Valediction by Robert B. Parker
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

"Then she went out and closed the door and I was alone with my soul dwindled to icy stillness at the densely compacted center of myself."

Susan Silverman, having just received her PhD in clinical psychology at Harvard, leaves Spenser to take a job on the other coast, in San Francisco. There might even be another man involved. And - to use Mr. Parker's flowery prose - Spenser's soul dwindles to icy stillness at his densely compacted center, whatever that center is...

Robert B. Parker's Valediction (1984), the eleventh novel in the Spenser series, follows The Widening Gyre , which I quite liked and recommended. Alas, this is not the case with Valediction, which I find below average.

Paul Giacomin, an aspiring dancer, whom we know from one of the earlier books in the series, is helping Spenser survive the loneliness. He also brings him a case: one of the female dancers in the ballet company where Paul is employed has disappeared, and the company's owner, who has been romantically involved with her, hires Spenser to find the dancer. Spenser confirms that she has joined a religious sect, The Reorganized Church of the Redemption, and is trying to determine whether she is with them voluntarily or under duress.

The plot serves as a pretext to depict several violent scenes: two vicious beatings, where Spenser demonstrates his physical prowess.

"[...] I hit his buddy across the face with my chain flail. His glasses broke and some of the glass got in his eyes. Blood appeared and he dropped the handgun and put both hands to his face. I shook the chain in a short circle to keep it out and away from him and then drove it down against the back of the fat man's neck."

Particularly the second episode, when our hero defeats four skilled and armed men, leaves no doubt that Spenser could beat Superman, using just the little finger. Yet even SuperSpenser eventually gets in trouble, which calls for Hawk's intervention.

I do not mind the cartoonish scenes of violence; they are an integral part of the essence of a Spenser novel. What I dislike is the "romantic" thread of Spenser pining for Susan: it reads artificial and contrived, as if the author wanted to try out a Susan-less variant of Spenser, but went for it without enough conviction. In my view, it doesn't work at all since the Susan-Spenser union is also an integral component of the essence of a Spenser novel.

I find the denouement clumsy and over-explained. To sum up, while Valediction is not entirely a clunker, it does not quite deserve my rating of

Two stars.

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