Tuesday, June 15, 2004
 
Book Review: Double Play by Robert B. Parker (2004)

My beautiful wife bought this book for me because she knows that I am a high acolyte of Parker. It's definitely a Parker book, even if the main character morphs into a Jesse Stone knock off.

Set in the 1940s, it tells the story of a survivor from Guadalcanal who comes home to a wife who's left him and a life that's left him behind. He doesn't care about anyone or anything, which makes him a good enforcer for the mob and later, a bodyguard. He gets a new lease on life when he's hired to protect Jackie Robinson in his first season of play for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

So you've got the standard elements of Parker: Tough guy former military/boxer. Love interest who's bad for him. Mob gunsels who adhere to The Code. Tough black guy with whom one can explore race relationships. The book blends elements of Love and Glory, the Jesse Stone novels, and Ray Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels (not so much Poodle Springs or Perchance to Dream).

It's interesting to enjoy a little of the color of the 1940s, and it's a heck of a lot better than the last baseball-themed crime fiction story I read. As a matter of fact, I was rather enjoying it in the beginning, when the main character was becoming a throwback to the old school hard-boiled characters, but like I said, it veers too easily into regular, comfortable Parker territory at the end.

Still, I shall buy the last of the three new Parker books this year and the three next year because Robert B. Parker and his Spenser novels raised me, and I am indentured to him. I accept the service, gladly.

Other views: Boston Globe, whose link I found courtesy of Bullets and Beer.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:32 PM
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