is filled with "razor-sharp dialogue, eloquently spare prose, [with] some of the best supporting characters to grace the printed page." I wish I would have read that book instead of this one.
Perhaps I missed something. But for the life of me I cannot say what that would be. If anything, read this one to complete the series.
RECOMMENDED (to complete the series only)
The story itself appears straightforward: a gunman is shooting horses at the Three Fillies Stables. Spenser is called to investigate. That's about it. Sure there are other aspects of the story: infidelity, poisonous relationships (marriages), haunting pasts, crooked security officers, and the meeting of Tedy Sapp who makes his debut in the Parkerverse. But all of these elements were lackluster, boring, dare I say, droll. For me, the titular horse, HUGGER MUGGER, was more interesting than most of the supporting cast in this one. Which is pretty sad because Hugger graces very few pages.
The dust jacket proclaims that this novel is filled with "razor-sharp dialogue, eloquently spare prose, [with] some of the best supporting characters to grace the printed page." I wish I would have read that book instead of this one.
Perhaps I missed something. But for the life of me I cannot say what that would be. If anything, read this one to complete the series.
RECOMMENDED (to complete the series only)
July 18, 2019
This was an interesting read and I consider Robert Parker to be in the same class with Lawrence Sanders and James Handley Chase.
May 30, 2017
(The word "maroon" appears 7 times in this novel)
Hmmm.... The who-dunnit and pacing of the story are good, but the resolution is terrible. It's like Parker suddenly got tired of the story and just left it almost incomplete Coitus Interruptus-style... And the villains don't appear again in subsequent books, as far as I can tell...
There were some good quotes, and some good interactions between the characters, and a delicious femme-fatale. Delroy was not developed enough as a character, nor were several other important people.
I did love the phrase chronometric dyslexia Spenser uses in describing Susan's tardiness.
One thing I must thank Parker for is having Spenser mention "I know why the caged bird sings". Because of this, I finally felt I needed to know the origin of the phrase. Quite an exquisite poem...
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)
Sympathy
I KNOW what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals —
I know what the caged bird feels!
I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting —
I know why he beats his wing!
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings —
I know why the caged bird sings!
Nice quotes below...
Hmmm.... The who-dunnit and pacing of the story are good, but the resolution is terrible. It's like Parker suddenly got tired of the story and just left it almost incomplete Coitus Interruptus-style... And the villains don't appear again in subsequent books, as far as I can tell...
There were some good quotes, and some good interactions between the characters, and a delicious femme-fatale. Delroy was not developed enough as a character, nor were several other important people.
I did love the phrase chronometric dyslexia Spenser uses in describing Susan's tardiness.
One thing I must thank Parker for is having Spenser mention "I know why the caged bird sings". Because of this, I finally felt I needed to know the origin of the phrase. Quite an exquisite poem...
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)
Sympathy
I KNOW what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals —
I know what the caged bird feels!
I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting —
I know why he beats his wing!
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings —
I know why the caged bird sings!
Nice quotes below...
April 29, 2023
In 1990, Robert and Joan Parker collaborated on a book called 'A Year at the Races' a non-fiction chronicle of thoroughbred horse racing at a particular stable. Since Parker hated researching for his novels, it was a given that what he learned in that year would show up as background in a Spenser novel. Hugger Mugger is the name of the thoroughbred horse at the centre of the novel; the phrase hugger mugger denotes confusion or a muddle.
Spenser is hired to go to Georgia in the summer to look into a series of mysterious shootings of horses. The wealthy Clive family are the clients, looking to protect their valuable horse, Hugger Mugger, but when Spenser starts his investigation, the family themselves turn out to be the focus. Walter Clive has three daughters: Penny, the competent one who helps her father run the business, and Stoni and SueSue who act out their frustrations through sex and alcohol abuse. (Their husbands are contributing factors to the family unhappiness who also have sex and alcohol abuse problems- a family that drinks together, falls apart).
I thought the first part of the novel was not Parker at his best - his dependence on the theme of drunken, sexually indiscriminate women as a symbol of family decadence is tired. Stoni's husband is gay and prefers boys, but he was portrayed in a much more sympathetic light than the women. Parker doesn't scorn sexual women - women who are in a committed relationship, like Spenser's girlfriend Susan Silverman, are heroines. Women who are sloppy in their habits, in Parker's world, stand in for (take the blame for) the larger issue of the breakdown of the American family. I am not saying that kind of woman should be the heroine, but I am saying no understanding of that behaviour is offered to balance out the clear condemnation.
The second part of the novel was much better - tighter, funnier and fast-moving, and for that reason I gave the novel three stars. Not Parker's best, but memorable for the introduction of recurring character, Tedy Sapp.
Spenser is hired to go to Georgia in the summer to look into a series of mysterious shootings of horses. The wealthy Clive family are the clients, looking to protect their valuable horse, Hugger Mugger, but when Spenser starts his investigation, the family themselves turn out to be the focus. Walter Clive has three daughters: Penny, the competent one who helps her father run the business, and Stoni and SueSue who act out their frustrations through sex and alcohol abuse. (Their husbands are contributing factors to the family unhappiness who also have sex and alcohol abuse problems- a family that drinks together, falls apart).
I thought the first part of the novel was not Parker at his best - his dependence on the theme of drunken, sexually indiscriminate women as a symbol of family decadence is tired. Stoni's husband is gay and prefers boys, but he was portrayed in a much more sympathetic light than the women. Parker doesn't scorn sexual women - women who are in a committed relationship, like Spenser's girlfriend Susan Silverman, are heroines. Women who are sloppy in their habits, in Parker's world, stand in for (take the blame for) the larger issue of the breakdown of the American family. I am not saying that kind of woman should be the heroine, but I am saying no understanding of that behaviour is offered to balance out the clear condemnation.
The second part of the novel was much better - tighter, funnier and fast-moving, and for that reason I gave the novel three stars. Not Parker's best, but memorable for the introduction of recurring character, Tedy Sapp.
February 2, 2020
Same Spenser but this book was different. No Hawk. They are always better with Hawk. Spenser knee who done it but couldn’t quite finish it. I’m not sure I should have liked it as much as some of Parker’s books, but I did.
July 27, 2020
Hugger Mugger is a very valuable two-year-old racehorse owned by Walter Clive’s Three Fillies Stables in Lamarr, Georgia. Someone has shot several of Walter’s horses, and he is worried that the next target will be Hugger Mugger. Although Walter employs armed security guards to protect the horses, he and his daughter Penny come to Boston to hire Spenser to find the shooter. They tell Spenser he’s been recommended by several people, including the police in Alton, South Carolina, where Spenser worked on a case involving horseman Jumper Jack Nelson, as told in Paper Doll (#20), and wealthy businessman Hugh Dixon, who was Spenser’s client in The Judas Goat (#5) and briefly reappears in A Catskill Eagle (#12).
Spenser has been doing a lot of pro bono work, so a paying case looks good. He likes Walter and is charmed by Penny, so he takes the case. As a result, he spends most of his time in Hugger Mugger away from Boston in hot and humid Georgia. He meets some dysfunctional members of the Clive family and almost immediately tangles with Walter’s security service. But the case is a head-scratcher. There is no apparent pattern to the shootings, and no one can identify any particular enemies of the family or any other obvious suspect.
As Spenser investigates, he finds allies in sheriff’s deputy Dalton Becker and Tedy Sapp, a former policeman who is now a bouncer at a gay bar. Spenser’s interactions with Sapp, who is both tough and compassionate, give him an opportunity to express and demonstrate his enlightened attitudes towards gays. And Becker fills the bromance void left by Hawk’s absence from this book. (Spenser tells Vinnie Morris that Hawk is in France with a woman.) Since Hawk’s relationship with Spenser is one of my favorite aspects of the Spenser series, I was pleased that Becker’s snappy banter with Spenser is just about on par with Hawk’s.
Any Spenser book, of course, must have its allotment of scenes between Spenser and Susan Silverman and the especially cloying scenes in which Spenser is thinking wistfully of Susan. Fortunately, Susan is absent from much of the narrative, and her appearances overall are not quite as annoying as in other books. She provides some psychological insights that Spenser finds useful. Spenser has his usual opportunities to be seduced or give in to lust, but as (almost) always, he refrains because of Susan. Although it’s admirable, I have to admit that sometimes I wish he wouldn’t refrain.
I think that Hugger Mugger is one of the better books in the series, despite Hawk’s absence. It’s filled with Parker’s trademark dialogue, and there’s enough action to keep things interesting. I think it’s good that Parker gets Spenser away from Boston every once in a while and lets readers watch him work a case in less familiar surroundings. Of course, now that Spenser’s spent so much time in Georgia, I have a feeling that Boston will look even better to him.
Spenser has been doing a lot of pro bono work, so a paying case looks good. He likes Walter and is charmed by Penny, so he takes the case. As a result, he spends most of his time in Hugger Mugger away from Boston in hot and humid Georgia. He meets some dysfunctional members of the Clive family and almost immediately tangles with Walter’s security service. But the case is a head-scratcher. There is no apparent pattern to the shootings, and no one can identify any particular enemies of the family or any other obvious suspect.
As Spenser investigates, he finds allies in sheriff’s deputy Dalton Becker and Tedy Sapp, a former policeman who is now a bouncer at a gay bar. Spenser’s interactions with Sapp, who is both tough and compassionate, give him an opportunity to express and demonstrate his enlightened attitudes towards gays. And Becker fills the bromance void left by Hawk’s absence from this book. (Spenser tells Vinnie Morris that Hawk is in France with a woman.) Since Hawk’s relationship with Spenser is one of my favorite aspects of the Spenser series, I was pleased that Becker’s snappy banter with Spenser is just about on par with Hawk’s.
Any Spenser book, of course, must have its allotment of scenes between Spenser and Susan Silverman and the especially cloying scenes in which Spenser is thinking wistfully of Susan. Fortunately, Susan is absent from much of the narrative, and her appearances overall are not quite as annoying as in other books. She provides some psychological insights that Spenser finds useful. Spenser has his usual opportunities to be seduced or give in to lust, but as (almost) always, he refrains because of Susan. Although it’s admirable, I have to admit that sometimes I wish he wouldn’t refrain.
I think that Hugger Mugger is one of the better books in the series, despite Hawk’s absence. It’s filled with Parker’s trademark dialogue, and there’s enough action to keep things interesting. I think it’s good that Parker gets Spenser away from Boston every once in a while and lets readers watch him work a case in less familiar surroundings. Of course, now that Spenser’s spent so much time in Georgia, I have a feeling that Boston will look even better to him.
July 9, 2015
Another good installment in the Spenser series. Something I notice often in the books though, people want Spenser to investigate something or do something, yet they don't want him to ask questions, or get mad when he does. I always love this coming up in the series. How's he supposed to do his job if he doesn't? With what they're all apparently wanting, they're better suited going to Hawk, not Spenser. The book was enjoyable and funny, and all over the place as well as I've come to expect of this series. The audiobook was pretty good and Joe Mantegna did a good job, but I'm a little iffy about his vocal portrayal of Spenser. I guess I'm too used to Robert Urich as Spenser, who had a deeper pitched voice. I find it difficult to truly accept a voice not as deep as his. It didn't impact my enjoyment of the book, just stood out to me. I missed Hawk though, as I've gotten used to him being in the books. He makes for an entertaining addition to every book he's in.
COYER - Read-a-Thon Red, White, and Blue: white lettering on the cover.
COYER - Read any type of crime novel (police procedural, detective, etc.) - detective novel (1 point)
COYER - Read-a-Thon Red, White, and Blue: white lettering on the cover.
COYER - Read any type of crime novel (police procedural, detective, etc.) - detective novel (1 point)
June 11, 2009
Hired to investigate some horse-shootings - and to protect Hugger Mugger, the prize horse at the Three Fillies stable - Spenser is soon caught up in murder, deceit, bath houses, amorous Southern Belles and bent security firms. Briskly told, with a fine atmosphere, this is a real return to form (I stopped reading new Spenser novels in the early 90s, as they felt padded out but this - from 2000 - is a real turnaround). The mystery works well, the wisecracks and put-downs are as funny as ever and there are some good set pieces. Prime Spenser, I really enjoyed this and thoroughly recommend it (though the ending is a bit abrupt).
April 22, 2018
Not as much fun, an actual detective story. Still one of the best in the genre, whatever exactly the heck that means.
September 9, 2024
What a very unsatisfying end and the fact she got away with it is concerning?!? It’s always the innocent looking ones that are the most evil. Yikes!
I know Hugger Mugger is a very Shakespearean name but it’s a dumb name for a racing horse 🐎 😵💫
This book could have done with some editing we definitely didn’t need that middle bit with the nanny and “tough” guy. 🤔🤔🫠
I miss having Hawk around too. He was in France apparently. It was nice to get Spenser out of Boston for a change and have past characters pop up as little Easter eggs. Tedy was a pretty great side character. The cavalier way the Clive family was about pedophilia was a bit gross. This is one messed up family that never really got their comeuppance. Sigh 😑
I know Hugger Mugger is a very Shakespearean name but it’s a dumb name for a racing horse 🐎 😵💫
This book could have done with some editing we definitely didn’t need that middle bit with the nanny and “tough” guy. 🤔🤔🫠
I miss having Hawk around too. He was in France apparently. It was nice to get Spenser out of Boston for a change and have past characters pop up as little Easter eggs. Tedy was a pretty great side character. The cavalier way the Clive family was about pedophilia was a bit gross. This is one messed up family that never really got their comeuppance. Sigh 😑
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 7, 2018
Spenser is employed by a Georgia based horse racing family to look into the shooting of some of their equines. Soon, he's embroiled in the shadows of their dysfunctional family dynamics.
August 7, 2022
After a few pro-bono cases, Spenser takes a sort-of odd one on in order to pay some bills… someone’s shooting horses.
He ends up traveling to the South again (among other places) and as usual, something very strange is afoot. A couple of cooperative locals and a 25 year-old psychopath make for a fun read.
5 stars.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Audio:
Finally: Joe Mantenga … he’s not exactly the best Spenser but … out of the narrators this series has seen, he is by far.
Spenser Reading Order:
1. The Godwulf Manuscript (1973)
2. God Save the Child (1974)
3. Mortal Stakes (1975)
4. Promised Land (1976)
5. The Judas Goat (1978)
6. Looking for Rachel Wallace (1980)
7. Early Autumn (1980)
8. A Savage Place (1981)
9. Ceremony (1982)
10. The Widening Gyre (1983)
11. Valediction (1984)
12. A Catskill Eagle (1985)
13. Taming a Seahorse (1986)
14. Pale Kings and Princes (1987)
15. Crimson Joy (1988)
16. Playmates (1989)
17. Stardust (1990)
18. Pastime (1991)
19. Double Deuce (1991)
20. Paper Doll (1993)
21. Walking Shadow (1994)
22. Thin Air (1995)
23. Chance (1996)
24. Small Vices (1997)
25. Sudden Mischief (1998)
26. Hush Money (1999)
27. Hugger Mugger (2000)
28. Potshot (2001)
29. Widow's Walk (2002)
30. Back Story (2003)
31. Bad Business (2004)
32. Cold Service (2005)
33. School Days (2005)
34. Dream Girl (2006)
35. Now and Then (2007)
36. Rough Weather (2008)
36.5 Chasing the Bear (2009)
37. The Professional (2009)
38. Painted Ladies (2010)
39. Sixkill (2011)
39.5 Silent Night (2013)
Spenser: A Mysterious Profile (2022)
continued in the series by Ace Atkins
He ends up traveling to the South again (among other places) and as usual, something very strange is afoot. A couple of cooperative locals and a 25 year-old psychopath make for a fun read.
5 stars.
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Audio:
Finally: Joe Mantenga … he’s not exactly the best Spenser but … out of the narrators this series has seen, he is by far.
Spenser Reading Order:
1. The Godwulf Manuscript (1973)
2. God Save the Child (1974)
3. Mortal Stakes (1975)
4. Promised Land (1976)
5. The Judas Goat (1978)
6. Looking for Rachel Wallace (1980)
7. Early Autumn (1980)
8. A Savage Place (1981)
9. Ceremony (1982)
10. The Widening Gyre (1983)
11. Valediction (1984)
12. A Catskill Eagle (1985)
13. Taming a Seahorse (1986)
14. Pale Kings and Princes (1987)
15. Crimson Joy (1988)
16. Playmates (1989)
17. Stardust (1990)
18. Pastime (1991)
19. Double Deuce (1991)
20. Paper Doll (1993)
21. Walking Shadow (1994)
22. Thin Air (1995)
23. Chance (1996)
24. Small Vices (1997)
25. Sudden Mischief (1998)
26. Hush Money (1999)
27. Hugger Mugger (2000)
28. Potshot (2001)
29. Widow's Walk (2002)
30. Back Story (2003)
31. Bad Business (2004)
32. Cold Service (2005)
33. School Days (2005)
34. Dream Girl (2006)
35. Now and Then (2007)
36. Rough Weather (2008)
36.5 Chasing the Bear (2009)
37. The Professional (2009)
38. Painted Ladies (2010)
39. Sixkill (2011)
39.5 Silent Night (2013)
Spenser: A Mysterious Profile (2022)
continued in the series by Ace Atkins
June 19, 2021
This definitely was one of the better Spenser books.
Spenser is asked to find out who is shooting horses at the Three Fillies Stables in Atlanta Georgia. He is fired after the guy who hired him is murdered.
Then, he is brought back on to find out who murdered his employer.
Just like most other folks, I am getting sick of Susan too. And I don’t think she was that relevant to the story line. But Parker insists on keeping her part of the plot.
I will admit, I’m not exactly sure if I understand the ending. Did Delroy kill for love? Or is he taking it for the woman he loves?
In this book, Hawk is in Paris and does not play any role in this story at all. I miss him. He should have replaced Susan.
I am contemplating going on to the next book in the series since I so enjoyed this one. I’ll see what the reviews have to say.
Spenser is asked to find out who is shooting horses at the Three Fillies Stables in Atlanta Georgia. He is fired after the guy who hired him is murdered.
Then, he is brought back on to find out who murdered his employer.
Just like most other folks, I am getting sick of Susan too. And I don’t think she was that relevant to the story line. But Parker insists on keeping her part of the plot.
I will admit, I’m not exactly sure if I understand the ending. Did Delroy kill for love? Or is he taking it for the woman he loves?
In this book, Hawk is in Paris and does not play any role in this story at all. I miss him. He should have replaced Susan.
I am contemplating going on to the next book in the series since I so enjoyed this one. I’ll see what the reviews have to say.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 23, 2014
This outing of Spenser takes him to the South where he's trying to find the culprit who's shooting horses. Hugger Mugger is a big up and coming horse, and he may be next up on the hit list. Spenser's kind of a fish out of water, but there's always great dialogue and fast pacing. The one very odd thing about the book is that one of the characters is a possible pedophile and it's tossed around like no big deal. His crimes were covered up by the patriarch of the family, and there's no sense from Spenser or RBP that this is a really big deal and that Spenser should be beating the snot out of him. That didn't really make sense to me, but other than that, another snappy episode.
March 15, 2023
Another good read from this amazingly prolific (and unfortunately deceased) story teller. This one, written in 2000, touches sensitively and intelligently on issues between men and women, blacks and whites, southerners and northerners that are still problematic today. Even if a bit formulaic and in a less-than-earth-shattering genre, a master class in good writing.
May 20, 2022
Might easily be the worst book in the series. Slow as molasses.
September 27, 2022
Such a fun quick read! Love the humor.
June 20, 2019
When I picked up number twenty-seven in the Spenser series, I must admit I wondered about the title. Who or what was Hugger Mugger? Well, I soon learned he was a thoroughbred, a prizes horse who many were betting was on his way to the Triple Crown and a lifetime of generous stud fees.
Walter Clive, the owner of Three Fillies Stables and his daughter Penny want to find out who is shooting their horses. Three have recently been shot and they fear someone intends to shoot the valuable Hugger Mugger. Walter has already hired a team from Atlanta called Security South to guard his prized horse but wants Spenser to find out who is doing the shooting.
This case takes Spenser away from his comfortable Boston turf, the place he knows best and where he has connections. He does not look forward to heading south to the hot landscape of Lamarr Georgia, a rural community just north of Atlanta. He will not only be away from Susan and Pearl but Hawk, his usual backup is on vacation in Paris. The separateness Susan and Spenser maintain in their lives allows their relationship to flourish, but they also need large doses of time together and miss each other when they are apart.
When Spenser arrives in Lamarr, he learns that it is Clive’s daughter Penny who in fact runs the stables. At a planned event he meets the other members of the family, Penny’s older sister Stonie and her younger sister SueSue and soon learns the two are a little on the wild side. Penny is the youngest daughter and her father’s favourite, very different from her sisters. Both sisters are married, Stonie to Cord Wyatt, a suspected pedophile who enjoys young boys and SueSue to “Pud” a man a little too fond of sippin’ whiskey who begins drinking every day about noon. Neither marriage is working well. Both husbands have jobs in the business, Cord is Executive VP and Pud is Marketing VP. These however are not real jobs. Neither knows anything about the business or is interested in it.
Spenser also meets the beautiful Dolly Hartman, Walter’s much younger girlfriend who believes her job is just to keep Clive happy. She has a son named Jason and they all live at the ranch. Clive was once married to Sherry Lark, the mother of their three daughters, but she left Walter years ago when the girls were just teenagers. She walked off with a guitar player in a rock band and headed to San Francisco where she now lives. The couple never divorced. Sherry maintains a relationship with her daughters but their contacts are infrequent.
Spenser also meets Jon Delaney, the man responsible for supervising the security forces hired to guard Hugger Mugger after the second horse was shot. Delaney identifies himself as a former member of both the FBI and the Marines. He is not pleased that someone has arrived from Boston to tell him how to do his job and warns Spenser that anything having to do with the horses must go through him. But Walter and Penny makes the assignments clear: Spenser has been hired to find out who is trying to harm the horses and Delaney and the security forces are to protect Hugger Mugger while Spenser does his work.
Spenser also checks in with the local county law authority and introduces himself to Dalton Becker. He learns more about this powerful family who wield so much influence in the county. Walter Clive is a personal friend of the Sheriff, who is Becker’s boss. He tells Spenser that Delroy serves as a bagman for the family and when the older girls or their husbands get into trouble, Delroy handles it with a combination of fear and money. Spenser understands. Becker knows there is something amiss in the family but the Clives are too important and too connected for a deputy sheriff to take on directly.
A murder puts an end to Spenser’s contract with the Clives and he reluctantly returns to Boston. A few months later when it remains unsolved he is hired once again and resumes work on the case. At some point, all Spenser's cases get down and dirty, it is just the nature of the work he does. It always comes with fisticuffs and sometimes with bullets, but with Hawk in Paris, Spenser must recruit some new muscle and a surprising ally.
Spenser is beginning to feel his age. When he visits San Francisco with Susan to interview Walter’s ex-wife Sherry Lark, the two walk those famous uphill streets. He has trouble keeping up and when they finally stop for a breather, he reminds himself and her that he has taken several bullets in these last years and over time they have taken a toll. It is another quiet admission of his advancing years, hints Parker has dropped briefly over the last few novels.
Overall Parker presented a story which comments on how the wealthy few who have great influence in small rural communities can quickly become lost when life offers no challenges except to live from one day to the next. However, the conclusion came with a thud, a quick drop to end the story, which was disappointing. Parker however did create a great character with Sherry Lark, the impetuous self-seeking, selfish flower child in California. And the small interlude Spenser passes back in Boston when he was relieved of the case was a nice compact piece that showed his true colors, with a resolution so like Spenser it had me cheering from the sidelines. I liked how he put his client in the corner, it was the place she deserved.
This is another enjoyable addition to the series with Parker’s great dialogue driving the plot. Once again readers follow the tenacious Spenser as he prods and pokes people, annoying them until something happens and he has a starting point to begin to put things together piece by piece. It is actually a great reminder that when life doesn’t make sense to just keep working at it.
The series is coming up to thirty books and they are still as popular as ever--quite an achievement for such a long running series.
Walter Clive, the owner of Three Fillies Stables and his daughter Penny want to find out who is shooting their horses. Three have recently been shot and they fear someone intends to shoot the valuable Hugger Mugger. Walter has already hired a team from Atlanta called Security South to guard his prized horse but wants Spenser to find out who is doing the shooting.
This case takes Spenser away from his comfortable Boston turf, the place he knows best and where he has connections. He does not look forward to heading south to the hot landscape of Lamarr Georgia, a rural community just north of Atlanta. He will not only be away from Susan and Pearl but Hawk, his usual backup is on vacation in Paris. The separateness Susan and Spenser maintain in their lives allows their relationship to flourish, but they also need large doses of time together and miss each other when they are apart.
When Spenser arrives in Lamarr, he learns that it is Clive’s daughter Penny who in fact runs the stables. At a planned event he meets the other members of the family, Penny’s older sister Stonie and her younger sister SueSue and soon learns the two are a little on the wild side. Penny is the youngest daughter and her father’s favourite, very different from her sisters. Both sisters are married, Stonie to Cord Wyatt, a suspected pedophile who enjoys young boys and SueSue to “Pud” a man a little too fond of sippin’ whiskey who begins drinking every day about noon. Neither marriage is working well. Both husbands have jobs in the business, Cord is Executive VP and Pud is Marketing VP. These however are not real jobs. Neither knows anything about the business or is interested in it.
Spenser also meets the beautiful Dolly Hartman, Walter’s much younger girlfriend who believes her job is just to keep Clive happy. She has a son named Jason and they all live at the ranch. Clive was once married to Sherry Lark, the mother of their three daughters, but she left Walter years ago when the girls were just teenagers. She walked off with a guitar player in a rock band and headed to San Francisco where she now lives. The couple never divorced. Sherry maintains a relationship with her daughters but their contacts are infrequent.
Spenser also meets Jon Delaney, the man responsible for supervising the security forces hired to guard Hugger Mugger after the second horse was shot. Delaney identifies himself as a former member of both the FBI and the Marines. He is not pleased that someone has arrived from Boston to tell him how to do his job and warns Spenser that anything having to do with the horses must go through him. But Walter and Penny makes the assignments clear: Spenser has been hired to find out who is trying to harm the horses and Delaney and the security forces are to protect Hugger Mugger while Spenser does his work.
Spenser also checks in with the local county law authority and introduces himself to Dalton Becker. He learns more about this powerful family who wield so much influence in the county. Walter Clive is a personal friend of the Sheriff, who is Becker’s boss. He tells Spenser that Delroy serves as a bagman for the family and when the older girls or their husbands get into trouble, Delroy handles it with a combination of fear and money. Spenser understands. Becker knows there is something amiss in the family but the Clives are too important and too connected for a deputy sheriff to take on directly.
A murder puts an end to Spenser’s contract with the Clives and he reluctantly returns to Boston. A few months later when it remains unsolved he is hired once again and resumes work on the case. At some point, all Spenser's cases get down and dirty, it is just the nature of the work he does. It always comes with fisticuffs and sometimes with bullets, but with Hawk in Paris, Spenser must recruit some new muscle and a surprising ally.
Spenser is beginning to feel his age. When he visits San Francisco with Susan to interview Walter’s ex-wife Sherry Lark, the two walk those famous uphill streets. He has trouble keeping up and when they finally stop for a breather, he reminds himself and her that he has taken several bullets in these last years and over time they have taken a toll. It is another quiet admission of his advancing years, hints Parker has dropped briefly over the last few novels.
Overall Parker presented a story which comments on how the wealthy few who have great influence in small rural communities can quickly become lost when life offers no challenges except to live from one day to the next. However, the conclusion came with a thud, a quick drop to end the story, which was disappointing. Parker however did create a great character with Sherry Lark, the impetuous self-seeking, selfish flower child in California. And the small interlude Spenser passes back in Boston when he was relieved of the case was a nice compact piece that showed his true colors, with a resolution so like Spenser it had me cheering from the sidelines. I liked how he put his client in the corner, it was the place she deserved.
This is another enjoyable addition to the series with Parker’s great dialogue driving the plot. Once again readers follow the tenacious Spenser as he prods and pokes people, annoying them until something happens and he has a starting point to begin to put things together piece by piece. It is actually a great reminder that when life doesn’t make sense to just keep working at it.
The series is coming up to thirty books and they are still as popular as ever--quite an achievement for such a long running series.
November 9, 2021
#27 in the wise cracking former boxer now Boston private detective Spenser mystery series. He seldom responds with anything other than a wise crack and few, if anyone, appreciates his sense of humor.
Spenser is approached by Walter Clive, president of Three Fillies Stables in Georgia, to find out who is threatening his horse Hugger Mugger. The Clives are the most influential family in the county.
He encounters tensions within the family, a reluctant local law enforce and resistance from the family's security firm. All is not as it seems on the surface.
The end is very abrupt leaving several important plot points hanging in the wind.
Spenser is approached by Walter Clive, president of Three Fillies Stables in Georgia, to find out who is threatening his horse Hugger Mugger. The Clives are the most influential family in the county.
He encounters tensions within the family, a reluctant local law enforce and resistance from the family's security firm. All is not as it seems on the surface.
The end is very abrupt leaving several important plot points hanging in the wind.
April 28, 2018
Some of the names they give race horses, or maybe, horses in general. Georgia. this setting is in Georgia. A family, a very corrupt family, 2 lazy sisters and the youngest, smart but greedy. Killed or had her own father killed.
Page 262 . . . "I wish it was Sherry Lark that did it," Susan said.
"Because you don't like her?"
"You bet," Susan said. "She's self-absorbed, stupid, dishonest with herself."
"Isn't that a little subjective?" I said.
"I'm not a shrink now, I'm your paramour and free to be as subjective as I like. Who do you wish it were?" . . .
Page 262 . . . "I wish it was Sherry Lark that did it," Susan said.
"Because you don't like her?"
"You bet," Susan said. "She's self-absorbed, stupid, dishonest with herself."
"Isn't that a little subjective?" I said.
"I'm not a shrink now, I'm your paramour and free to be as subjective as I like. Who do you wish it were?" . . .
February 24, 2018
love Parker.... this book isn't why.......
dull, duller, dullest.
I think I've read them all and re-read them with pleasure. need I say more? be forewarned.
dull, duller, dullest.
I think I've read them all and re-read them with pleasure. need I say more? be forewarned.
August 25, 2018
Back to my project of rereading all of the Spenser novels. I continue to love this character. My favourite thing about Parker's writing is his dialogue and how few words he needs to build rapport between his characters. The banter between Spenser and Sheriff Becker is among my favourite thus far, not including Hawk of course.
December 26, 2019
Interesting book, despite Hawk’s absence. I guess it proves Spenser doesn’t need his side kick.
December 13, 2024
This novel really managed to grab my attention. Spenser is hired by the wealthy businessman Walter Clive to investigate the unexpected shooting at racehorses in his stables. What Spenser eventually realizes is that this crime goes a lot deeper than simple jealousy at Clive's success. On his quest to find out the truth, he will uncover dark secrets and will get mixed up some very questionable people.
August 21, 2021
Robert Parker's Spenser series will always hold a special place in my heart. I lived in Boston from 1986-1991, while the television series starring Robert Urich was being filmed there. (It ran from 1985-1988.) Many of my fellow actors at Emerson College - where I got my M.A. in Performing Arts - served as extras on the show.
I never did.
But I once almost ran into (literally) Avery Brooks who played Hawk in the series. I was late for class and took a sharp turn onto Charles St. without thinking that someone might be in the sidewalk on Charles coming my way. That someone was Mr. Brooks. Thank god I stopped in time because I have no doubt that I would have hit his large, muscular frame and ended up down on the brick sidewalk. Although I didn't actually hit him, I apologized profusely for the near miss, and was happy to get a polite "That's quite all right" in response.
I also met Robert Parker once when he came to sign books at the old Lauriat's bookstore in Downtown Crossing, where I worked during graduate school. Honestly, he was a bit of a curmudgeon who absolutely HATED the television version of his books. But it was still exciting to talk with him about his series of books before he started his signing.
Over the years, I've read each book in the series, some numerous times. But ever since Parker's death in 2010, I've felt as if it might be time to retire the series. First, Spenser seems a bit dated in today's modern world. Although in fairness, maybe it's just me getting older.
More importantly, after what I thought were a good couple of first efforts on his part, Ace Atkins' continuation of the series has fallen flat. He's a talented writer, but his efforts are too much of a rehash of early Parker works. So his plots leave a lot to be desired. Also, he hasn't ever completely mastered Spenser's voice (IMHO).
Consequently, I've decided to read through the entire series in 2021 one last time and then bid Spenser adieu. It will be sad, but it's just not the same for me anymore.
As I've mentioned in my earlier reviews, I don't think Spenser really becomes the Spenser I grew to love until Susan Silverman, Hawk, and Paul Giacomin are fully entrenched in Spenser's world. And by this point in the series, they are. Unfortunately, Hawk is not in this entry. That usually means I won't like the novel as much. And this was no exception. Although it wasn't just Hawk's absence that made me settle on three stars.
I never go deeply into plots in these reviews to avoid spoilers, but I will say that I thought this was not one of Parker's better ones. The action dragged at times. And the conclusion was both underwhelming and abrupt. Still, it was like all of Parker's Spenser novels: a fun, easy read (or reread in this case).
I never did.
But I once almost ran into (literally) Avery Brooks who played Hawk in the series. I was late for class and took a sharp turn onto Charles St. without thinking that someone might be in the sidewalk on Charles coming my way. That someone was Mr. Brooks. Thank god I stopped in time because I have no doubt that I would have hit his large, muscular frame and ended up down on the brick sidewalk. Although I didn't actually hit him, I apologized profusely for the near miss, and was happy to get a polite "That's quite all right" in response.
I also met Robert Parker once when he came to sign books at the old Lauriat's bookstore in Downtown Crossing, where I worked during graduate school. Honestly, he was a bit of a curmudgeon who absolutely HATED the television version of his books. But it was still exciting to talk with him about his series of books before he started his signing.
Over the years, I've read each book in the series, some numerous times. But ever since Parker's death in 2010, I've felt as if it might be time to retire the series. First, Spenser seems a bit dated in today's modern world. Although in fairness, maybe it's just me getting older.
More importantly, after what I thought were a good couple of first efforts on his part, Ace Atkins' continuation of the series has fallen flat. He's a talented writer, but his efforts are too much of a rehash of early Parker works. So his plots leave a lot to be desired. Also, he hasn't ever completely mastered Spenser's voice (IMHO).
Consequently, I've decided to read through the entire series in 2021 one last time and then bid Spenser adieu. It will be sad, but it's just not the same for me anymore.
As I've mentioned in my earlier reviews, I don't think Spenser really becomes the Spenser I grew to love until Susan Silverman, Hawk, and Paul Giacomin are fully entrenched in Spenser's world. And by this point in the series, they are. Unfortunately, Hawk is not in this entry. That usually means I won't like the novel as much. And this was no exception. Although it wasn't just Hawk's absence that made me settle on three stars.
I never go deeply into plots in these reviews to avoid spoilers, but I will say that I thought this was not one of Parker's better ones. The action dragged at times. And the conclusion was both underwhelming and abrupt. Still, it was like all of Parker's Spenser novels: a fun, easy read (or reread in this case).
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