Shocked, Shocked I Tell You.


Fractal Novels.
I have been reading Robert B. Parker's books for about 20 years now. He cranks out at least one beach-read per year, so it is inevitable he repeat himself. I can practically flip through his books without looking and put my finger down on one of the many instances where someone in a Spenser novel inevitably says, "We'd be fools not to." Generally, they're just predictable enough to be comforting, just different enough to hold my interest. Cue the sassy detective, the self-involved client, and the not-quite-tough-enough bad guys.

But his latest, Melancholy Baby, is almost an exact duplicate of Early Autumn. Substitute female detective Sunny Randall for Spenser, make the irritating kid (who happens to be a very young woman instead of a teenage boy) be the client instead of a parent, change a couple of motivations, bingo. Entirely different book, really! Except that it's all about the detective becoming substitute parent to this irritating lump of humanity, thereby redeeming the detective and the irritating lump in one swell foop.

There is a kind of funny "world's collide" subtheme - Susan Silverman, Spenser's love interest, is Sunny's therapist now. It's interesting to see Susan through someone beside Spenser's eyes. I am also a cheap sucker for that frisson of recognition, hey! I know her! She's in a different book! Interacting with a different character! Oooh!

Do I really care that Parker's slacking here? No. I'm not out any cash on this - I get his books from the library. I'm not out much time, either. He makes for a zippy read. But it would be nice if there were something new under the sun here. I mean, the man's going to sell no matter what: is this repetitiveness laziness or contempt for his readers?
Posted: Wednesday - July 13, 2005 at 06:18 AM         | |

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