Small Vices: A Spenser Novel

Once again, Parker came through with a winner -- a fast-moving, often humorous voyage with a well-hidden ending, which, by the way, was a TV movie with Joe Montegna. There was a complaint about Burt Reynold's dropping off his endings. That was OK and perfectly in keeping with the character -- and did you notice there were no complaints about Spencer's sometimes exasperating I said's, he said's, she said's -- which are what he dropped off the most.

As an avid Spenser fan, I found this to be one of the best books in the series. Plenty of twists and turns, along with Spenser's dry humor throughout.

I was interested in this book mainly to find out about the gray man, who appeared in a later book (I'm encountering the books out of order), and the book, itself, was not a disappointment.

The narration, however, was abominable. Reynold's mumbling required me to increase the treble and decrease the bass and backtrack occasionally to try to hear what he said. I was amazed at how many cops in the Boston area had good ol' boy southern accents, and Reynold's renditions of Ives and others were lame. Vinnie and Fish sounded like Rick from Casablanca.

Please, let Joe Mantegna do Spenser. Though his rendering of women is sometimes weak, it's ok, and the others are usually very good. And audible.

Burt Reynolds should stick to acting. His half-drunk slurred speech made it difficult to endure this book, even though the story was reasonably good. I might have to go to the library and read this just to wipe Burt's voice out of my memory.

Bring back and keep Joe Mantegna whose distinctive voice and cadence always make Spenser come alive.

Burt Reynolds is a terrible narrator. The book loses the flavor of a Joe Montegna narrated Spencer.

It's fun to see Spenser up against an assailant who may be his equal as a shooter and about whom his usual contacts know nothing. It's also intereting that (with the exception of one bad apple) all the constituted lawmen are on his side. But there is a too-long stretch of the year of repetitive training that it takes for Spenser to recover from his injuries. This is exacerbated by the reader who has great voices for most of the men except Spenser, but never varies his exceedingly slow pace. Spenser is quick witted, but the reader annoyingly drawls his repartee.

Burt Reynolds was terrific. He did all of the voices well, especially Hawk's. Super effort by ole Burt!

This is standard Spenser fare. If you've ready one Parker mystery, this is very likely the same. Spenser's still cracking wise. Hawk's still tough and kinda scary and Susan's....well...Susan. Utterly standard, solid and forgettable. Charming characters in an uninspired mystery.

This is a normal Parker book, but Burt Reynold's reading is horrendous. I like Burt as an actor but he reading of this book was hard to listen to at times. I had to listen to parts two or three times before understanding what he was saying. This made the story have no flow and made the 8 hrs seem longer. Otherwise, the book was a normal Parker book. I am look forward to the next book but I hope for a different reader.

I loved this book. I enjoyed the author's humorous dialogue and I enjoyed the way Burt Reynolds read this book. I could picture him in every scene, just like it was a movie.