History and Mystery Reads

Rating: 7/10

• Plot: A developer hires Spenser to find his runaway wife, who turns out to have joined radical feminists caught up in a bank robbery and an arms deal.
• Clues: Few; the story is about people and choices.
• Reveal: Satisfying, thanks to a clever sting operation and Spenser’s moral compromise.

Harvey Shepard, a real-estate developer in Hyannis, hires Spenser to find his wife Pam. When Spenser finds her, she refuses to go home. She has joined a group of women whose political commitment has led to a bank robbery and a planned gun purchase. Meanwhile Harvey owes money to a loan shark, and the loan shark’s enforcer is Hawk.

Promised Land won the Edgar Award and marked a turning point in Robert B. Parker’s series. It introduced Hawk, the formidable, laconic enforcer who became Spenser’s closest friend, and it developed Spenser’s relationship with Susan Silverman.

The novel is a study of marriage and changing gender roles in 1970s America. Parker takes the feminist characters partly seriously and partly satirically, and Spenser’s conversations with Susan explore love, freedom and commitment.

Spenser’s voice is witty, confident and self-aware, and the book moves quickly. The final sting, in which Spenser uses the criminals against each other, is enjoyable.

The weaknesses are the book’s gender politics, which often feel superficial, and the talkiness of Spenser and Susan’s discussions. Some of the characters are thin.

The 7 reflects a lively, influential private-eye novel. Parker’s later books sometimes became formulaic, but this one captures the series at its most energetic.