Cold Service

While Spenser is the hero of many of Parker's novels, the focus of this one is his sidekick and close friend, Hawk. At the opening, Hawk lies badly wounded, the result of an ambush by a gang of Ukranians who run the Boston suburb of Marshport and are aiming to expand their control. While Hawk heals, he and Spenser plot revenge. Joe Mantegna IS Spenser, cultured but violent when necessary. However, he morphs nicely into the African-American Hawk; Spenser's brainy girlfriend, Susan; and Ukranians with unpronounceable names. The plot is heavy on dialogue; the constant "he said/she said" can grate on the ears. There are many good scenes, nonetheless, and Parker fans will not be disappointed. J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

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.