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I was about a third of the way through BACK STORY, the new Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker, when I happened to get a call from an older friend who had coincidentally first thrust a Spenser novel, PROMISED LAND, into my hands many years ago. I told my friend that I was reading the new Spenser novel and he mentioned that his grandson, who is now in college, had just started reading them. The reason that this is worth relating is that Parker is now writing for three generations of Spenser fans, with no sign of slowing down and, if BACK STORY is any indication, no sign of rust.
BACK STORY marks the return of Paul Giacomin, Spenser's almost-son; though he has little involvement in the story, he is its indirect catalyst. For he brings with him Daryl Gordon --- part friend, part acquaintance, part associate and all troubled. Gordon, who is in her thirties, has decided that she needs to put the death of her mother, Emily Gordon, to rest. Emily was murdered some thirty years ago when a leftist revolutionary group calling itself The Dread Scott Brigade robbed a bank in Boston. Emily, who was visiting the city at the time, was shot and killed in the bank while cashing traveler's checks. No one saw who shot her and security cameras were no help. And The Dread Scott Brigade simply...disappeared.
Giacomin now brings Daryl to Spenser in order to help solve this coldest of cases, a 30 year-old murder with no clues. As Spenser begins to investigate, he is troubled by the lack of clues and an apparently missing FBI file. Hawk is there to help, as is the mysterious Ives who, in the short course of a page or three, almost steals the book away. As Spenser follows the trail of the missing FBI file and questions Emily's friends and family, he begins to receive warnings from several quarters to back away from the matter. This, of course, makes him all the more determined to discover the truth behind the woman's murder. As the trail leads from San Diego to Boston and back again, Spenser slowly but methodically uncovers a web of passion, deceit and betrayal that has lain fallow for decades. He is also confronted with a dilemma: the truth is something that Daryl may not be prepared to handle. Should he tell her, or should he let things stay as they are?
Parker, with BACK STORY, remains as amazingly consistent --- or should that be consistently amazing? --- as ever. He also makes a brief, but poignant, change in a major character, one that was inevitable and not necessarily unexpected, but nonetheless surprising. As always, highly recommended.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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