Early Autumn (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "The urban renewers had struck again..." (more)
Key Phrases: speed bag, weight bench, pea coat, Patty Giacomin, New York, Elaine Brooks (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A bitter divorce is only the beginning. First the father hires thugs to kidnap his son. Then the mother hires Spenser to get the boy back. But as soon as Spenser senses the lay of the land, he decides to do some kidnapping of his own.

With a contract out on his life, he heads for the Maine woods, determined to give a puny 15 year old a crash course in survival and to beat his dangerous opponents at their own brutal game.

From the Publisher

5 1-hour cassettes --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Dell; 3rd printing edition (April 5, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440122147
• ISBN-13: 978-0440122142
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #28,682 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #18 in	Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( P ) > Parker, Robert B.
  #98 in	Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery > Hard-Boiled

• This is item 8 in The Spenser Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Early Autumn" - best Spenser, April 18, 2000

By	Janet Aldrich (Cleveland, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Most 'serious' reviewers of Robert Parker's Spenser books will argue that "A Catskill Eagle" is the best of the series. I won't disagree that it's very, very good, but I think Spenser (and by extension, Parker) is at his best in "Early Autumn".

Primarily, through the books, Spenser has deep relationships only with Susan, and to a lesser extent, Hawk. We really don't know much about him beyond the front he puts up for his clients and his opponents. "Autumn" is the exception to that; we see him treat Paul in much the same way he must have been treated as a child and the same way he would have treated a child of his own, if he'd had one -- with respect and decency. He drags the 'real' Paul out of the shell Paul had constructed to protect himself from his parents and the world and provides him with a sense of worth, teaching him, as Spenser says himself, "what [he] knows" -- boxing, running, carpentering and standing up for something.

The end of the book always gets me. I've always been glad, too, that Paul makes further appearances in other books: Widening Gyre and Playmates, among others. It's interesting to see the relationship between Spenser and Paul grow and develop. It deepens Spenser as a character and gives us one more reason to like him.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite Robert B. Parker books, August 24, 1999

By A Customer

I'm an avid Robert B. Parker fan---Spenser lives in my mind, and I enjoying adventuring with him. "Early Autumn" strikes me as one of Parker's most touching stories, focusing on the the intereactions of Spenser and a troubled teen, Paul Giacomin. Besides Spenser's unfailing wit, he throws out some great comments and admonitions about growing up. What makes Spenser's remarks even more satisfying is that in the discourse between Paul and Spenser, things are not neat and tidy. Life is not always fair, nor do we always control the awful events that sometimes hit us like a solid left hook. But Spenser also assures Paul that individuals can control many things in their own lives, and that's where our focus needs to be.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Early Autumn, November 9, 2006

By	Dana Stabenow (Alaska) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The world can be divided into two kinds: Those who love Susan Silverman, and those who hate her. I'm among the former, although I agree that Susan ain't easy. But as Robert B. Parker's Early Autumn, the seventh novel in his Spenser series, amply demonstates, if Susan was easy Spenser wouldn't love her as much as he does.

But that's backstory. The front story is pitiful little Paul Giacomin, whose mother Patti has hired Spenser to protect Paul from his father, Mel. Both of Paul's parents are guilty of grand theft childhood in the first degree, and the book is less about detecting crime than it is about rescuing a life yet to be lived, but it makes for riveting reading nonetheless. I love how to books, and here Spenser shows us how to save a child.