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stevem0214's review
4.0
Not one of my favorites...they can't all be solid gold hits! Good story, but little interaction with Hawk and Spenser we not his wise self.
bmlowry8's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
trisha_thomas's review
3.0
Good fun little P.I. book. I loved the ridiculous one-liners, the silly slang and banter. The outrageous police and security brutality and the dirty playing. It was all so funny and enthralling. This held my attention. I'm sad #20 something is the first book in this series I'm trying out. I didn't feel like NOT having read the first books in the series held me back at all.
His relationship with his girlfriend was interesting too. I like that, although he seemed to objectify every other woman in the book, he did seem to really respect and love her and listen to her when she talked.
His relationship with his girlfriend was interesting too. I like that, although he seemed to objectify every other woman in the book, he did seem to really respect and love her and listen to her when she talked.
koshpeli's review
3.0
A decent mystery. Lots of Spenserian antics and wise-talk and outsmarting people. It’s always fun when Spenser stumbles into something bigger than he thinks, although it’s a little hard in this case it’s hard to see why:
they let the killer go without any kind of hesitation. An old man kills his employer’s bastard daughter because she brought shame to him? What if he has more bastards? It’s suggested he banged every woman in Dixie and several farm animals? What if the bank comes to evict him from his house? It seems like the makings of a serial killer to me. At the very least, I’d expect Spenser to agonize, discuss it with Susan or one of his little allies.
they let the killer go without any kind of hesitation. An old man kills his employer’s bastard daughter because she brought shame to him? What if he has more bastards? It’s suggested he banged every woman in Dixie and several farm animals? What if the bank comes to evict him from his house? It seems like the makings of a serial killer to me. At the very least, I’d expect Spenser to agonize, discuss it with Susan or one of his little allies.
thebeardedpoet's review against another edition
3.0
Paper Doll is one of the more atmospheric Spenser novels, particularly the descriptive details of Alton, South Carolina and all those dogs who need scratching behind the ears. The wrap up is less than satisfying and left us wondering why Spenser was doing what he was doing.
scott_a_miller's review
4.0
More than solid Spenser mystery. 25 years ago and Parker was writing about a crooked, evil Senator. Go figure.
slapshottechnology's review
4.0
This book excels for me because we actually have some type of mystery to solve and it is not wisecracking and innuendo between Spenser and Susan. He goes to South Carolina to find out about a murdered woman from New England. Who may be switched. Or is she? That's the type of mystery that Parker excelled at when he wrote those.
cheriekg's review
5.0
Well. That was pretty much the best Spenser I've read in a while. Intriguing, believable, no psychobabble distractions. This is the second Spenser in a row that had solid insights into race relations. It honestly makes me wish Parker was still around to do a novel around the current state of affairs.
missalwayswrite715's review
5.0
This was not one of the better Spenser novels. As a lifelong Spenser fan I felt this book lacked the punch and vigor of his other stories. The novel starts off relatively interestingly with a man coming to hire Spenser to find his wife's killer but somehow the promise of that beginning never fulfills itself within the story. There were many avenues which could have led to a bigger and better twist in my opinion but Robert Parker did not go in any of the directions I had hoped for while reading. This was an okay Spenser novel and a quick read but not one of my favorites. It was a whole lot of Spenser being Spenser with little to no real action.