Customer Reviews

Thin Air [With Headphones] (Spenser Novels (Playaway))

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

More plot to this novel ~ more detecting too ~ than some other Spenser stories. Still, plot is not everything, and still not the real reason one reads Parker. The interplay between Spenser and Susan is as strong as ever; Hawk is in Burma ~ don't ask ~ so we miss seeing him and Spenser. There is a Hawk replacement in the person of Chollo, a Latino hit-man from one of Spenser's West Coast connexions and, while not as detailed or intricate as the Hawk conversations, his with Spenser are still pleasurable. The pretext for the action this time is the disappearance of Lisa St. Claire, wife of Spenser's Boston PD friend Frank Belson. When Belson is hit with three shots from behind Spenser activates himself and goes hunting. The trail leads to a Hispanic community in northern Massachusetts ~ hence the introduction of the Latino side-kick. A welcome innovation (from Parker, not for fiction as a whole) is the use of third person sections interspersed, in a different type-face, telling of Lisa's experience. We thus are given both the hunter and hunted points of view.

In Thin Air, Robert B Parker deviates from his normal mystery format and produces more of a thriller. What happened and who did it is never in question -- the issue is what will happen. While this is being resolved, Parker reveals rich details about the principal characters, keeping the reader engaged throughout the entire book.

Viewpoint varies with the primary chapters, as usual in the Spenser series, from the detectives perspective. Between these, the victim Lisa's view is represented. This is quite nicely pulled off.

The welcomed trend in the series of deemphasizing the tiresome participation of Susan in the primary plot continues with Thin Air. Additionally, giving a rest to the use of Hawk as a superhero to completely suppress any opposition is also welcomed. While Hawk is a very enjoyable character, he's overused in the books preceding this.

So Thin Air is highly recommended. If there is one criticism, some of the action at the end strains credibility to the point of collapse. But the reader is still touched by the result, something which can't often be said for genre work. This book only reinforces my assessment that Parker is an excellent writer.

Dan

This one is one of the better installments in the Spenser series. Hawk is not featured, but it was still surprisingly good with the addition of Chollo from California (from a previous story). Why Chollo would be willing to help Spenser fight this fight in Massachusetts was never explained, but it was still fun and effective. Highly recommended.

I like Spenser, almost all books written involving him, Parker does a better job with him than with any of his others. It is only my opinion. Here we have a cop friend of Spenser's who loses his wife. He does not come asking Spenser for help in finding her, it is only when someone tries to put Belson away that Spenser becomes highly active and of course cracks the case. The action is a little different in this book, Hawk is missing and Spenser does no physical heavy hitting to solve the case, this time he uses his mind and a Latino (hispanic) sidekick to invade an ethnic enclave with an Anglo administration, Irish cops, and Latino population with an inferior Barrio population inserted in it. It is this minority Spenser must invade and turn it over to the majority in order to aid his friend Belson. Belson's wife is introduced in third person form and kept separate from what Spenser is doing as the story unravels. Of course this adds to the suspense and I think the book has an awful ending, I feel sorry for the barrio leader but Spenser must make sacrifices to end the story in some sort of a satisfactory way. I woulld not reveal the ending, just read the book and find out for yourself, it is worth it.

tags: Parker, Spenser, kidnap, prostitute, drunkard priest

When "Thin Air" begins with the italicized description of a woman bound in the back of a van, abducted by someone who knows her and is videotaping everything, it is reminiscent of Robert B. Parker's "Crimson Joy," the first Spenser novel to get away from the first person narrative style of the series. When Detective Frank Belson shows up and tells our hero that his wife is gone, we know the identity of the woman in the van. As far as her husband is concerned, Lisa St. Claire has disappeared into "Thin Air" (Parker has been much more mundane with his titles in his recent efforts and it has been years since he started off with any grandiose literary quotations). Each Spenser novel is unique in its own way and for this one the main trick is that we know what has happened to the damsel in distress and we get to watch as our hero gets closer and closer. Belson does not know anything about his wife before the fateful night they met, and, of course, Spenser uncovers a whole lot of information. But what looks like the old story of the beautiful young wife who leaves her older husband is shattered when Belson is ambushed and almost killed.

Whereas the previous Spenser novel dealt with Chinatown, "Thin Air" focuses on the Hispanic elements in the greater Boston area, which forces Spenser to use the assistance of Chollo, the enforcer for the L.A. mobster we met in "Stardust" (Hawk is in Burma--the mind boggles). But while most of the usual supporting cast is not around for this one, Spenser certainly meets a couple of interesting women in the course of his investigation (although I find it strange that Quirk is not a lot more involved in this one). Once again Spenser tries to put all the pieces together and then find a way of making everybody happy, but as usual, things never do work out perfectly. While certainly an atypical Spenser novel, "Thin Air" probably grades out as an average effort for Parker

Like most of the Spenser books, this one moves quickly and holds the reader from start to finish. It's always fun when one of the supporting characters needs a helping hand from Spenser. Here we get a glimpse of Belson's life, and his wife's nefarious past. (Jeer within a cheer: Just once, pretty please, I would like to see some female character have a nefarious past that has nothing to do with selling her body. Women do commit other crimes occasionally, at least in the real world.) My biggest problem was poor editing. The resolution was not believable. And the errors in Spanish were an amateurish mistake. It's a good vacation read though.

The story takes place in Boston, Massachusetts. The narrator of the story is Spenser, who was hired to find Lisa St. Claire. Spenser is a private detective who used to work for the FBI. He is hired by Frank Belson to find his missing wife who is Lisa St. Claire. Her ex-husband, Luis Deleon, has kidnapped her. Luis is still madly in love with Lisa. But Lisa is in love with Frank, who is much older than she is. Every one assumes she left him because he is much older than she is and that is why a private detective is hire. During the investigation, Spenser found out a lot of personal things about Lisa St. Claire. She was not the person every one thought she is. Her real name was Angela Richard. She ran away from home ever since she was seventeen with her boy friend, Woody. Woody turns her in to a prostitute. One day she got caught and was sent to rehabilitation. There she decided to get her life back on track. Mean while, Frank was shot at on his front porch from behind leaving him in the hospital for a while. Luis had shot him. Luis was known for being a crazy person. He was the leader of a Hispanic gang. Luis was a hard person to find because no one likes to talk about him. She was kept in a castle like place with cameras all around the room recording her every move. Through out the novel it switches back and forth to the scene where Lisa was at and then back to Spenser.
I would recommend the novel because I found it very entertaining. It was like watching a movie. I can picture the whole thing. Spenser was very amusing. He was also tough. He states. "You'll think I'm offensive? I'll give you offensive. Ms. Lisa St. Claire's husband is a cop. Cops look out for each other. I can, if I have to, have some really short-tempered guys from the Essex County DA's I could probably even get them to come in here in force with the sirens singing and the blue lights flashing, and haul you ass down to Salem and ask you these same questions in a holding cell" (60). This quote shows what type of person he is. He can be serious but funny at same time. You can tell he is very serious with his work. He was not a boring guy.

This is a good novel if you're into mystery because through out the story you keep finding surprising things about Lisa. It made want to keep reading it. "I don't know could or couldn't. I will say that Angela lived a very harsh life, in very difficult circumstances. She had fewer restraint mechanisms perhaps than some women might have, and she harbored a lot of rage" (133). Here is when Spenser was meeting up with a woman named Madeline St. Claire. She was a psychiatrist that was seeing Lisa when she was in rehab. She was aware that Lisa was using her name, but did not seem to mind it much. The quote explains how Lisa life was and how she had a rage for men.

It was also interesting when Spenser investigate people. It made me seem like I was the investigator. Each interviewer gave helpful facts about Lisa and her whereabouts. There were a lot of people who he had to investigate until he was sure it was Luis who kidnapped her. Each investigation was at a different place. He gave great descriptions when the story takes place. It makes the novel seem so realistic.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the novel very much. There were times where I did not want to stop reading because there were things that I wanted to know. This is a great novel for entertainment. It was full of drama and humor. You will like Spenser. It will make reading fun. A great novel to share with a friends or love ones.

Good Spencer book; less violent than others. Love listening to the Spencer character audios even though they all have the same theme; person-in-distress, with Spencer/Hawk now Chollo rescuing. This is great w/me as long as Burt Reynolds or David Dukes read. These readers put you right there and make the characters more real. I listen to a lot of mysteries and these readers are among the best.

I had never read a Spenser novel before but saw this at a garage sale so figured it was worth a try. As some reviews have mentioned, I see why a first time Spenser reader might be better off starting with an earlier novel. Spenser's' relationships with the recurring characters and his little "quirks" (like an aversion to caffeine) might have made a bit more sense if I knew the background. However, I did enjoy the book from the level that it was a nice breezy read which kept me hooked me enough to read it over a span of just a few days. The story is very simple and uncomplicated so don't go into this expecting a novel that will leave you thinking about it long after you reach the back cover. I happen to be a fan of (the late) Ed McBain's 87th precinct series and I found Parker's writing style to be similar. The structure, humor, and the way a single line of dialog or subtle action can define a character, helped me enjoy the book a bit more than I otherwise might have. As a matter of fact, I do recall an 87th precinct novel circa 1976 that involved the kidnapping of a detective's girlfriend. Overall, to me this book was like my favorite fast-food burger; it satisfied my particular appetite, the nutritional value was zilch but, I'll eventually go back for another.

THIN AIR is book twenty two in the Spenser, Boston P I series. Its a good one that keeps your interest even without Hawk (minus one star). Spenser is pulled into a missing persons case when Belson's wife goes missing and Belson is shot. Spenser enlists LA's own Del Rio for help in this Latin slanted case, enter Chollo (Hawk....Latin). I enjoyed the book and ofcourse the interactions with Susan, always great. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Read all the books.