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5.0 out of 5 stars
Color Crayons & Paper Dolls. Tigers Beware., Sep 3 2008
Push a Pin into the perfection balloon. What is marriage ... what are styles of domesticity ... to a wealthy WASP, to a liberated couple like Spenser and Susan, to a good-guy gay cop, to a State Senator, to an aging wealthy southerner.
The concluding scene in DOUBLE DEUCE, # 19 in the Spenser series, catered a surprising twist to Susan and Spenser's attempts at traditional homemaking. That close was as refreshing to the double S as a storm-brought rainbow. The choice carried in DD's final chapter surfaced in silent style into the thematic structure of PAPER DOLL, # 20 in the Spenser series.
To Loudon Tripp seeking the private eye to find his wife's killer, Spenser answered the "small problem" of his having been dismissed from the police force:
"I am trustworthy, loyal, and helpful, but I struggle with obedient."
Who was Olivia Nelson?
She was Loudon Tripp's murdered wife. Was she Harriet to Ozzie, or did she have a small problem.
Spenser's gum shoe stuck in southern muck as he researched the past of a double identity with no indemnity. While thus stuck, the P.I. endured a dual whap to his knee caps by a fake constable. The gum was seared off by BAD-knight-Quirk to the rescue (YEA!), in a scene to write about to a homemaker or a troubleshooter, maybe even a troublemaker, whichever would apply, or lie right.
In the early 90's what did we cook, what did we say, what did we wear, what books did we read. See here. Hear ye.
Readers have commented that they feel this series is anti-gay. One might not hold that opinion after reading PAPER DOLL, in which Lee Ferrell was introduced and featured with compassionate clarity, as a young gay cop working for Quirk. As would be expected, the repartee scenes between Ferrell and Spenser popped. The corn, no pron, was light, fresh, sensitive and free (relatively).
In Alton, South Carolina, 1948 a child was born, bearing a tale and a trail of a "sister" of doom. Was there room at the Inn? Spenser stayed there, and learned the song, "one way ... or the other."
The opening scene of chapter sixteen provided a collection of guffaws from the way Spenser dealt with an auto paused to tail his travels. If that passage doesn't do that, it's possible you've lost your Proof of Existence Papers. Would you then be a paper doll? I'd rather be me. Since the breakout of loveable dogs in DOUBLE DEUCE, Parker had been warmly elevating the dog's life, and I relish it that introduction to the series, but don't know if I'm ready to be one, if I have a choice!
In addition to dogs, another Spenser "signature" was continued and repeated from DOUBLE DEUCE, that of how a character holds a whiskey glass. Note an example of that on page 237 of the mass market paperback. Might this signature be a continued tribute to Erin Macklin (who held her whiskey glass "with both hands")? Also note how Lee Ferrell held his glass in a few spots in this one. That, possibly more than Spenser's "adoption" of the gay cop, was telling of Ferrel's status, as it developed through an amber-filled glass.
The conclusion of the murder in this one was a switch. For me, it worked, stretching contemplation space in the part of my brain which ruminates Parker's tweaking of what makes a good guy/gal good and a bad guy/gal bad.
Parker gave a perfect clue to the murderer, but I didn't get it until the plot told me.
"The words hung in the room, drifting like the dust of ruination."
That wasn't the clue, nor was it the preface to comeuppance for the killer. It was just a line I quite liked. As always, there were several.
Holding books with both hands,
Linda Shelnutt
Author of several Amazon Shorts and KINDLE books, including MYRTLE'S ULTIMATE MYSTERY and MOLASSES MOON
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing, Sep 4 2003
This book has very little narrative summary to support the dialogue. As a result, it reads much like a movie script. Character development is weak and inconsistent, and the prose is almost juvenile in spots. It is something I would expect to see from a freshman college student, not a well-respected, seasoned author. I haven't read Parker's other books, so perhaps they are all written in this same over-simplistic style. It apparently works for some people, but not for me.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Solid if not spectacular, Jan 12 2003
In Paper Doll, Spenser is hired by Loudon Tripp, a local Boston businessman who is trying to help the police solve the apparently "random" killing of his society wife. Without any better ideas and stumped in Boston, Spenser heads to a sleepy South Carolina town where the victim was born to try and dig up something the police may have overlooked. In so doing, Spenser manages to alienate the local law enforcement authorities, get himself followed, and finds out that the victim may not have been who she appeared to be. In fact neither is the esteemed businessman Loudon Tripp, whose rubber checks bounce all the way to Brookline.Along the way, Spenser is offered some dubious assistance by a hard-drinking Massachussets senator, who may have some skeletons in his closet to hide. There is the usual playful banter between Susan and Spenser, in their perrenial honeymoon-like lovefest, but a lot less Hawk than this reader would prefer. All in all I thought this was a pretty decent read, better than Potshot to be sure, but not exactly Dashiell Hammett either. Fans of the series will not be disappointed.
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