> Jim wrote
>
> But Parker's facility with dialog, action, and pace kept me reading
> until A CATSKILL EAGLE (I'm kind of anal about reading series in
> order). The book was basically, how should I put this, bad. And the
> scene in which Hawk obligingly murders someone so Spenser doesn't have
> to really bothered me. When it came to moral choices, it seemed
> Spenser talked a good game, but really didn't have the courage of his
> convictions.
>
Yes, A Catskill Eagle is a rare thing, a breakout book that
simultaneously managed to alienate a huge percentage of the people who'd
liked him the author to that point. And, Jim, I couldn't agree more that
the two things that Parker brought to the private eye novel, the
long-running relationship and the tame thug, are also the two things
that are most irritating and, in the case of the thug buddy, morally
dubious about the books.
That said, and to agree with everyone else, the first books were good
and are undeniably important in the history of the genre.
John
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>
>
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