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One of the finest gifts the first few months of a new year can bring is a new Spenser novel. Spenser and his creator, Robert B. Parker, have become, at least in some circles, cultural institutions. Parker is on record as stating that he will continue to write Spenser novels as long as people want them, and certainly there appears to be no flagging of interest in them. He has been careful to make changes only on minor elements of Spenser's surroundings, while keeping the primary elements, such as friends and personalities, pretty much intact. The result is a comfortable but dependable familiarity that kicks in as soon as one begins a Spenser novel.
This leaves Parker free to gently experiment with plot lines and the secondary characters who populate them. Reading a Spenser novel is like walking once a week down a familiar street where everything is slightly different: here, there's a new store, there, a fresh and different coat of paint on some shutters, and there, yes, right there, a new and interesting face with a story to tell. All of those elements make the walk worthwhile; so, too, is the annual visit with Spenser.
BAD BUSINESS, the latest Spenserian saga, finds fiction's most self-satisfied detective with a new client named Marlene Cowley. Cowley is a slightly difficult woman, and Parker almost immediately displays one of his many strengths as he describes Spenser's slow but steady deflation of her through the use of lighthearted, deprecating repartee in the course of extracting information. Cowley retains Spenser because she suspects that her husband, Trent, is cheating on her and wants, shall we say, to catch the cad in flagrante delicto. Spenser has an easy enough time catching Trent in compromising circumstances, but discovers not only that there is someone shadowing Trent's paramour but also that Cowley is being shadowed as well! This doesn't just pique Spenser's curiosity; it impales it.
As he is wont to do in such cases, Spenser is soon operating far beyond the boundaries of the investigation for which he was retained. All the investigatory roads lead back to Trent's employer, Kinergy, more so when Trent is found murdered in his own office. Trent's position at Kinergy was chief financial officer, and Spenser is accordingly suspicious that greed, and not passion, may be the motivating factor behind Trent's unexpected demise. When a second Kinergy employee is also murdered, Spenser begins kicking over rocks to see what comes crawling out. Hawk is there to help, as only Hawk can, and of course Susan Silverman is on hand as well, acting as soul mate, foil and even occasional Devil's advocate.
The financial element of BAD BUSINESS also permits Parker to bring Marty Siegel, the self-styled best accountant in the world, into the mix to explain some basic but questionable accounting principles to Spenser. The dialogue between Spenser and Siegel is some of Parker's best to date, instructive without being burdensome, and always entertaining. Parker in fact relies a bit more on dialogue and somewhat less on violence than he has in more recent novels, which should please those readers with more delicate sensibilities. Regardless of his underpinnings, however, Parker never lets his story flag, and when Spenser assembles the cast for the explanatory denouement, the motive, opportunity and instigator are at once surprising and obvious.
If Parker is tired of writing Spenser novels, he certainly shows no signs of it. He continues to surprise, please and entertain. What more can one ask for? A guest appearance from another Parker series, perhaps? Well, BAD BUSINESS has one of those too, at least by reference. Careful readers will be rewarded, if only momentarily.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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