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This is going to be a little hard to believe, but it has been almost 30 years since Robert B. Parker dropped Spenser, the world's most self-satisfied private investigator, on an unsuspecting literary public. I read my first one --- I believe it was THE JUDAS GOAT --- in the late 1970s, and spent the next several weeks catching up on the earlier and later volumes and then impatiently waiting for the next. And the next. Along the way, Parker has introduced an unforgettable cast of supporting characters: the dangerous, mysterious Hawk; the beautiful, omnipresent Susan, and the occasionally interesting Paul. But Spenser is the focus of the books, and, as Parker has commented, he will continue to write his novels of the Boston-based Spenser as long as people want to read them. If Parker stays good to his word, then based on HUGGER MUGGER, and the volumes that have preceded it, we will be reading Spenser novels well into the 21st Century.
HUGGER MUGGER takes Spenser out of Boston and into Georgia at the request of Walter Clive, the owner of Three Fillies Stables. Someone has been shooting at Clive's horses; he is concerned that Hugger Mugger, who is felt to have the potential to be the next Secretariat, will be the next victim. Spenser is basically on his own on this one, with no Hawk, and Susan home in Boston. He is, however, more than up to the task of determining what is going on, even if he isn't always aware of it. Spenser is tenacious, observant and, above all, witty.
There are no real surprises here --- what a disappointment if there were! The emphasis here is not on plot, or on action, but on dialogue; and nobody writing in the genre today is better at this than Parker. Parker is so good at this, in fact, that the other gifts which he brings to the table too often regrettably go unnoticed. There is a temptation to jump over the story in order to get to Spenser's next remark, and, indeed, Parker's spare prose unintentionally facilitates this. This temptation is best avoided, as the reader will otherwise miss some real narrative gems.
During his investigation in HUGGER MUGGER, for example, Spenser travels to San Francisco to interview Walter Clive's estranged wife. Parker, through Spenser's eyes, offers a view of The City which in twelve concise lines of prose not only describes San Francisco but also lets the reader imbibe of its beauty and contradictions. There are many writers who can do this in a page or fifty; I offhand cannot think of any, other than Parker, who can do it in twelve lines.
Parker and his complex, irrepressible Spenser have been with us for 30-odd novels now, for almost 30 years. He was influenced by Raymond Chandler and is now, himself, an influence on others and an institution unto himself. Long may he run.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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