Customer Reviews

Walking Shadow

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Susan's on the board of the Port City Theater Company, and asks Spenser to help one of it's employees with a stalking problem. Spenser does, but finds no stalker. Then, during a show, one of the actors is shot. While questioning people, Spenser talks to a board member, which upsets her husband, who controls the Chinese gang in the area. So Spenser has no clues and the Chinese "Death Dragons" after him.

To complicate matters (if you believe they aren't already), another woman claims to be stalked, and then is kidnapped. The local police chief is no help, as he's in the "employ" of the Chinese.

Things wrap up in the end, but not after some unexpected plot twists and character development that is really stellar. Usually Spenser is just about fantastic writing and environments. This time Parker also put some solid work into developing the characters you meet, and the cultures involved.

On the downside, I think Parker was on an "annoying women" kick. This woman was TRULY annoying, although to make up for her, the Chinese translator they use is smart, resourceful, and brave.

Port City is very well described - you get a very good sense both of how it feels to wander its streets, and also of its history and people.

An interesting sideline, which provides nice counterpoint to the story, has the pair working on a house in Concord - pruning and ripping out the innards. In addition to Susan and Hawk, Spenser calls on the help of Vinnie - a mob friend (ex-main-man of Joe Broz) with amazingly fast gun draw. He has Farrel, the gay police officer help him out, too.

All in all, one of the greats in the Spenser lineup.

Whenever I read a Spenser/Hawk book I am picturing Robert Urich, who was unbeatable as that character in the t.v.'s series of Spenser. I miss him, but on to the story. Spenser is asked by Susan, his girl, to help find out who is stalking the director of the Port City Theater's Company, of which Susan is a trustee. He finds no stalker, but while watching the play, one of the cast is shot right in front of the audience and killed. Another woman claims that she is being stalked and yet they find no one stalking her and then he receives a tape of her tied to a chair and being held hostage. There is the Chinese mafia connection, as a large portion of Port City is Chinese and another of the trustees is Chinese with connections to them. Spenser is threatened by the boss and told not to come back or he will be killed and so enters Hawk and Vinnie for back up protection. The educational part is learning a little about the illegal immigration trafficking of the Chinese people. My favorite characters, as always, were Spenser and Hawk. I don't want to tell you too much more except that I did enjoy the book.

Port City must be the most dreary place on planet Earth. I've never been there, but I feel like I have. Spenser somehow escaped pneumonia in this twisted thriller, not too mention being the #1 target of the Chinese mafia. This unusual story starts with a Greek theater director, who thinks he's being stalked. Then it takes off with murder, illegal immigration, and some whacky women. Spenser needs more help than Hawk can give him, so he finds a thug named Vinnie and a Chinese grad student to help him navigate through the streets of Port City in this curious adventure. The book reads well, and the plot twists keep you entertained. Robert Parker knows how to write a book that reads fast.

Walking Shadow starts with considerable promise. It has all the elements -- engaging characters, an interesting locale, a novel crime, and Parker's usual wonderful dialog.

However, like the play which opens the work, Walking Shadow drags on. All the main characters seem to become bored with the case. How can the reader avoid following their example? It's a bad sign when I was relieved to finally reach the end, an end which was achieved without much of a climax.

Overall, it isn't a bad work, and is certainly recommended for fans of the Spenser series. But I certainly wouldn't rank it among Parker's best.

Susan was on the board of the Port City Theater Company. Spenser was investigating. The artistic director, Demetrius Christopholous, was being followed. Susan and Spenser attended a performance. An actor was shot.

I guess from the photo on the back of the dust jacket, Spenser is the author's alter ego. Spenser spares few words in the telling of his stories. Both Spenser and his side-kick, Hawk, speak in clipped tones. Clearly the demotic style is effective. The reader doesn't feel smothered, manipulated.

Spenser tells the board the shooting is unusual, taking place in a crowded theater. The victim, Craig Sampson, had studied acting in New York and he had been fun. Port City, the site of a fish processing plant, has a bigger Chinatown than Boston. Spenser is threatened by the Chinese boss. Susan finds a translator for him at Harvard in the Asian Studies department. They go around to question some of the Chinese residents of Port City. When Spenser is confronted with five youths from the gang, Death Dragons, Hawk and another Spenser associate intervene. The police discover one of the boys is carrying an Uzi.

Some research discloses that the victim had served in the armed forces in Taiwan. Spenser is warned off the investigation by the Chief of Police. He learns that Rikki Wu, the boss's wife, probably brought the victim to the attention of the head of the theater group. Spenser visits a relative of the translator and learns of the smuggling of illegal aliens in Port City. When Mr. Wu is found dead, beaten, the ties between the Chief of Police and the tong unravel. Another woman, a surprising character under the circumstances, provides the glue.

This is a very strong entry in the Spenser series.

By the time you get to "Walking Shadow," the twenty-first Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker, you expect there to be a certain escalation in the dangers confronting our hero. The clearest sign of that this particular time around the block is that Spenser needs the backup of both Hawk and Vinnie Morris the defrocked mobster. Having faced down billionaire eccentrics, syndicate bosses and homicidal maniacs, Spenser is now facing what might be his greatest danger, a Chinese tong. As with the life in the projects portrayed in "Double Deuces," Parker has been reading up on Chinese-American culture, continuing to expand Spenser's horizons. Certainly the extent to which this novel is concerned with the problems of illegal Chinese immigration makes it far and away the most socially conscious Spenser story. At one point Hawk tells Spenser this is the silliest case they have ever worked together, but by the end that proves most decidedly not to be true.

Susan Silverman, a board member of the Port City Theater Company, asks our hero to discover the identity of the figure in black who has been stalking the Artistic Director. During a performance of an obtuse play that makes "Waiting for Godot" a paragon of clear reason, a figure in black shoots dead one of the actors on stage. The square peg to be pounded into the round hole this time around is how these two acts are connected. After all, Spenser does not believe in coincidence, especially when he starts nosing around and is quickly threatened by the head of the tong. Toss into the mix the local chief of police, a former state cop who appears to have sold his good name to obtain a small measure of power in this world. "Walking Shadow" is probably the Spenser novel in which our hero seems most like a duck out of water, because, after all, this time around its Chinatown (supply your own dramatic music). Fortunately the man knows how to be patient. On the home front there is not much cooking in this novel (lots of sandwiches and picnic lunches), but Spenser and Susan are busy restoring a cottage for their weekends together where Pearl gets to chase squirrels. "Walking Shadow" is certainly an above average Spenser novel with some of Parker's better twists at the end of the ride.

Susan has become a board member for a theatre in Port City, a shabby district on the water front that contains a Chinese ghetto filled with many illegal immigrants, including the Death Dragons, a gang that is run by the dai low for the Kwan Chang tong. The dai low in this case is Ronnie Lu, whose wife Rikki is on the board with Susan. Susan brings Spenser to a board meeting one day because the Artistic Director of the board - Demetrius Christopoulous - believes he is being stalked and wishes Spenser's protection.

When one of the actors is murdered during a production later that night, Spenser's priorities shift to finding the murderer; however, no one knows much about the murder victim - Craig Sampson - and certainly no one can come up with a reason for his demise. However, as soon as Spenser begins nosing around in the area, Ronnie Lu shows up with a couple of young Death Dragons to ask Spenser to butt out or face the consequences. This, of course, just makes Spenser decide to call in Hawk and Vinnie Morris for back up.

The addition of Ming Lei to the team for her linguistic skills is something I hope will be permanent. She adds good chemistry. A side plot with a new house Spenser and Susan buy that they are fixing up makes a nice change of pace once and a while during the book. A third thread with another actor - Jocelyn Colby - claiming first to be stalked and then disappearing altogether with a videotape soon showing up at Spenser's office showing her bound to a chair, adds a note of intrigue.

All in all a nice, well-written book. Strong recommend from me.

I concur with the comments of the previous reviewers about the quality of the audiobook presentation by Daniel Parker. The Spenser books are made for drive-time listening, but one wonders whether anyone at Dove actually ever listened to Daniel Parker's performance before releasing it. There was a significant disconnect between my mind's-eye image of Spenser (tough, laconic big guy with insight and intelligence) and Parker's high-pitched lisp. Imagine a not-quite Charles Nelson Reilly voice emanating from Spenser and you get the picture.

The best Spenser voice: Burt Reynolds, who does all the characters (including Hawk) extremely well. After Burt, Joe Mantegna is very good, and David Duke is OK.

Robert Parker books are always a good read. Quick, snappy and entertaining, I enjoy them immensely and Walking Shadow is no exception. The book opens with Spenser and Susan, his girlfriend, attending a play in a nearby small coastal town where Susan is on the board of directors. During the performance an actor is shot and killed on stage. Hawk and Vinnie are enlisted to help Spenser find the killer. During their investigation, they discover the small town is not as placid as it seems and the rest of the story is vintage Robert Parker with a few unexpected twists and turns.

I love Spenser novels for their humor and integrity; Spenser and Hawk always win, good triumphs over evil, Spenser is always faithful to Susan and Pearl the dog is always the darling.

In this episode, Spenser attends a play at the Port City Theater Company, where Susan is a member of the board. The director believes that he is being followed, so Susan asks Spenser to look into it. Circumstances change rather quickly when the lead actor is killed in the middle of a dramatic scene. He was shot through the heart from an assailant who was in the theatre, so it is clear that the job was professional.
Port City is a city whose better days have passed. It now has a large population of Asiatic descent and is dirty and riddled with crime. Spenser recruits Hawk, his regular companion, and Hawk, realizing the length of the odds against them, recruits former enemy Vinnie Morris, who joins the team to make a very formidable trio. They need all of their talents, as they are up against the major Asian crime gang of the region. Throw in a crazy woman who tries to bed Spenser while manipulating everyone else in the story, a crooked cop, and the story goes in many different directions. You are given hints as to the direction of the result, but nothing definite.
Spenser and Hawk are at their wisecracking best, with Vinnie and Susan excellent foils for them to play off of. The story moves along quickly, with plenty of action and suspense until the final resolution. I enjoyed it very much, reading it when I should have been working on other things.