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School DaysRobert B. ParkerPublished 2005 |
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Reviewed and Researched by Lisa Shea
Parker always likes to write about Spenser involved in "realistic modern events", and School Days is no exception. You've got a pair of socially hindered teen guys shooting up the local school. Only a grandmother still believes in her child; she asks Spenser to find out the truth about what happened. So we end up with Spenser going up the bureaucracy of the world, from school teachers to politicians and more. Of course there has to be an underworld link - this is Spenser, not Law & Order. Spenser gets through that too. Interestingly, he does pretty much this entire story on his own, without the help of Hawk, Susan, or anybody else.
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Lisa's Notes It's really funny how different people react to this story. Some people are just THRILLED that Susan is missing, because she can be so incredibly annoying. Some people really miss Hawk. Some people are interested in finally getting a book that focusses just on Spenser and how he works without any external influence. Me? I do find Susan annoying, but not so much that I need her completely removed from the book. If you go back through the various books, he alternately says that he is different but fine without her, or that he is a part of her and can't bear to think of them not a couple. So while I understand him *missing* her - the angst is a little much. On the other hand, this would have been a cool time to explore how he IS different when she's not around - but I didn't see much of that at all. So I think a cool set-up was wasted, that in essence it was written the same as if Susan was there but just busy. I *did* really miss Hawk, though. The Hawk-Spenser interaction is a lot of what makes this series so enjoyable, the way they are different but the same. I could do without the Sambo act, but I do enjoy the depth it brings to interactions at times. Again, if Parker wanted to leave Hawk out, he could have really explored how Spenser felt to be on his own, without his best friend of so many years. But it ended up being like Hawk was around and just not talking at the moment. I liked the twists and turns in general, although it does bug me that the parents are ALWAYS to blame in these books for ignoring their kids. Surely at least one set of parents, somewhere, pays attention to and knows and understands their kids at least slightly. It also bugged me that Spenser apparently lied to the child at the end to get some information out of him. Heck, maybe that is what happens to Spenser when he's not around Susan and Hawk for a while ...? |
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Traveling in Spenser's Footprints * x |
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Spenser's Menu and Drinks * x |
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