shape then the dreck Robert Parker has previously put out for this character. Spenser, Boston's finest P.I., takes on two pro bono cases in Hush Money. One for his friend, the leg breaker Hawk, and one for Spenser's lady love Susan Silverman. The son of Hawk's boxing mentor is being denied tenure at his university over a nasty rumor involving a gay relationship with a student who committed suicide. Hawk, knowing he's not quite as good at investigative work as he is fisticuffs, asks Spenser to look into it for him. Susan's problem is that a friend of hers from college is being stalked and she asks Spenser to dissuade the stalker. Things become interesting when suicide turns out to be murder and Spenser goes from stalking the stalker to becoming the stalkee.
I use to believe Robert Parker was the best writer alive in the detective genre until, beginning with Valedictorian, he entered a steady and depressing decline. The simple truth is that Spenser lost Susan Silverman, got her back and, in the process, became p*ssy-wh*pped. There is just no other way to put it. Still, Parker seems to be pulling himself out of his funk to write good solid detective novels again. Hush Money is nowhere near as good as it could be, but it's a lot better then we've gotten lately in the Spenser series. The dialogue is crisp, the humor, while not as prevalent as in the better, earlier works, is good and Susan, while not as far in the background as I'd like, is not as pushy or prevalent as she has been. Pearl, Susan and Spenser's dog is still present and I still hate every hair on her furry little head. Not because I'm a dog hater, but it's hard to accept Spenser acting as silly over anything as he does that durn dog. Yuck! I can only hope that Parker eventually clams up about Pearl, but if he doesn't the Spenser series, if maintained at the level of Hush Money will still be an interesting series.
So despite Pearl Hush Money is worth the money. Give it a try.
Average Grade: A