Blue Screen

I've read every book Robert B. Parker has ever written, many of them in audio form. I've actually learned to ENJOY the "he said" and "she said" simplicity of the dialogue, because I can filter that out and focus on WHAT they said. My favorite part of these books is the smart characters with their dry, understated humor. Put two or three of them in the same story, and I'm in heaven. Parker has had cross-overs before of characters from one book series to another, but combining Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone is a great combination. Add Susan Silverman into the mix as the shrink, and it feels like some of my favorite friends all attending a reunion together.

This is classic Parker, sparsely written, irreverent characters and the usual more complicated than expected plot. The reader, Kate Burton does a fine job as Sunny Randall, one of Parker's three popular protagonists. Unfortunately Parker's sparse style that serves so well in print really makes the audible version hard to listen to. Parker uses "he said" or "I said" constantly in print because he leverages dialogue as the primary means to move the story along instead of reams of dreck filler. When the reader says "he said" for the 100th time in an hour, she and you are both exhausted by the discontinuity it creates. Parker's novels work well as video, particularly with the departed Robert Urich as Spenser or Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone (albeit older than the character in the books) because the dialogue is the story. The audible format doesn't work so well.

I was disappointed in this Parker novel. After enjoying the Spencer series I expected more. I felt that the characters were poorly developed (did the recovering alcoholic have any problem with the tall scotch and soda he was sipping?) and the ending contrived.

Blue Screen scrolls by quickly for the listening but offers a great story and an exciting new character.