Blast(s) From the Past: Back Story
By Bruce Collier May 8, 2003 Issue

Readers of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser detective series will know what I mean when I say that the mystery is seldom the main attraction. What brings readers back again and again are the characters. If you’ve never read a Spenser novel, here is a cram course. Spenser (no first name ever given) is a Boston-based private investigator who works alone, or with the assistance of his associate, Hawk —as with Spenser—just Hawk.

Spenser is white, middle-aged, and Irish-American. The somewhat younger Hawk is African-American. Spenser is charming, witty, “large but literate,” enjoys cooking and the outdoors, and is hard as nails. Hawk is tall, quiet, elegant, and merciless and likewise hard as nails. Spenser is an ex-cop and former boxer. Hawk has been a mercenary, boxer, and hit man. He continues to operate on both sides of the law, usually the far side. Hawk drifts around the country and the world, always appearing when needed in a new car, often with a new girlfriend. Spenser sticks to home, enjoying a long-term, marriage-free relationship with psychotherapist Susan Silverman.

As with many books in the Spenser series, Back Story adheres to a classic detective novel plot: the private eye is engaged by a client, a friend of a friend, to solve her mother’s murder. Complicating this is the age of the murder—it happened 28 years ago—and the relative lack of clues in the possession of the investigating authorities. A little Spenserian snooping reveals two things: because the murder occurred during the course of a bank robbery, the FBI was involved, and someone wants the whole thing hushed up. Sound familiar? It is, right down to the obligatory visit from a pair of tough guys warning Spenser off, and the client pulling the plug on the investigation just as things get warm. If you know Spenser, you know that no one scares him off, and once he starts a case, he finishes, whether anyone likes it or not.

Hawk is not always in the novels, but I think I can speak for many of Parker’s readers when I say that the best books in the series are the ones where he is. A number of critics have commented that Hawk is a kind of ruthless alter ego of Spenser’s, Mr. Hyde to his Dr. Jekyll. That’s true up to a point, but it ignores Hawk’s own highly individual personality, including his gentleness and humor. Hawk could easily sustain his own novel, but Parker is too good a showman to give us more than bits and pieces of him at a time.

Other Spenser set pieces found in Back Story include the scene where Spenser investigates records at a local university. Parker is a former teacher and comes by his disdain for academic stuffiness honestly. Also, the murder victim was involved in a group of Symbionese Liberation Army wannabes called the Dread Scott Brigade, and Spenser’s dealings with aging political radicals and unreconstructed counter-culturists are wryly amusing.

For the rest, you can expect a guest appearance from another Parker series character, a few fistfights, a little gun play, and plenty of Spenser’s trademark educated wisecracks. He is a true literary son to Raymond Chandler’s classic smart-aleck gumshoe Philip Marlowe, only without Marlowe’s distrust of women. Whereas Marlowe usually ends his strenuous working day home alone with bandages and bourbon, Spenser will always have Susan.

Dr. Susan Silverman is pretty much in the background in this novel, which may or may not please you. Spenser fans tend to be fairly divided on the subject of Spenser’s alluring, insightful, but occasionally motor-mouthed sweetheart. Decide for yourself. If by chance this is your introduction to Dr. Silverman and you think you don’t like her, I recommend you go back and read Crimson Joy. In that novel, Susan is very much center stage as the conflicted therapist of a serial killer whom Spenser is hunting. She may win you over. If she doesn’t, just don’t say anything bad about her in front of Spenser.

I’ve not kept up with my Spenser novels. The last one I read prior to Back Story was Sudden Mischief. A fair amount appears to have happened in the ensuing four novels, notably the death of Pearl, Spenser’s and Susan’s beloved dog. But in Back Story, the major characters are still alive and well. Parker has done his usual terrific job shuffling the staples of private eye fiction and dealing out another entertaining, character-driven mystery. (Top)

G.B. Putnam’s Sons, 291 pages, available at book retailers and local libraries.

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