Promised Land

By: Robert B. Parker

Narrated by: Michael Prichard

Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's Summary

Spenser is good at finding things. But this time he has a client out on Cape Cod who is in over his head. Harvey Shepard has lost his pretty wife - and a very pretty quarter million bucks in real estate. Now a loan shark is putting on the bite.

Spenser finds himself doing a slow burn in the Cape Cod sun. The wife has turned up as a hot suspect in a case of murder one...the in-hock hubby has 24 hours before the mob makes him dead...and suddenly Spenser is in so deep that the only way out is so risky it makes dying look like a sure thing.

©1987 Robert B. Parker (P)2009 Random House

Critic Reviews

"Spenser is a tough as they come and spiked with a touch of real class." ( Kirkus Reviews)

Spencer is my hero!

This book was good, but not the best of the series. This is fairly early in the series (book number 4) and the Susan/Spencer relationship is just developing to "I love you". There is an interesting foreshadowing of Pearl the Wonder Dog (but Pearl has not yet come into the series story line). Susan is still a guidance counselor at a school. Susan meets Hawk for the first time. Hawk and Spencer have not yet developed the totally loyal and easy friendship that I enjoy so much in the later books of the series, but it is interesting to hear them get started. The client (a man) in this book is not drawn as someone that I can get attached to - neither is his wife. I really did not care about either of them (or their children) even though they were the central point to the story. However, I am so committed to Spencer, Hawk and Susan that it is enough for me for their characters to be in the story line. The plot is interesting and reader is very good. If you love the Spencer series as I do, you will not be disappointed in Promised Land.

Intro To Hawk

Spenser has a new client and it means a summer on Cape Cod but as he seeks to locate Harvey Shepard's wife Pam he realizes that there is far more going on than a missing wife. He has no trouble finding Pam Shepard who is living with a couple of feminists, his confrontation with one of the ladies (Jane, the other is Rose, the theoretician of the group) is classic Spenser. Harv isn't doing all that well himself, he borrowed money from the wrong man (King Powers) and an ex-fighter named Hawk that Spenser knows has been sent by Powers to collect what Harvey owes. In the meantime Pam and her group get involved in a serious crime and those of us who know Spenser know what he'll Have to do. This is a good example of the early Spenser novels; though it isn't in the same league as Early Autumn, Looking For Rachel Wallace, or his initial Spenser mystery The Godwulf Manuscript it's an excellent read and a good listen the same as most of his books, especially his early works

Spencer does evolve!

I do not read the Spencer books in order. So when I read this book some things fell into place...his relationship with Suzan for one and how his relationship with Hawk was cultivated!

It was good. I chuckled periodically.

I like the way Spenser talks and thinks.

This was my first Parker book. It’s number 4 in the Spenser series. It’s typical first person private eye solving a typical mystery with a happy ending. It’s not a wow kind of book, but I enjoyed it. It has good characters and good dialogue. This author is different due to his sense of humor. He says unexpected things.

The ending was weak. In the spoiler I am not giving away the main mysteries.

CAUTION SEMI-SPOILER:
It was not clear to me why the loan shark would not seek revenge against hubby or Spenser.
END SPOILER.

The narrator Michael Prichard was excellent. He did not do weird voices for women. I was impressed.

Genre: PI mystery

Getting better and better

As I have stated before, I have started with the 1st Spenser series novel and working my way from oldest to newest.
This is the 4th in the series and they keep getting better and better.
I have a lot to look forward to.

Spenser on the cusp

Enjoyed the novel. I had not read it in awhile, so it was like reading /hearing for first time. Very good novel. Very good performance. Spenser handles love problems for a couple and handles personal love issues. All the while handling guns and zealots.

Nostalgia

Having read all of Parker's Spenser novels, I listened to this to remind me how the series started. Interesting how he changed the character and hilarious how he describes what was considered "cool" back in the '70s.

Getting to know more.

I liked that you get to know more about each character. Hawk, Susan and Spencer are flushed out more and are becoming the characters that we so love in later books. The storyline itself isn’t one of the best but still entertaining. I enjoyed the listen as Michael Prichard is one of my favorite narrators. I’d recommend the listen.

great listen

having a hard time with the narrator but Spencer stories are amazing. funny, fair and wise. love them

a classic all the way

Wow! Just finished listening to Promised Land, and am in awe of what a great listen this title was. This is early Parker, and has all the action, and insight into human nature, and just what it is to be a good man in a not so good world, and it has the first appearance of parker's iconis character, Hawk, and the start of his beautiful friendship with Spenser. The plot is simple in design; but it is Spenser's world view of male and female relationships that carries the impetus forward. this may be one of my favorite entries into the series; but I must admit you have to place the story in the right time frame, or else the femminist movement depicted within the story is likely to come across as dated. that not withstanding, this is truly a Spenser classic. And the narrator, michael prichard, does an amazing job putting a voice to one of mysteries great detectives.