Promised Land

By: Robert B. Parker

Narrated by: Michael Prichard

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)

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.

My least favourite

I will still carry on with the series as I like Spencer and Parkers style. These are books that I just like to listen to if I need something light. I did not like the characters and felt that the story was a bit disjointed, and forced. But this has not put me off overall and I will continue with the series.

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!

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.

a very good read

Found it very interesting how a book written almost 50 years ago can ce so relevant even today. The philosophy, politics, inner human conflicts, and marital relations. Struggles and lessons we as a society continue to struggle have not changed very much.

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.

great listen

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

Great characters

Great characters makes a great novel. Spenser and Hawk are probably the best buddy characters in modern fiction. Maybe in all fiction.

Great!

Great story and characters! Love Spenser and his length of character! And Susan was made for him too!

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