Sunday, March 14, 2004
 
Book Review: Bad Business by Robert B. Parker (2004)

As some of you know, I hold Robert B. Parker in the in the highest esteem. Of course I buy his books when they come out, whether they're Sunny Randall or Jesse Stone, or especially when they're Spenser novels.

This novel represents the best of the Spenser novels. For those of you who are not in the know, the Spenser character spawned the 1980s series Spenser: For Hire which starred Robert Urich. So they're crime fiction. This piece finds Spenser working for a wealthy woman who wants to catch her husband in flagrante delecto for a divorce. The husband turns up dead in his office at a large energy-trading corporation while Spenser's outside tailing, which Spenser cannot abide. Spenser finds himself with an onion to peel; each layer of sex, scandal, and big business leads to another. Red herrings abound. A tightly-crafted plot, and Spenser muddles through with some help from his friends.

Sure, Parker derives some from the Enron scandal and even some from his own previous work, but it's a damn good read and a damn good thirtieth birthday present to the Spenser character and his fans. 'Nuff said.

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:57 PM
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