God Save the Child

The other day I finished the second novel in Robert B. Parker's Spenser private eye series - God Save the Child. It starts out interesting enough - a married couple who seem to be an odd fit hire Spenser to find their sixteen year old son who appears to have been kidnapped. But as the books unfolds, so does the mystery and it is hardly a straight forward case.

That's what I like so far in reading Parker's books - that they aren't such straight forward mysteries. While I have an inkling of which direction the story might go and see it starting down those pathes, the author quickly takes me on a side jaunt that turns out to be totally unexpected. In the end though, the pieces all fall into place like a nice jigsaw puzzle. I like that.

His writing style is easy going too. He seems a little heavy on the descriptives in some spots, for things not critical to the tale. But, I have it on authority that he tends to shy away from some of that as he grows as an author. The dialogue is sparkling, the subject matter deals with adult things and situations without getting salacious. I like that too. And, again with this book written in 1974, it is not so heavily tied to the time of its writing that you get yanked out of the narrative by the references (given it is now 2008).

A good read.