[.ca] Potshot (ISBN 0425182886)

From Amazon.com:
Maybe Spenser's driven all the bad guys out of Boston. Which is too bad because on his home ground, the tough and tender PI and Hawk, his trusty sidekick, don't need a gang of other guys to do their work. And the hired guns they round up to help them clean out a nest of ne'er-do-wells who have the desert town of Potshot, Arizona, terrified aren't nearly as amusing as, say, John Dortmunder's criminal colleagues in Donald Westlake's caper novels. The thugs who populate the Dell, a scrubby little enclave just outside of town, have the locals in their pocket, which is why the pretty blonde who hires Spenser to find whoever killed her husband points him toward the Preacher, who rules the Dell and its denizens. But Spenser's not as certain as his client that Steve Buckman died at the Preacher's hands. As our hero and his ethnically diverse but politically incorrect henchmen (one gay shooter, one Latino, one black, one Native American--all that's missing is Annie Oakley) investigate, it turns out that Spenser's right, as usual. The action ranges from Las Vegas to L.A., Atlanta to New Mexico, but much of it is a humdrum travelogue as Spenser rounds up his gang from all over the country to take on the Preacher and his musclemen. While Potshot isn't one of Robert B. Parker's best, it's still not bad. The one or two lines devoted to introducing Spenser's backup buddies don't begin to do any of them justice, and there's a lot more description of the artillery the guys pack than usual. But they do fill up the white space, and when the action lags, there's always Susan's dirty talk, shopping jones, and dietary obsessions to divert the reader. There's a midlife crisis somewhere in this evergreen series that's just waiting to erupt. Whether it's Spenser's, Susan's, or Parker's, however, remains to be seen. --Jane Adams

just plain bad:
How can a book that is at least 125 pages too long manage to have an abrupt and unfulfiling conclusion? Maybe if Parker would quit cranking out books like they were on an assembly line, he might produce a work that is at least entertaining.

Overall - worth the trip:
I'm relatively new to the Spenser series (I know - "Where have I been?!?"), so I don't have the history to rank this against the earlier work. In and of itself, it was a fun ride worth the read. I did read a couple of prior Spenser books and I think it's always fun when a character revisits characters from old stories. It was great to see the separate characters interact with each other. I do agree with another post that the limited Susan was a plus. That dialogue is getting a little worn. The Spenser/Hawk dialoque on the other hand - I'll never get sick of it. Joe Mantengna is a great narrator, but if you ever come across a Spenser novel read by Burt Reynolds (I heard Chance), it's a real trip!

One more hit in the Spenser series:
Robert B Parker has a knack for bringing the reader right into the story he is telling. I have always been a fan of the TV series "Spenser for Hire" and listening to Joe Mantegna read Mr. Parker's work is one of the best combinations of reader and writer I have listened to in a long time. Spenser has been hired to find out who murdered Mary Lou Buckman's husband in the wealthy desert town of Potshot. It is believed that a gang of misfits called The Dell is responsible but the more Spenser looks into it, the less he believes this to be true. Also, there are ties between The Dell, the murder and several people of the town's citizens. Is the sheriff really a good guy, what's the real estate agent up to, and what is a movie producer doing in this small town? A group of the Potshot's leaders comes to Spenser and asks him to rid them of The Dell. In order to this, Spenser hires several of his own thugs. Each has his own special personality; - a Mexican, a gay, a Native American and of course, Spenser's favorite partner, Hawk, along with several others who have mob connections. Mr. Mantegna has the ability to give each character his own voice so the listener has no trouble knowing who is speaking. Spenser's long time squeeze, Suzanne is more than a little worried as he begins this case. Mr. Parker's tells of the desert heat and makes it feel real. He paints a picture in words of the mountains and the people and the listener can visualize them in his/her mind from his well written descriptions. He has created each character in such a way that makes you think you might know a person like that. The final chapter brings everything to a close but not in the way a reader might expect. Potshot is a story that is hard to put down until the reader finishes the book.

Go West, Young Man: Potshot by Robert B. Parker:
You may not know it, but I actually rather like the Spenser novels. Very simplistic usually, they are guaranteed to have lots of action and minimal plot twists. Evil is usually just that, evil. No moralizing or explanation as to why the evil is evil, it just is and must be eradicated. Like any Steven Segal movie, these novels have their place. Sometimes you just want to sit back and read and know that the good guys will in all likelihood, save the day and maybe the fair maiden in distress. Sometimes, not thinking is good. The usual is true of this effort by Robert B. Parker. Spenser is far a field from his hometown of Boston, as he has been in the last several novels. This time, like many a "B" western on any late night cable channel, Spenser is called in to save the town and protect the fair maiden. Potshot, Arizona is a mall town catering to the new class that drives the American West, Yuppies. They have come, bought up the town, and at least some of them have plans to get rich any way they can. But, up in the old mining camp above the town lurks a gang of toughs of various stripes known as the Dell. The Dell is led by a charismatic figure known as The Preacher. The Preacher has organized the group and focused their energies on collecting protection monies from the town merchants. There was resistance to the protection payments and Steve Buckman led the resistance. Steve and the his wife (who would be the required fair maiden) Mary Lou Buckman ran a small outdoor day tour service. Steve is threatened publicly by the Dell with death and soon is dead in the middle of dusty Main Street with no witnesses. May Lou knows the Dell did it, she just isn't sure which one and hires Spenser to find the killer. Spenser first scouts out the situation and then recruits Hawk and all the usual suspects as he investigates the case. High Noon this is not, but the allusions to it are thick and heavy throughout this approximately 300-page hardback novel. This is Robert B. Parker at his usual smirking best and as such, can be an entertaining read, if so inclined. Long time Spenser fans will not be disappointed as the tradition continues.

Fun story, uneven narration:
Joe Mantegna, who played Spencer in the recent A & E movies, does a passable job in narrating this tale. His Spencer is erudite and dry, really done quite well. He does less well, though, with the other rolls. Hawk's accept is different every time he speaks. Susan and the other women sound -- well, anything but sexy. And I'm sure that, even with the "unabridged" label, there would have been some way to elide out the over-repetitive "he said"/"I said" bits of dialog -- what works well on the printed page is horribly distracting when read aloud. All that said, so to speak, it's a decent enough Spencer tale -- a "Magnificent Seven" with Spencer in the lead (and Hawk as Yul Brynner). A light and frothy audio book quite suitable for commute time.