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This digital document is an article from Film Criticism, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2005. The length of the article is 8099 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Showing off: laughter and excessive disclosure in Burt Reynolds' star image.(Critical Essay)
Author: Jacob Smith
Publication: Film Criticism (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 30Issue: 1Page: 21(20)

Article Type: Critical Essay

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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Spenser has his hands full when he takes on two cases at once. In the first, a high-minded university might be hiding a killer within a swamp of political correctness. And in the other, Spenser comes to the aid of a stalking victim, only to find himself the unwilling object of the woman's dangerous affection.

"One of the great series in the history of the American detective story!"--The New York Times

"Spenser can still punch, sleuth, and wisecrack with the best of them."--Publishers WeeklyAmazon.com Review
Sometimes a detective's life is all work for no pay. As afavor to his buddy Hawk, Spenser agrees to investigate a man unjustlydenied tenure. Then Spenser's girlfriend, Susan, asks Spenser to helpstop a stalker. Plenty of work, sure, but all done pro bono. "Twocases at a time. I thought about having 'Master Sleuth' added to mybusiness cards." As the cases unfold, Spenser (and Hawk) charm andbatter their way past policemen, stockbrokers, hit men, whitesupremacists, an unstable woman, and a stuffy tenure committee. AuthorRobert B. Parker tells a good story, but his real strength is in hisdialog--the rhythm of which Burt Reynolds captures perfectly. Afantastic reader, Reynolds uses a wide range of voices and accents tobring Parker's characters to life. (Running time: 9 hours, 6cassettes) --C.B. Delaney ... Read more

Customer Reviews (76)

Double the action
Spenser takes on two cases in "Hush Money," both as favors and both free.First Hawk comes to him with a request to help out a man named Robinson Nevins, who believes he was denied tenure inappropriately.Apparently a rumor was started that Robinson was responsible for the suicide of a young man; the rumor being that they were romantically linked and when Robinson broke it off, the young man (Lamont Prentice) killed himself.When Spenser begins to investigate, however, he quickly uncovers evidence that not only was the death not a suicide, but also that Lamont was running a blackmail ring where he would threaten to out closeted homosexuals unless they paid.

Secondly, Susan asks Spenser to help a friend of hers - KC - who is being stalked.Spenser has to discover who is stalking KC while at the same time fending off her ever-increasingly obsessive advances.

Plenty of twists and turns make this quite a story.The despicable Amir Abdullah made for some great comedy relief at times - at least I got a lot of laughs out of him.I'm not certain he was meant to be funny, but I found him to be.

Twist and Turns
Very good book.Lots of action twists, moral turns, ethnic turns, action and a tidbit of the human side of Hawk.Typical Parker with multiple plots, subplots and a . . . motivated woman.

We learn some of the history of Hawk
While this Spenser novel follows the same formula as the others, there is one significant difference. In this one, we learn much more about the enigmatic Hawk. When he encounters a man that tried to sexually abuse him as a child, Hawk roughs him up, an action that puzzles Spenser. Hawk explains, describing some of the events of his youth and how he became a boxer. There is less wisecracking in this story as there is in some of the others, which is unfortunate. The best Spenser novels are those where he interacts with officers Quirk and Belsen, which seems to bring out the best in wisecracking repartee.
Spenser is once again the noble crusader, risking his life to help a friend, in this case Hawk. The man who took Hawk off the streets has a son who was denied tenure at a university. Believing it to have been unfair, the man denied tenure goes to Hawk, who goes to Spenser. This begins a trek into the undercurrents of gay life and the hypocrisy of so many of those who consider it a scourge of civilization. There is also a second plot line that has a woman very aggressively pursuing Spenser in an attempt to get him to engage in sex. Like the gallant man he is Spenser maneuvers the situation so that Susan is given the opportunity to deal with it. Which is does, in a manner that impresses Spenser.
This is not the best Spenser novel, parts of the plot are a bit too exaggerated. Nevertheless, it is very good, and is one that I will probably reread in a few years.

The Young & The Jaded. Minors & Minorities Seethe in Stereotype City. Compulsion, Coercion, Connivance, Corruption.
This one began with a smoothly captivating, yawning weather "report" brought to the reader through the ambiance of a baseball game singing over radio waves.Spenser was bemoaning the contrast of slower ages passed, when a sports announcer could linger leisurely around springtime baseball news, between sudden screams of stand-up-and-cheer, bat cracking action.But, that day, as Spenser narrated, the radio voice was sliding so fast through a long list of ads, the endless promotions threatened to overrun notice of ongoing fly-balls busting and bursting through air.

A few of the early chapters took off slowly, mesmerizing-ly, with Spenser's sensual briefs of weather reports giving lazy home-runs to the sleepy emergence of spring, as money was extorted subtly in underplots.

Loved the way Parker posed Spenser slipping into such a still mode of respect as to consciously quiet his breathing as Hawk opened an accounting of a childhood experience with one of the suspects who had triggered a brief loss of control in Hawk's steel-studded cool.

The dual cases in HUSH MONEY, one a favor for Hawk, the other a favor for Susan, were a switch from the usual focus on a single client case, which has been the deal in the 7 Spenser novels I've read, with each additional one making me more glad I have around 26 left to read, with Parker still penning posh.The alternation of cases was a tantalizing treat of contrasts, especially as I wondered if a connection might emerge between them, even though the way each was introduced would, in "reality" cause them to have no cross over, no bleeding through, as it were.

Well, except that in the real world serendipity and synchronicity exist. And in fiction there's always the Right Brain at work, which causes authors to slip in amazingly cohesive, subtle themes which they weren't aware of as they were writing, maybe weren't aware of after the book was published and selling for a few decades.Then a sneaky reviewer comes along and sees a shiny silk thread woven through the words, visible only after the activation of some type of predestined ray to The Spectrum of Light, brought into reality by a time-release "code" built into the Laws of Physics during Day Two of Implementation of The Plan of The Genius.

Okay, all right.This is a P.I. novel.It isn't sci fi.But.Physical Reality is.Sci fi.It's the best sci fi in the evolution of life.What I'm v-rooming and v-rooming and v-rooming to say is that two totally disconnected cases which a detective is working simultaneously, whether in fiction or in reality, might have Right Brain, serendipitous connections.And, I, of course, having written a series of sci fi novels, with a couple of stand alone sci fi mss in progress, have a brain which looks around every fictional word for clues to the glue which connects seemingly unrelated happen stances.

So.For a time in my reading of HUSH MONEY I admit to having wondered if a seemingly nice, quiet lady in the gay (was he?) professor's case may have actually been the stalker in the "rescue me" conniving female case.

Most readers expect that, in the world of The Novel (feel very free to read my review of James A. Michener's book of that title) sub plots will religiously cooperate toward a tied-together denouement, ultimately joining with the main plot in an ever twisting vine of cranial convolutions contrived within the mind of the author.

The main theme of this novel, under which all the machinations play, seems to be a dramatization of sexual variations among various levels of human purity and pollution, with these variations brought into a cross-stitching pattern laid over stereotypes and sub-cultural demands, with the saffron thread of hypocrisy overcoming all within a tight weave of labyrinth proportions.

It was amazing how Parker brought out the admirable and the putrid within multiple types of sexual exchanges among multifaceted characters.But, KC Roth took the cake of the conniving female.As Parker described her, she had so many layers of contrivances, if they were all peeled away, nothing would be left.And yet, Spenser found a simple, natural a way to "save" KC from her "rescue me" contrived cries.However, after that didn't last, Spenser had to call in Susan, the "Big Gun," who played a few extraordinarily delightful scenes in this one.

The reader is required to make do with only one cooking scene rearing a fry pan and pasta pot in HUSH MONEY, but what an entry!My menu of it would drool in describing, "Black Bean Linguine, with the beans olive-oil-sauteed with garlic cloves, laced with Sherry, finished with fresh cilantro."

Yep, "Leftovers R Us." Given his perpetual ability to take whatever ingredients are at hand and gourmet the heck out of them, Spenser began joking about his new catering business taking over his not having a single clue to chew.

Spenser again ran through his evolving ethics of "to kill (in cold blood but with `just cause') or not to kill."And he made no bones about Hawk's willingness to kill (without a license, sans cultural sanction) human vermin.As usual, creativity won, and Spenser found ways of less bloodletting to solve injustices and end problems, which sometimes required more than one application of solutions.With two cases to juggle in HUSH MONEY the plots became so convoluted I wasn't sure how/if they interconnected, except to make the point that race, color, creed, and sexual persuasions had nothing to do with a person being a pig, or human with integrity (I don't mean to denigrate the cleaner species).

Layers upon layers of excellent pig interviews exposed their stench so plainly the pages reeked (entertainingly, of course).With that setting established in stinky spades, when a real human being stepped into a session with Spenser the fresh air was so evident my eyes literally widened (and quit watering).I was hugely impressed that Tommy (David) Harmon seemed so absolutely real.I've met only a small number of people like him in my life.Every word of dialogue in that interview refreshingly set David aside and above, but one reply stood out.It was David's reply to Spenser's repeated ease-setting promise that, in his line of business he wouldn't get far if he blabbed heavy secrets divulged in an interview.

Spenser said: "I can avoid mentioning your name."

Harmon replied: "If I said it, I'm responsible for it."

Being responsible for everything one has ever blabbed or written, wow.Given my overboard spontaneity, and foot-in-mouth tendency, I've had some tough chewing eating certain words I've spewed without proper clues.Ohhhh.Myyyyyy.

I'll conclude by quoting my nephew Lonnie, with his adorable 5 years-old voice still speaking clearly in my mind nearly 40 years later. He had been spouting off at the mouth into my tape recorder for several minutes when he stopped suddenly, face glowing, and grinned around the words, "Shut my mouth."

Linda G. Shelnutt

hush money
Typical Spenser. witty, hard nosed, careing, and plenty of other characters to play off of. Keeps you turning the pages ... Read more

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The search for a Mafia princess's errant spouse lands Spenser on the firing line in a gangland turf war in this latest novel by the bestselling author of Paper Doll and Double Deuce. Set against the bright lights and seamy side streets of Las Vegas, Chance takes listeners on an odyssey into the netherworld of disorganized crime. 4 cassettes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (29)

Great Spenser
No fat, terse good humor, best good bad guys out there. While the story is great (Spenser and Hawk go to Vegas looking for somebody and things become convoluted, of course), what's wonderful about Parker's books are the writing itself, his dialogue and the characters. I didn't like the first Spenser novel I read (a more recent one) and waited a long time to try another but am glad I did. Parker's terrific.

Spenser shows tenacity and morality
Chance, getting its title from what is essentially a Las Vegas setting for this Spenser book, is a thought-provoking detective story with an added level of morality and goodness. Spenser is asked to find the missing husband of the daughter of an organized crime leader. After poking around, he determines the husband is in Las Vegas with the wife of another and more vicious crime leader. Together with Hawk, Spenser tries to piece together what the husband is doing and why. In his investigation, which includes a murder of the daughter, he uncovers several layers of deceit and corruption within the crime syndicate.

As the book progresses and Spenser is taken off the case, he doggedly cannot let go of the need to rescue the wife and bring down the crime leader. We find in this book a Spenser with a determination for justice and human compassion that goes beyond a typical detective story. It makes for a good guy vs bad guy story with a strong sense of moral fiber and higher order. Less cavalier than other Parker books, Chance is a fine read not easily forgotten.

Parker's terse style reigns once again with characters who demonstrate their world-view through action rather than description. The light banter between Spenser, Susan, and Hawk does not mask a serious story with depth of emotion and psychological perception. The writing is smooth, the plot tight, the construction excellent, and the meaning appropriate. Fun, entertaining, action-oriented, but also rather layered with moral depth. One of my favorite Parker books.

Chance (Spenser) by Robert B. Parker
Love Robert Parker Books. This book came in great shape.
Enjoy reading his book

Chance would be a fine thing . . .
In this VERY amusing (although bloody) chapter in the Spenser library, Spenser and Hawk travel to Las Vegas to find Anthony Meeker, the husband of Shirley Meeker, the daughter of crime boss Julius Ventura.No one admits to knowing why he ran - according to Shirley he worshiped the ground she walked on - and Ventura is not keen to have Spenser digging around trying to find out why Anthony ran, he just wants Spenser to find Anthony.When Spenser says that to find Anthony he might have to discover why he ran, Ventura backs down with ill grace and warns that anything learned better not be blabbed.

The trouble with Anthony, as it turns out, is that he gambles a lot and loses consistently.Badly.All the time.And Vegas is no exception.

This was a very entertaining chapter in the Spenser series - kept my mind off the fact I been stuck in the hospital, anyway!Don't miss it!

Spenser series flagging

I first became aware of the Spenser (detective) character from the TV show Spenser for Hire (1985-1988.)

The series was adapted from Robert Parker's, Spenser novels. It was the Hawk character - brilliantly brought to life by Avery Brooks that I liked best.

I soon started reading the novels - and have read most of them.

To sum up the Spenser character - He is a middle aged, Boston,detective with good street credit. The cops and the hoodlums respect him.He is not trying to save the world - just make a small difference.

Parker has been prospering from the Spenser series for more than 20 years - a nice meal ticket.

Lately I have noticed the dialogue becoming predictable - dare I say boring. The plot lines are less imaginative and the final chapters try to sum up a story where clues have been sparse.

Chance is an exercise in trying to ring the Spenser series register just a few more times.

In this adventure our heroes travel to Las Vegas to investigate the disappearanceof a mob figure (Julius Ventura)'s son in law (Anthony Meeker.)

The supportive cast includes a brutal mob enforcer - Marty Anaheim and his battered wife Bibi, Julius Ventura's emotionally challenged daughter, a double dealing Las Vegas gumshoe and a host of unpleasant underworld figures.

Only Bibi is marginally fleshed but comes off as a lack luster stereotype.

When the mystery is finally resolved - you will find yourself caring - not at all.

The best Spenser novels rely on fast action and witty dialogue.

Chance's action is not fast andthe dialogue is labored and time worn.

The characters that we have to come to love so well (Spenser, Hawk and Susan Silverman) have not evolved.They have no hobbies, they ignore advances in electronic technology, have no problems with their plumbing, and never comment on current Boston's politics.

If you are new to the Spenser series - spend your money and time on the earlier novels - you won't be disappointed.

Robert Parker is an elegant, witty writer who is exploring new territory.

As the Spenser series has declined - Parker introduced two new leading characters that now have their own series; Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall.

Both of the those new series are a lot of fun.

Is it possible that the next Spenser novel will be a phoenix? - I think the chances are unlikely.

"Hey, Robert Parker!" Prove me wrong!


Caslo ... Read more

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Moby Dick is the epic saga of the fanatical Captain Ahab, who has sworn vengeance on the mammoth white whale who has crippled him. The first American novel to win a place in the literature of the world, it is a masterfully symbolic drama of the conflict between man and his fate. ... Read more

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Tapes ... Read more

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Auburn home football program. An 18 year old Burt Reynolds (called Buddy) is individually pictured in uniform (#46) and listed on the Florida State roster as a left halfback from West Palm Beach. ... Read more

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A story of suspense written serially by thirteen of Florida's most talented writers--including Dave Barry, Carl Hiaasen, and Elmore Leonard--features a riot in Coconut Grove, an appearance by Fidel Castro, and other strange happenings. 80,000 first printing. $60,000 ad/promo.Amazon.com Review
Dave Barry starts the madness in Naked Came theManatee, introducing a 102-year-old environmentalist named CoconutGrove and a manatee saddled with one of Barry's favorite monikers,Booger.Carl Hiaasen closes down the party, andin between, 11 of Florida's literati, including ElmoreLeonard, John Dufresne, and Edna Buchanan, make twistedofferings to the affair: three severed heads, all bearing a remarkableresemblance to Fidel Castro; four murders; some sex; someespionage; even an appearance by Jimmy Carter and one by Castro himself.

Originally published as a serial novel in the Miami Herald'sTropic magazine, Naked Came the Manatee resembles aliterary game of telephone, with each writer contributing a chapter andpassing it on to the next, who then makes the most of what he or she isgiven. The result is a novel with wildly fluctuating styles and morecrazy plot curves than a daytime drama, but thanks to these 13masters of the craft this roller coaster of a book isalmost as much fun to read as it obviously was to write. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (53)

Entertaining But Uneven
Like the waters of Key Biscayne, in and near where much of the plot of this book occurs, this story is choppy.That's to be expected, given the novel consists of 13 chapters, no two written by the same author.Dave Barry kicks off the story, Carl Hiaasen finishes it, and the writers in between are all seasoned Floridian authors of varying renown.Some of the chapters are funnier than others, some better written, and a couple don't work at all.The approach makes for disjointed storytelling at best, and reads more like a series of tenuously interconnected vignettes than an actual story.It's an interesting writing experiment, but one that's been done before and better.If you're a fan of any of these authors or the peculiar inanities of south Florida life, you'll enjoy this book.

Naked Manatee
Very enjoyable book. Surprising to have such an author lineup, one/chapter. Left the mystery a little shallow but a fun read.

Crazy good read!
I had a lot of fun reading this mess of a book, but if you are looking for a 'normal' novel then you might want to run the other way. This is NOT a book to be taken very seriously (and if you try then you'll probably end up hating it). It's like the pass a long stories you wrote with friends back in school - it jumps around adding and dumping characters at will and it sometimes seems like the authors wanted to see how crazy they could make their chapter end to see how the next author would write their way out of the mess. I think it was pure ridiculously demented fun from Dave Barry's opening to Carl Hiassen's ending.

A Manatee with an Identity Crisis
In case you didn't know, this book is actually written by several Florida authors, each contributing a chapter and taking the story where they so choose.I believe it was originally published in a magazine, with each author submitting the next installment of the story.The first is Dave Barry and the final is Carl Hiaasen with several other prime examples of Floridian writing genius in between.

This book covers the bases when it comes to Florida humor, taking place in Miami, we have nature lovers, skin divers, lawyers, police, Castro Impersonators, drug dealers, hit men, famous actors, and of course Castro himself.Throw in a couple of severed heads and a manatee with an identity crisis and you have an entertaining 201 pages.

The manner of the writing of this book leads to characters making drastic personality changes, some characters not getting a proper ending, and lots of laughter all around.The writing styles vary from chapter to chapter, some more focused on plot than others, but I recommend this book to anyone looking for a short entertaining read that they don't want to invest a lot into.

Too many cooks and all that . . .
If you are a fan of any of these authors, do yourself the favor of sticking with their individual efforts.Hiaasen's chapter (the final one) cracks broadly at the missteps of several previous authors.I enjoyed only 3 chapters (Berry, Hall, & Hiaasen), and I put up with the rest to see how Mr. Hiaasen would tie it up.Even his talents could not salvage this - and here, I strongly agree with other reviewers - MESS. ... Read more

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The bad kid from the 'hood has a long record, but did he really murder the white coed? Spenser and Hawk plumb the depths of the seamy side of life. In an ethical no-man's-land of twisted cops and spoiled rich kids with peculiar private proclivities, an assassin's bullets take Spenser down. Dead to the world, he plots to pursue justice in this suspenseful story that is also a meditation on morality and mortality. Simultaneous hardcover release from Putnam. 4 cassettes.Amazon.com Review
While the rest of us grow older, Spenser seems suspended in perpetual early middle age. Oh, he talks about getting older, but his body is still firm, his muscles toned, and his reflexes are still hair-trigger fine. Even so, it is Spenser's body that betrays him when he is almost killed by an assassin's bullet two-thirds of the way through Robert B. Parker's latest Spenser adventure, Small Vices. Hired to discover the truth behind a doubtful murder conviction, Spenser soon runs afoul of"the Gray Man," who eventually shoots and partially paralyzes him. Spenser, his stalwart girlfriend Susan, and his almost mythical friend Hawk then hole up in Santa Barbara until the detective can get back on his feet again.

There's never any doubt that Spenser will get back on his feet, or that he will eventually track down the man who shot him and solve the mystery that started the whole ball rolling in the first place. What makes the Spenser mysteries interesting is Spenser himself, the thinking person's private eye, a man of honor and of conscience who understands that every action has consequences. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (51)

An old and supposedly solved case nearly gets Spenser killed
Spenser is back, this time he is investigating a murder where a man has already been convicted and sentenced for the crime. His semi-flame Rita Fiore is no longer a prosecutor; she is now in a powerful law firm. However, one case from her past disturbs her, a black man with a long record named Ellis Alves was convicted of murdering a white college female and there were two witnesses to him dumping the body. However, Rita is disturbed by the case and wants to hire Spenser to determine if Alves was in fact the murderer.
Spenser agrees to take the case and proceeds in his usual way, asking people questions until they get annoyed. At first, he has absolutely nothing to go on but when four large men come to his office in an attempt to intimidate him, he realizes that there is something large and ugly hidden somewhere in the case. This leads Spenser into a direct confrontation with a killer that is so efficient that he would be considered too much for Vinnie Morris to handle. Spenser is extremely lucky, if being shot several times and put in a coma can be thought of as lucky. Spenser battles back and prepares himself for a second confrontation with the killer and through that, he is able to determine who killed the girl and why there has been so much resistance to his exploring an old case.
This story is Spenser once again at his best, supported strongly by his friends; everyone pitches in to help, including some old adversaries. The dialog and action is crisp, Spenser is flirtatious with women, but only to a point and through it all he remains a white knight with standards that give him a rudder, but may get him killed.

Spenser Rocks!
Robert B. Parker hit a homerun when he created Spenser. That's Spenser with an S like the poet. Parker hit a grand slam with this novel Small Vices.

If you were ever a fan of Spenser for Hire on television in the 80's You need to pick up a Spenser novel. Take your pick there are over 30 of them out there.

Parker's Spenser is a wise cracking former boxer, former police officer turned private eye. His sarcastic sense of humor willkeep you laughing and the hard pounding action will keep you reading/listening until the very end.

In Small Vices Spenser goes up against corrupt high society and a hired man in Gray hell bent on killing him. Along with Hawk,Susan Silverman, and a cast of others. Spenser finds himself in the fight of his life. The book covers areas in all our lives with racial humor, morality, integrety, and a quest for justice.

Burt Reynolds ruined this book for me
I have listened to the Spenser CDs with Joe Montegna and couldn't get past listening to chapter 4 with Burt Reynolds. His monotonous voice made much of the text incomprehendible. Read the book and skip the audio book for this one.

Thomas Fitzsimmons author of City of Fire loved this book.
City of Fire
I've read all of Parker's books and this one is a standout. It grabbed me on the first page and I read it in one day.

Poor choice of reader mars one of the best Parker novels
This is a review of the audio book - not the novel.Prior to listening to this version of the novel I had heard 10 other "Spenser" novels on CD.Then I bought two new CDs: one in which Wm. Windom is the reader and this one, in which Burt Reynolds is the reader.The previous 10 had been read by Joe Mantegna.

Now I don't know how others feel, but when I discover a new author who has created great characters I like to spend time with those characters.I read the books over and over.The best ones I never tire of.I love the physical settings, the relationships between the characters and many other attributes of the story.Hearing the story read adds another dimension and, particularly in the Parker novels, which are filled with humor, I sometimes pick up added bits of humor because the pace of the story is slower than when I zip through it myself.This presupposes that there is nothing in the voice of the reader to distract from the story.Joe Mantegna's voice is neutral enough so that it doesn't intrude on the story itself.

The reader in this story, however has such a deep, gravelly voice that it is a constant distraction from the story. The reader also moves his voice up and down an octave range that forces me to continually adjust the volume.Either he drops his voice so that I can barely hear him or his audio is so loud that the volume has to be turned down.I did not really appreciate Mantegna's presentations until I listened to Windom and Reynolds.With both of them the medium is indeed the message. ... Read more

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