Double Deuce

I like Double Deuce more for the characters of Spenser and Hawk than for the crime that they solve.

I have read this book several times now, so maybe the storyline is so familiar that I don't "see" it any more. To me, it is a pretty standard crime with pretty typical characters involved. Which might explain why Parker is so successful and proliferate. He's got the recipe down pretty well.

But I still enjoy the talk between Spenser and Hawk and their friendship/working relationship. I like the ease they have with each other. I like "listening" to them while they are in the car together. I enjoy Hawk explaining why Parker is with him to the people of Double Deuce. I don't really think there are people out there who talk like Spenser and Hawk do in this novel. I wish there were.

What I don't like are the female characters. Susan seems like a bossy know-it-all. Cool and distant. Other than being beautiful, I'm not sure what she brings to the relationship with Spenser. Is she meant to keep him in line? Tame him?

Jackie is more likable, but still feels too obvious in what she is after -- status career and a man.

The other woman are even more stereotypical -- give their lives to help others, etc. They are even less round than Jackie and Susan.

A couple of things could be happening with the women in the book. First it is written by a man, who maybe doesn't write strong, round female characters.

Second, the book was written at a time when women were just beginning to gain success outside the home and in professions other than nursing and teaching and other typical "female" jobs. Susan is a highly educated psychologist and Jackie is in the world of journalism. So maybe Parker was working off of new stereotypes of women professionals. I think I met some of those women when I was working in a law firm -- they really felt they had to prove themselves in a man's world.

Whatever the case, I don't think I would like either of them.

And I still like the novel.