Thin Air

A Spenser Novel

By: Robert B. Parker

Narrated by: David Dukes

When the bride of a Boston police detective vanishes, he hires Spenser to find her. His path leads from a New England college campus to glamorous L.A. sports clubs. When the trail turns to a world of prostitution, drug abuse, and self-destruction, Spenser must enter ghetto tenements to continue his search. Ultimately, Spenser must hire a Chicago hitman to help him free the girl from a sociopathic ex lover. Working through gang leaders and corrupt cops, Spenser learns about humanity and justice as he strives to achieve his goal.©1996 Robert B. Parker (P)2009 Phoenix

great stuff

very good not long enough. First we have heard by David dukes. Different voice makes it not the same,,,,,,,,

David Dukes nailed it.

A great book by RBP and Dukes’ best Spenser narration yet. Susan was typical Susan lovely yet too talkative but hardly to the point of being annoying which she can have a tendency to be in other books. Was great to see Cholo again and experience the characters of Belsen and Quirk continuing to be fleshed out.
My first book in this series was Hugger Mugger over a decade ago. I had just checked everything the library had to offer in the series. Not long after I got Audible and started the series from book 1. Pacing myself as to enjoy Robert B Parker’s Spenser for as long as possible.
This book was referenced in several more recent books I had read previously which was part of the inspiration to read them all in order.
Great book, highly recommended.

Vintage

This book is one of the top three Vintage Robert B Parker I loved every minute.

Bad reader

Very flawed reader. Good voice for Spenser, couple of the others, but some really bad choices for others: Luis, Latino, sounding like he had a Russian or Eastern European accent; Boston cops with New York accents; Susan sounds ridiculous, very flighty which she isn’t; Samuelson in LA sounding like he’s from Wyoming. Also pronounced some names and words incorrectly, e.g. Haverill Mass. Is pronounced Hayve-erill, not Hayver-hill.

negative on narration

I'm sure he's great with other books, but just doesn't fit for Spenser for me.

I love Spenser!

Robert B Parker’s Spenser series is a great favorite of mine. The humor mixed with a hard defective plot is the best! Love all the side characters; especially the crew of shooters that are always there to back Spenser up. Hawk, though he is not in this book, is terrific! Wish Parker was still with us to write more. Ace Atkins wrote some good Spenser stories after Parker died, but he has gone on to other things. Hope some other good writer will take Spenser on and continue the series. What a great character! I recommend all of the books, while I certainly have my favorites, mostly those with Hawk playing a great backup role. Give this series a chance and I think you’ll join the fan club!

Good story, voice is very different

Would you consider the audio edition of Thin Air to be better than the print version?

I have really enjoyed Michael Pritchard's reading - I think he captured the dry wit of Robert B. Parker's writing. This reading makes Spencer sound more like Philip Marlow and I was not comfortable with the change. The witty remarks did not come across as well.

What did you like best about this story?

The story.

Did David Dukes do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Yes, but Spencer is not Philip Marlow. The reader lost the dry humor of many of Spencer's lines.

Great Book

This was one of his better books. The plot was interesting and it kept moving.

Dracula

This narrator mangles accents into wreckage. His Spanish accent comes off like Dracula. So Does his irish accent, which sounds like an Irishman who's been to vampire school. Then, explicably, the voice of Cholo, who is from Mexico, sounds like he's from Brooklyn. He sometimes loses concentration and gives Lisa, an American, the Dracula treatment too. Yeesh. Bring back Michael Pritchard.

The narrator need me to dial it back a little.

Like all Spenser novels, the story is great. Robert B Parker does such a great job of pulling you into Spenser’s world. But David Dukes seems to be trying too hard to be dramatic. His emphasis on the first syllable of almost every word sounds like Rod Serling doing a car commercial and many of his character voicing sound cartoonish.