[.ca] Sudden Mischief (ISBN 1597770183)

From Amazon.com:
Sudden Mischief, the 25th Spenser novel, finds Robert B. Parker's seemingly ageless sleuth once again engaging Boston's bad guys and sorting out life's moral dilemmas, all (or mostly) in the name of love. When Spenser's girlfriend, psychiatrist Susan Silverman, asks him to investigate charges of sexual harassment leveled against her ex-husband, Brad Sterling, the detective agrees, though the assignment "shows every sign of not working out well." As the sexual harassment allegations melt like April snow, Sterling drops out of sight, a dead body appears in his office, and Spenser discovers a murky slush of clues that suggest Sterling's work as a marketing genius for local charities has been a front for some truly despicable criminal activities. As always, the more-than-slightly-shady Hawk is on hand to help Spenser sort the good from the bad, but Spenser is left to his own devices when it comes to making sense of the emotional havoc the case creates in his relationship with Susan. And what devices they are: emotionally mature and physically dynamic, Spenser once again proves himself as detective, friend, lover, and human being as Sterling's reappearance forces Susan to examine her past and her conscience while searching for her own autonomy. As always, Spenser endures as an intelligent, ethical, and poetic private eye, even if his endless middle age seems a bit supernatural. Parker's nimble, Spartan prose suits a character who carries his years in wisdom rather than body fat. If the heart of any truly great detective series is a truly great detective, Sudden Mischief and the rest of Parker's Spenser novels surely fit the bill. --L.A. Smith

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bad first time, wonderful second time:
I guess I was in a bad mood when I read this installment in the Spenser series. Because I often trashed it for not being very good. Then I went back years later to read it again. I was wrong. I loved this book. It was a little bit different, but not some stupid want-to-be cowboy novel. You get to know Susan a little bit more, action, wise-cracks, Spenser novel stuff. Read with pleasure.

Susan comes to grips with her love-hate man relationships:
Susan asks Spenser to help her ex-husband with a bogus sexual harassment suit. Soon, we discover Susan psychoanalyzing herself, with Spenser playing the role of insightful facilitator. This isn't what Spenser fans want. We want hard edged Spenser/Hawk action. There is a good bit of action, and I love the banter between Spenser and Hawk. I especially like Hawk slipping into his upper middle class WASP accent. The story lacked something in the end, however. I came away a bit unsatisfied, even though Susan whacked one of the bad guys with a brick. Too bad the tongue was cut without the right folks understanding the reason.

It all began with Susan Silverman's ex-husband:
"Be well aware, " quoth that lady mild, "Lest sudden mischief ye too rash provoke" - Spenser's Faerie Queen If you're interested in an audio edition, I enthusiastically recommend the unabridged recording narrated by William Windom. The exchanges between Hawk and Spenser come out very well indeed; so does everything, in fact, including some truly slimy characters. (Didn't know that Windom could play creepy roles? See him as the prosecutor in _To Kill a Mockingbird_.) Welcome to one of Spenser's cases where a friend has asked him to take on an unpaid job: Susan Silverman, on behalf of her ex-husband. She kept his name, but he changed it - he's now Brad Sterling. He's trying to be a Yankee success story - Harvard graduate, PR guy with his own business and a corner office - but he's now facing a lawsuit that can ruin him even if he wins. A group of women volunteers from a fund-raiser he organized the previous year - Galapalooza, a big event put on collectively for a lot of charities too small to have their own fund-raisers - are suing him for sexual harassment. Unfortunately, one of the plaintiffs is Jeanette Ronin, the trophy wife of Francis Ronin, one of the most famous trial lawyers in the U.S. None of the defendants will talk to Spenser about the case, and even Sterling is evasive. But for Susan's sake, Spenser perseveres - and sudden mischief is indeed provoked... Most of the usual supporting players appear: Hawk decides to hang around, after 2 thugs try to chase him away ("I made $200,000 last week in Miami, and I don't much like people threatenin' me"), Rita Fiore (knowledgeable about Ronin, having argued cases before him); Rachel Wallace; and Pearl the Wonder Dog. Even Tony Marcus is back ("Should've been life, and you out in 3 years.")

Here's the scoop- It's awesome:
The book moves quickly, and ever so you get a clear picture of not only Spenser but more history on Susan as well. I will not spoil it for the die-hard fans out there who haven't come across this book. The chapters are short and focused, and what I liked most about it is that each chapter it focuses on a one-on-one talk between Spenser and some other person. Mostly-- 90% of the time, which I greatly appreciate. It focuses a lot on Spenser, and his puzzle pieces which he puts together in order to emit the true picture of the mystery from all the alibi. Further more the chapters are short, focused, and the vocabulary is easy to pick up. I personally like Spenser and Susan because their attitudes are so professional. Also, this book is best read throughout a period of time, instead of just one day. It's even better if the reader can somehow imagine himself as Spenser-- or Susan-- for the matter. They're technically the same. Anima vs. Animus. Honestly this book also suits those who are "full of themselves", how else would you be able to connect with the main characters anyways?! It has been such a long time since I have read a book that compels this aggressively. This honestly is my first look on the Spenser series, and I appologize that I'm not a long-time fan or so (This series has been going on longer than I've lived!) but it's great. I find it most effective reading it while picturing it like a movie. And also for all the guys,if you imagine that YoU'rE Spenser, and you've got a parrallell attitude with him (like I do), it blows your mind. Honestly. Susan Silverman's ex-husband, now known as Brad "Sterling" is on charge with sexual harassment and later on with murder. The case in itself is slow, but it's everything that's stirred in the middle that makes this book well worth the read. Not only does Spenser have this attitude that speaks out to the reader as "I'm untouchable" but he has his equally arrogant lover "Susan" and they make an awesome couple. It's Romantic... also in the sense of the writing style, which is a bit Romanticist. I mean, c'mon, Spenser tops every bad guy with a swift move and a kick in the groin. It's cheap, and repetitive... and it's a little too cheesy to win against the baddies. Especially the part when Susan gets in some action as well later in the story. Oh yeah, that's the main highlight, I believe. Susan gets to kick ass! Haha, check it out. I don't know enough about the series to know whether if this occurs often or not, but it was great! Ok, what are you waiting for?! Read this book. I promise you won't be dissapointed.

Entertaining page turner with a bit of depth:
The other reviews I've read mostly covered the usual points, so I don't really want to belabor them. Spenser is his usual self, but that's what the readers want of a mystery series like this. I haven't read enough of the series to say, but the treatment of the relationships does more than superficial, but still rather archetypical and not the way most of us do things in real life. However, that's why we read escapist fiction, isn't it? From that perspective, the book succeeds very well, and I basically found it hard to put down, frequently being surprised to look up and see how quickly the chapters were flying past. An interesting structural or stylistic note is that the chapters are very short and highly focused. Almost every chapter is clearly focused on a specific and well-described event. Mr. Parker is obviously a very skilled craftsman, and I would be interested to see one of his outlines. Though I'm not an author of fiction, I suspect it would still be helpful to my writing. Not really a major beef, but alledgedly a major weakness of a mystery... Or perhaps I should make the fighter joke? I think he telegraphed his punch. It was pretty obvious who the culprit must be well before the end of the book. Though he had introduced a number of unsavory candidates, all but one had become implausible rather too soon. Some people might also take it as a minor beef that a few issues were left pending at the end, in particular as regards some of the peripheral criminals, but I actually considered that a merit and a sign of the author's mastery of his craft. Those threads were not important to the main story, and he knew it. His story was done, and he stopped writing, rather than taking a few more pages for a purely cosmetic and anticlimactic wrapping.