Cold Service

February 7, 2005
Parker/Spenser fans will remember Small Vices
(1997), wherein the Boston PI was shot nearly dead and his sidekick Hawk nursed him back to health. This strong new Spenser novel flips that scenario, with Hawk shot and Spenser helping him first to get better, then to take revenge. Their targets are Boots Podolak and his army of Ukrainian thugs who run the black/Hispanic Boston satellite city of Marshport. Their goal is more complicated than just vengeance, though. When Boots's henchmen shot Hawk, they also killed the man he was protecting—a rival of Boots—as well as the man's wife and two of his three children, and now Hawk wants not only to destroy Boots and his operation but to channel millions of Boots's money toward the surviving child. To get at Boots, Spenser and Hawk tap on several series regulars, most notably black gangster Tony Marcus, who is doing business with Boots, and the Gray Man, the assassin who nearly killed Spenser in Small Vices
; meanwhile, Susan, Spenser's psychiatrist girlfriend, dispenses sage advice, but stays mostly in the background. The novel features a complicated plot, numerous tough guys and plenty of tension that builds to an (interestingly) off-page mano-à-mano shootout between Hawk and Boots. This isn't Parker's best, nor his best Spenser, and the novel has a slightly rushed quality, but it's sincere, visceral entertainment that will more than satisfy the author's fans. Agent, Helen Brann.

May 2, 2005
The newest entry in Parker's long-running Spenser series finds the detective's brother-in-arms, Hawk, struggling back to physical and soulful health after being shot. The novel, which chronicles his and Spenser's attempts to hunt down the Ukrainian mobsters who wounded Hawk and murdered Hawk's client, comprises brittle, often funny conversations, too many ruminations on male pride and a few brief, smartly rendered scenes of violence. But its overall effectiveness is severely tested by narrator and veteran actor Mantegna (Godfather III
, Bugsy
), who's known for his spot-on portrayals of antiheroes and silky raffish types. Conspicuously absent from the actor's credits, listed on the back of the audio, is any mention of his television incarnation of Spenser, possibly because he didn't fit the role. He was too slight and young for the weight-lifting, middle-aged detective and, more significant here, he doesn't sound like Spenser. His voice is soft, with the hint of an accent that's nowhere in the vicinity of Spenser's Boston. And for some reason, the usually shrewd actor overplays Spenser's irony and sarcasm to the point of parody. When a shady government official refers to a character as "a professional," Spenser's reply is "Aren't we all?" This works on paper, but Mantegna treats the line to a singsong rendition that not only makes the sleuth sound like a hipster wannabe, it stops the action cold. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. Simultaneous release with the Putnam hardcover (Reviews, Feb. 7).