The Professional by Robert B. Parker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Outside my office window, a couple of solitary snowflakes spiraled down. I watched them as they passed.
'Après vous,'I said, 'le déluge'."

I reached for Robert B. Parker's The Professional (2009) encouraged by Hush Money , which I liked a lot and reviewed here a few days ago. Well, this novel, the 37th (!) installment of the Spenser saga, is not as good. Yet, it still is a pleasantly readable, quite lighthearted mystery novel.

Spenser is hired to represent four women who are blackmailed by a man with whom they had affairs over the last 10 years: if they don't pay the guy, he will reveal the affairs to the women's rich husbands. Spenser's task is to "make him cease and desist, without causing a stir." Spenser quickly discovers the common link - all four women were members of the same gym - and finds the blackmailer. Enough of the synopsis, let me just say that the plot is quite interesting and relatively plausible. I particularly liked the account of Spenser's meeting with the blackmailer.

Susan Silverman, a psychotherapist and Spenser's friend and lover, helps him with the investigation. Readers new to the Spenser epic will find the dialogues between Susan and Spencer witty; however, when one has read several novels in the series, the wittiness turns into cliché repetitiveness. I am unable to imagine anyone wanting to read 37 installments of these conversations. Yet, even in this novel, very late in Mr. Parker's opus, one can find some really funny bits, like the following risqué passage:

"I woke up in the morning with Susan's head on my chest. I shifted a little so I could look at her. She opened her eyes and we looked at each other. She moved a little so we were facing.
'You've always been an early riser,' Susan said.
'Is that a double entendre?' I said.
'I think so,' Susan said."

Sigh... A successful PI, a witty, intelligent, and handsome man, a good boxer, who speaks French and is good in bed... Every man's dream!

Two-and-three-quarter stars.


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