Word: spenser
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...target of the investigation is a reputed drug kingpin named Felipe Esteva. He supposedly deals in produce, but Spenser knows him for what he really is, observing that a true grocer would not need a tough guy in a Celtics jacket for a bodyguard...
However, as in most Spenser novels, there is also an emotional denouement. In Pale Kings it involves how Caroline Rogers, the wife of the police chief, handles both the loss of her husband and her son Brett, who just happened to be under Esteva's employ...
...Spenser-Hawk combination is not used as much in Pale Kings as in previous novels. Instead, Hawk winds up an extra gun when Spenser needs him near the end. But their time together is quality time, with Hawk using his best Kingfisher accent and trading quips with Spenser. What little interplay there is in the novel still works well...
...novel itself is very talky, with more important conversation taking place in it than in any other of the Spenser novels...
...everything else is still there. The witty conversation, the social commentary (the way he tries to describe Susan's hip sports car is just hilarious) and the sweeping descriptions of the Wheaton area. Spenser fails to get into a fistfight in this one, but the overall reading is entertaining and well-paced. It is a much better story than you might get from watching Miami Vice...