Potshot
 Robert B. Parker
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 2001 G. P. Putnam's Sons
  ISBN: 0399147101


Spenser heads west from Boston on a quest for the murderer of the husband of a dazzlingly pretty & fresh widow. In Potshot, Arizona he encounters the intense desert heat, a yuppie western town, a horde of preying mountain men & a mystery that defies gravity.

Yes, Spenser is back with the beloved Susan nibbling her way deep into his heart & Hawk, dark & humorous, in the background.

Robert B. Parker's got his groove back! Potshot is funny & vicious, mysterious, romantic, inventive & a fast, crackling read!

Spenser can't help but crack punny jokes in the face of mob crime as he goes about looking for the killer of his client's husband. Trouble is all the usual suspects just don't add up. Not The Preacher up in the Dell overlooking the quaint, phony western town, who comes down once a week to exact his protection fees from the local businesses; not the local law who is obviously dotty about his client nor the realtors, one of whom is very, very interested in Spenser's body nor the banker, the investor nor the filmaker-if you get my drift!

So Spenser rounds up an assortment of likely buddies to reenact the Gunfight at OK Corral. They hole up in a pleasant air-conditioned house in a new development & go about an amusing domestic menage, waiting while the clues add up & the plot thickens.

Potshot is simply Parker at his best -- our old friends return with witty dialogue in a convoluted story that unravels pleasingly & with an ending that is pure Parker.

Robert B. Parker doesn't write world-altering novels, that's not his intention. He does write engaging, spare & funny stories & Potshot is a bullseye!

More from Robert B. Parker: Perish Twice; Hugger Mugger; Family Honor; Hush Money; Trouble in Paradise; Small Vices; Night Passage; Chance; Thin Air; All Our Yesterdays; Walking Shadow; Paper Doll; Double Deuce; Pastime; Perchance to Dream; Stardust; Poodle Springs; Playmates; Crimson Joy; Pale Kings and Princes; Taming a Sea-Horse; A Catskill Eagle; Valediction; Promised Land; Mortal Stakes; God Save the Child & The Godwulf Manuscript
(01/20/02)

Rebecca