Walking Shadow (Spenser)
by Robert B. Parker
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Book Summary Information
Author: Robert B. ParkerEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1995-06-01
ISBN: 0425147746
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Berkley
Book Reviews of Walking Shadow (Spenser)
Book Review: Rain-Pouring-Down in Port City, Spenser Connects With Chinatown
Summary: 5 Stars
The opening rhythm and balsamic detail of this Spenser novel has drifted toward the jazzy flow of Parker's later series entries, leaving the early novels in the annals of classic detective fiction, lush with setting ambiance and yummy P.I. moodiness. The first page plot movement in WALKING SHADOW set an immediate rhythm into an ongoing situation, using a writing "technique" which translated to me as Parker's talent rolling so naturally now that he had no compulsion to set up anything.
For me, this style seemed to say that he didn't feel any need to grab the reader by the lapels and jerk him into the story, didn't need to waste words cajoling anybody outside Spenser's reality to join the party. Parker just started right in typing with what Spenser was thinking about the drama he and Susan were into, typing with a sort of helter-skelter abandon, a seeming non concern about the presence of a reader, typing tidbits about the history leading up and the current ... "riding along in an automobile."
Loved it!
How refreshing it is to read an author who seems to have absolutely lost the angst of being a good novelist (if he ever actually had any concerns about his talent or skill). The irony is that once an author loses the overwhelm of this type of self-nagging, his writing naturally, effortlessly begins to "work" in enthralling the reader, and both writer and reader win the brass.
On the other hand, I'm not implying the opposite. Many, if not most writers angst over this and that about their work, and they produce great stuff.
X-Ray vision Spenser. His interviews in this one seemed to be even more potent than his norm, especially in painting amazingly insightful reductions of individual essences, simultaneous to highlighting exquisite ethical visions, separating solid values from superficial hypocrisy.
My habit is to mark passages of high profile excellence, to refer to later, when writing a review. In one particular interview, with Leonard O, the playwright, Spenser's pithy observations were so hot, I gave up scribbling check marks and noted the whole interview as worth a verbatim quote. I was loathing that guy so much, I was hoping he was the murderer, but, of course, he would be getting off too easy, however high or low he was hung.
In fact, each interview in this book was worth quoting or rendering in oils. Talk about artistic! Parker laid bare the essence of the artistic world, from adequate angles to satisfy a sensual geometry professor. Each comment any character made about art was worth designing into poster panache (of course, all those opinions came out of from Parker's complex brain).
How did one man, Parker, acquire so much wisdom in a single lifetime, and hone the ability to communicate that wisdom through the precise form of the detective novel? Yeah, he has stretched the package at times, but nothing has ever popped in any way but hot, as far as I would judge.
If King is a literary master disguised within the horror genre, Parker is a literary master eloquently exposed within classic mystery parameters. Yet both authors are more than that. They're masters of reducing to clarity many of the varieties of individual essences within the human species.
The Chinatown insights were interesting (one could say fascinating), realistically done, and something about which I knew nothing.
Loved the interactions w/Pearl and the coddling of her, as well as the "remodeling" on the old house.
Enjoyed the sensuality and underlying "how to deal with" insights in Spenser's small collection of brief moodiness scenes with his litanies of being "sick of ... sick of ... sick of ..."
Yup, this will do. Way more than. More! Next.
Spenser is more than meets the eye, private or public.
Linda G. Shelnutt
Summary of Walking Shadow (Spenser)
In a shabby waterfront town, an actor is shot dead onstage. Granted, the script left much to be desired. But there's more behind the scenes than an overzealous critic--and Spenser and Hawk are combing Port City's underworld to find it...
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