Review by Booklist Review
Most Parker fans think Spenser, the hero and narrator of the author's long-running detective series, is just fine, but the character they really love is Hawk, Spenser's stoic, supremely elegant, superhumanly macho, subtly sensitive best pal. Well, Hawk fans are in for a special treat because in Parker's nineteenth Spenser novel, it's Hawk who occupies center stage with Spenser riding shotgun. When Hawk is hired to clean up a Boston housing project known as Double Deuce, where a teenage mother and her infant daughter have been killed in a drive-by shooting, he must confront teenage gang leader Major Johnson and in so doing finds himself pitted against a version of his former self; as Hawk describes his antagonist, "Kid more like me than a lot of people." Meanwhile, Spenser is struggling with the prospect of giving up his independence by living with longtime lover Susan Silverman. In addition to delivering all the Parker staples--witty dialogue, kinetic action, believable interpersonal relationships--the novel adds some surprising extras: a thoroughly unsentimental, morally complex gloss on the nightmare of ghetto life and the appeal of gang culture; an equally tough-minded look at the seemingly unbridgeable barriers of race and class, seen through the prism of the largely unspoken but nonetheless deep bond between the black Hawk and the white Spenser; and, finally and most satisfyingly, our most detailed glimpse yet of the inner Hawk. Working within the genre conventions that have given us such larger-than-life black characters as Superfly and Shaft, Parker has taken Hawk into another realm, beyond caricature to the stature of mythic hero. Poor Spenser. He's in serious danger of being permanently upstaged, like the now-forgotten Yankee first baseman Wally Pipp who was replaced one day by Lou Gehrig and never was heard from again. (Reviewed Mar. 1, 1992)0399137211Bill Ott
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In Parker's ( Pastime ) 23rd Spenser novel, our hero finds himself, at the behest of his pal Hawk, defending the residents of a gang-terrorized Boston housing project known as Double Deuce. The drive-by shooting of a teenage mother and her child brings the duo into a confrontation with gangleader Major Johnson and his posse. At the same time, Spenser's longtime relationship with psychologist Susan is escalating, and the two agree to live together. The contrast between Spenser's cozy domestic situation (and a new relationship for the enigmatic Hawk, who reveals some of his background) and the poverty and violence of the urban projects reinforces the authenticity of this series, and its quirky appeal. The plot is nothing new--it might be described as Spenser meets New Jack City --but Deuce 's snappy dialogue, timely, fast-paced action and quick characterizations make it classic Spenser. Mystery Guild main selection; Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild alternate selection; condensation rights to Time-Life Books; audio rights to Dove Audio. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The still-popular Spenser ( Playmates , LJ 4/1/89) helps sidekick Hawk solve the seemingly random murders of a teenaged mother and baby in a violent housing project. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Spenser and Hawk take on a black street-gang while, on the domestic front, Susan persuades Spenser to move in: more hard- boiled mystery with a runny yolk from the ever-entertaining Parker. After some good-natured haggling, Spenser's dark-side alter- ego Hawk agrees to pay the Boston shamus a third of what he's getting--``nothing''--to free a decayed ghetto housing project from the ``Hobarts,'' the violent drug-dealing youth gang that controls it utterly; and, at the same time, to bring to justice whoever-- most likely a Hobart--gunned down a 15-year-old and her infant daughter at the project. With Hawk as guide, then, Spenser enters the forbidding world of gangs, marveling at their colorful slang and ritualized ways, meditating--with input from a saintly youth worker--on their hopeless lives...which gets him to thinking a lot about Hawk and the cruel sacrifices the black übermensch made to escape the ghetto. Spenser's longtime girlfriend Susan thinks about that, too, while monitoring how her experiment in domesticating the p.i. is faring--not too well, actually, despite all the usual lovingly described scenes of cooking and soulful cooing between the two: Spenser is pacing like a caged tiger. Meanwhile, the gang's leader has fixed on Hawk as a kind of father figure, but one he'll have to slay (``Hawk, you and me the same,'' he says. ``It got to be done we step up. Ain't afraid to be killing, ain't afraid to be dying'') unless Hawk kills him first. The inevitable showdown is pure adrenaline--and the subsequent avenging of the murders, plus Spenser's dignified coming to terms with Susan, pure satisfaction. Nothing new, just Parker marking perfect time: Spenser fans will love it.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.