The widening gyre: A Spenser novel [Hardcover]

Robert B Parker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1983

Hired as security man for Alexander's election campaign, Spenser checks out blackmail concerning the politician's wife. Aided by sidekick Hawk, and surrogate son Paul Giacomin, he is sucked into political ambition, corruption, violence, and the truth about his relationship with Susan Silverman.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

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

Product Details

• Hardcover: 183 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence; First Edition edition (1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440087406
• ISBN-13: 978-0440087403
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,090,507 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert B. Parker (1932-2010) has long been acknowledged as the dean of American crime fiction. His novel featuring the wise-cracking, street-smart Boston private-eye Spenser earned him a devoted following and reams of critical acclaim, typified by R.W.B. Lewis' comment, "We are witnessing one of the great series in the history of the American detective story" (The New York Times Book Review). In June and October of 2005, Parker had national bestsellers with APPALOOSA and SCHOOL DAYS, and continued his winning streak in February of 2006 with his latest Jesse Stone novel, SEA CHANGE.

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Parker attended Colby College in Maine, served with the Army in Korea, and then completed a Ph.D. in English at Boston University. He married his wife Joan in 1956; they raised two sons, David and Daniel. Together the Parkers founded Pearl Productions, a Boston-based independent film company named after their short-haired pointer, Pearl, who has also been featured in many of Parker's novels.

Parker began writing his Spenser novels in 1971 while teaching at Boston's Northeastern University. Little did he suspect then that his witty, literate prose and psychological insights would make him keeper-of-the-flame of America's rich tradition of detective fiction. Parker's fictional Spenser inspired the ABC-TV series Spenser: For Hire. In February 2005, CBS-TV broadcast its highly-rated adaptation of the Jesse Stone novel Stone Cold, which featured Tom Selleck in the lead role as Parker's small-town police chief. The second CBS movie, Night Passage, also scored high ratings, and the third, Death in Paradise, aired on April 30, 2006.

Parker was named Grand Master of the 2002 Edgar Awards by the Mystery Writers of America, an honor shared with earlier masters such as Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen.

Parker died on January 19, 2010, at the age of 77.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sensitive, January 20, 2000

By 

Harmoni (United States of America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Widening Gyre (Spenser Novels (Dell)) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the 10th book in the Spenser series.

Spenser is hired as a guard on the U.S. Senate campaign of ultra-Christian Meade Alexander. He soon finds out that Alexander is being blackmailed with the threat of making public a video of his wife in bed with a young man. Alexander truly loves his wife and would rather give up his political aspirations than humiliate her.

Susan is in the midst of a one-year internship in Washington D.C. for her Ph.D. Spenser goes to D.C. on his case and finds Susan different in significant ways. "Her face was as it had always been: intricate, beautiful, expressive. In the last year somehow it had also become faintly remote, as if always she were listening to a whisper, barely audible, from someplace else: her name, maybe, tiny and hushed."

Spenser is also very sensitive concerning the middle-aged women he sees having sex with four "college boys" who are secretly taping the rendesvous. "These women were real, with the fine roughening of skin here and there, the tiny sag at the breast, the small folds across the stomach that real women, and men, have. . . . That kind of vulnerability shouldn't be handed around. It was for someone who loved you and was vulnerable too."

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Getting hooked on Spenser, September 29, 2000

By 

Mark S. Winger (Wood Dale, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Widening Gyre (Audio Cassette)

I listened to the unabridged audio cassette of this book, while traveling around town. I prefer not to get the condensed versions of the books where you miss the development of the story and characters and get only the basics. While this book did get a little too sentimental, I have to say that it was for the better. To get the insight into Spenser and how he feels in lieu of always getting the stony detective that defeats all his enemies and solves the crime was interesting. I thought the story itself was intriguing. Okay it wasn't as complicated as plots can be, but I definitely didn't find my interest wandering. I have read one Spenser book and listened to a couple of others on tape, and I have to say that this book will keep me going. If you haven't read or listened to a Spenser book before I do not feel that you will be lost out jumping into this one.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars macho detective snuffs out shakedown, September 29, 2009

By 

Robert S. Newman "Bob Newman" (Marblehead, Massachusetts USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Widening Gyre (Spenser Novels (Dell)) (Mass Market Paperback)

I was driving down a narrow Maine highway. A blue sky, nearly cloudless, hung over the low forest. I wasn't nursing a bottle of Irish whisky. My stomach rumbled thanks to the low quality fried clams I'd eaten the night before. I spotted two overweight ladies in baseball t-shirts on a roadside porch. A sign read "Yard Sale". I had to stop. Amidst the junk and used kids' toys, I found two novels by Robert B. Parker. I bought them. Set me back fifty cents. What did "Gyre" mean, I wondered.

I didn't really find out, though "vortex" could be a choice. A tough Boston detective named Spenser gets hired by a born-again Christian politician to provide security. In Massachusetts ? Running for the Senate ? You know something is weird right from the start. I grabbed my mug of tea (Lipton's) and headed upstairs to read more. Yeah, this guy is tough, totes a piece, and can beat up any two hoodlums without breaking a sweat. But he has two lovers, a woman and a man. He believes in love. He reads Thomas Hobbes. Wonders about life and death. And other oldfashioned questions. He might be the last othe old school, but at the same time, he's pretty liberated too. A paradox. The politician's wife gets caught on videotape having sex with a young dude. He ain't her husband. Duhh. So, the tape falls into the hands of the opposition. Or so it seems. Spenser sorts it all out on a trip down to Washington. His clothes, his drinks, and his meals are all very much part of the scene. Back in Boston, he confronts the bad guys in their own den. It all comes together in the last chapters. Anais Nin once said, "We see things not as they are but as we are." Spenser is a lot like that and it will all depend on you too as to how you like this book. I liked the style, but this sort of novel reminds me of "Naked Gun". You enjoy and forget. Go to it. Don't omit some Irish whisky. Or tea.