Cold Service (Spenser Mysteries) (Hardcover)

by Robert B. Parker (Author) "IT STARTED without me..." (more)
Key Phrases: drank some coffee, Tony Marcus, Boots Podolak, Luther Gillespie (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* With Parker's Spenser series now numbering more than 30 installments, it's no surprise that some of the fast-talking, gourmet-cooking sleuth's fans tend to drop in only now and then to see what's new. Now is definitely the time for a drop-in. The series' best entries all feature a liberal dose of Hawk, Spenser's soft-speaking, big stick-carrying soul mate, and this one is a veritable Hawk showcase. As the tale begins, the heretofore-indestructible Hawk is recovering from a near-death experience: shot in the back while protecting a bookie from the upstart Ukrainian Mob. It's payback time, of course, but not before Hawk nurses himself back to psychic and physical health. Meanwhile, Spenser does a bit of sleuthing on his own, determining that Hawk's assailants are the tip of a Ukrainian iceberg that has stuck its tentacles deep into Boston's underworld. Payback, Hawk style, requires eliminating not just the shooters but also the entire Mob. The action comes in a rush near the end, but the satisfying part here is watching Parker dig deeply into the remarkable friendship between two tough guys constitutionally averse to the whole touchy-feely side of life. "Ain't really your fight," Hawk says. "Yeah," Spenser replies, "It is." "Hawk was quiet for a time, then nodded his head. 'Yeah,' he said. 'It is.'" When he's on his game--and he's on it here--Parker is capable of packing a Hemingway punch into a few brief words and the occasional grunt. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult; 1 edition (March 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399152407
• ISBN-13: 978-0399152405
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (106 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #56,024 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars this may be my last spencer, March 12, 2005

By	E Rice (western ny state) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

while parker avoids repeating the recuperation scenario, and while the basic plotting and the dialogue and descriptions are extremely good, the book left me tired and annoyed.

the plot, for all its twists, felt rather claustrophobic--all but one of the usual secondary characters appear, for no real reason except to be included for the fans' comfort. part of the resolution was sickeningly sentimental and unrealistic.

i miss the pointed social comments of the earlier books. i'm tired of the now forced nobility and general angst. i'm tired of the constant comments about young women's bodies by every man who appears in the books. i'm tired of the spenser/susan relationship--don't these two ever disagree on anything? and could the woman just once in a while actually eat like a normal person? and maybe gulp at least a glass of water.

i'm really annoyed at the way hawk's relationships are handled. only jewish white women have emotional courage and understanding?

i can enjoy formulaic series, since i can be as attached to series characters as anyone else. but parker is repeating too many of the same parts of the formula in his recent novels without including the development of situations and characters other than the usual cast that make his earlier works more interesting.

41 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD, March 15, 2005

By	Tucker Andersen (Wall Street) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

My review title is the epigram which introduces this outstanding novel by Robert Parker and which together with the book jacket illustration summarizes the storyline. However, despite the fact that this thirty-second entry in Robert Parker's Spenser series is as usual told in the first person with Spenser as the narrator, Hawk's and Spenser's usual roles are reversed. In fact, Spenser begins the story with the words "It started without me". With Spenser, we then learn from Hawk, tethered to an IV line and constantly monitored by the staff at the hospital where he is recovering, that he was shot "three times in the back with a big rifle [by a] good shooter [who} grouped all three shots between [the} shoulder blades [but luckily] missed the spine, missed the heart " and thus left Hawk to recover and seek revenge.

Hawk had been hired by a bookie, Luther Gillespie, to protect him after he had been threatened by the Ukranian mob trying to take over his book. Hawk has learned that after he went down they killed Luther, his wife, and two oldest kids, sparing only the youngest son who was in day care and now will be raised by his grandmother. Thus, Hawk knows that after a long and difficult recovery, he will need to not only avenge the attack on him and remove any trace of fear and self doubt which would otherwise remain, but more importantly he can most effectively make whatever amends are possible to Luther for failing to protect his family by somehow insuring the future security of Luther's orphaned young son. As Hawk summarizes the situation to Spenser, "I want to know who they are and where they are. And I want to know they did it. Not think it, know it." To Spenser's admonition that Hawk "won't be ready even if we know who and where", Hawk replies "sooner or later, I'll be ready. And I'll know it when I am." And of course the die is set when Spenser replies simply but meaningfully, "and when you are we'll go." This is the quintessential Spenser-Hawk relationship, where the most important things are often left unsaid.

The bond between Hawk and Spenser is so strong that as information is painstakingly gathered and the outline of a plan of action develops, Spenser realizes that he may eventually have to chose between betraying his own principles to help Hawk or betraying that lifelong bond with Hawk. As events unfold, Spenser and Susan engage in frequent discussions in which she attempts to provide him both support and insight into the situation in which he has been thrust and the code of honor which guides the plan for retaliation which gradually takes shape. As the plans which will almost certainly result in several additional deaths move toward their inevitable climax, Susan eventually summarizes the situation for Spenser by quoting the writer E. M. Forster, "who said that if he had to choose between betraying his country and betraying his friend, he hoped he'd have the courage to betray his country". The conversation that follows is the culmination of all the events that have bound Susan and Spenser and Hawk together throughout this marvelous series, and concludes with her helping him understand that his character and his life to date have preordained his decision to "stay with Hawk', and that he is strong enough so that the consequences will eventually pass and he will forgive himself, or as he summarizes the situation "the truth will set you free". But she does then burden him with the knowledge that he is of course not only risking his life but hers as well, since if he gets killed she "will want to die, too". Pretty heady stuff for a story seemingly about the criminal elements that inhabit the darker side of Boston and human nature.

The most intriguing aspect of this story for Spenser devotees is the fact that it reprises the wonderful SMALL VICES, published seven years ago and subsequently made into a television movie starring Joe Montegna which undoubtedly introduced many viewers to the Spenser magic. Just as that episode inevitably and permanently altered Spenser's life and relationship with Susan, this episode brings new understanding to Hawk about both the power and frailty of human relationships, not only his bond with Spenser and Susan but also through the stress that his girlfiend Cecile endures and his sense of responsibilty for Luther's son. Many of the series' characters familiar to Parker's readers form part of the uneasy alliance necessary for Hawk to exact his revenge. These include brief appearances by Quirk, Healy, Henry Cimoli and Rita Fiore and the essential involvement of Tony Marcus and his lieutenant Leonard, Vinnie (the shooter), and the shadowy government operative known as Ives. However, the most intriguing symmetry by far is the crucial role played by The Gray Man, the individual known as Rugar in SMALL VICES but a man of many names, the consummate professional who had almost killed Spenser. Rugar's knowledge of Ukranian and his survival skills (combined with the fact that their objectives are aligned given the assignment that Rugar has undertaken for Ives) causes Hawk and Spenser to enter into an uneasy but extremely necessary alliance of convenience with him as the best means of succesfully implementing the plan which they have evolved As Spenser had parted with Rugar following the conviction of the murderer of Melissa Henderson as the final consequence of the chain of events which had then resulted in the payment of their debts to each, he was left to wonder if "not killing [Rugar] may have been an error". The lack of closure in that novel clearly appeared ominous for Spenser and undoubtedly had left many readers wondering with Spenser if he would indeed be fortunate enough to escape death again when and if they met in the future. Now, in a story that involves Spenser again defining who he is and realizing the costs of that self discovery, the reader gets to accompany Spenser not only on the journey in search of his honor and perhaps his soul itself, but also once again has to be concerned about the role of The Gray Man, who is the undoubtedly most dangerous opponent that Spenser has ever faced because he is as consummate a professional as Spenser but without any apparent morality except for his loyalty to whomever his current employer might be.

This novel is Spenser at his best even while in a subsidiary role to Hawk - spare dialog, adherence to honor, deep love for Susan, and still devoted to a code of honor even when that may be difficult to define. Furthermore in an interesting twist, while Spenser plays a subordinate role to Hawk in this story, the fact that so much of the violence which occurs is psychological means that Susan plays a much more central role than usual. This novel is highly recommended, and while it is perfectly adequate as a standalone work, its enjoyment will clearly be heightened for those long time Spenser fans steeped in his lore and who have read and fondly remember SMALL VICES.

Tucker Andersen

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hawk is shot and Spenser helps him do something about it, December 16, 2005

By	Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

"Cold Service," Robert B. Parker's thirty-second Spenser novel will inevitably and invariably be compared by fans to the twenty-fourth Spenser novel, "Small Vices." The latter was the pivotal novel where Spenser was gunned down by the shadowy assassin known as the Grey Man. It took Susan Silverman and Hawk a year to put our hero back together again so that he could take steps to even the score with his assailant. This 2005 Spenser novel begins with Hawk in the hospital, having been shot in the back three times while protecting bookie Luther Gillespie. Now it is Spenser's turn to stand by his friend and not only help him rehabilitate but also to help him even the score. However, there are some significant differences between the two similar stories

First, the rehabilitation part is greatly truncated this time around because the wounds are clearly more to Hawk's pride than his body. Second, because we are talking about Hawk we are much more on the outside than when Spenser was in the same situation. Hawk has already been shot and is talking to Spenser in the hospital when this one starts, and while we miss the action at the start Parker provides symmetry by letting us miss the action at the end as well, which tends to suggest that the action is not the point here. Third, there are significant moral dilemmas this time around. Ironically, none of them exist for Hawk but rather for Spenser, who has reservations about the killing that will be involved, and for Cecila, Hawk's current paramour, who is no where near as accepting of the way her man settles accounts as is the lovely Susan.

However, friendship outweighs moral dilemmas in Spenser's world, and the fact that the point is made several times in the novel speaks to why it seems like Parker is doing this Spenser novel by the numbers. The witty repartee between Spenser and Hawk seems like the witty repartee that we have heard before, and there really is a sense that we are going through the motions here. When we get to the point where Hawk and Spenser assemble some of their small circle of friends to help with the endeavor they really end up with nothing to do. The biggest surprise is that apparently the new person added to that roster is the Grey Man, who turns out to be the only person in the known Spenser universe who speaks Ukranian. You might anticipate that this could lead to something significant happening, but actually it is what does not happen that ends up mattering with the Grey Man.

I think that Hawk is slightly different at the end of this novel, although that may well be projection on my part. It may well be that "Cold Service" simply underscores a fundamental difference between Hawk and Spenser that we have not fully appreciated in the past, but once again that might simply be my trying to read more into this novel than is actually there. As always this Parker novel is a quick read, which makes it eminently easy to work in a chapter here and there throughout the day. It is a pleasant enough read, but given the storyline I was expecting something more than what we ended up getting.