The series has become repetitive. Great airplane books and that's about it. ( )

Thirtyfive Spenser novels over 35 years is quite enough to establish whether you like this series or not. Either way, this is not the place to start reading Robert B Parker. Because the plot is essentially referential to a couple of novels from the late 1980s and because Parker has honed his already spare style to a core, this is a book for afficiondoes. Personally, I was pleased to see Spenser and Susan discuss marriage. Apart from this, only details are new. It is like visiting an old friend; we grew up together and the familiar need not be dull or repetitious. ( )

If you like Spenser, you like Spenser. You might, say, read all of the books in sequence every once in a while just to remind yourself of what Boston is like — it's not like it takes more than a week or two (~3 hours per book?). Now & Then is the story of a is-my-wife-cheating-on-me case turned into a multiple homicide involving a shady professor with connections to terrorist organizations. The case resonates with Spenser since it might allow him to resolve some things about Susan's interlude with Russell Costigan. Hawk, Vinnie, Chollo, Quirk, Agent Epstein, CIA guy Ives and Pearl II all make appearances. ( )

Spenser does love, loyalty and crime solving, with the aid of Hawk, Susan and pink champagne. ( )

This is about the 757th Spenser novel, and like the last 5 or so, it's very routine. The book zips along, but it's not much fun. And Spenser and Susan just keep discussing or failing to discuss their temporary split up of 20 years earlier. Does anyone really care? Not me. Spenser should be retired. ( )

I never thought I would say this, but I"m getting tired of Spenser. This book makes Spenser recall how he felt 20 years (20years!!) ago when Susan had an affair, and the whole book was essentially about that, and I just felt like, it was 20 years ago, get over it. I mean he kept saying he was over it, but he hadn't let himself kill the man then, and has to deal with the fall out of an affair for the man who approached him and his wife. The dialogue wasn't as witty or felt more predictable, and the mystery wasn't so mysterious. There were also way too many bodies, to have no repercussions for Spenser and his gang. So this one didn't work for me. I prefer John Sandford right now. ( )

The "Spenser" series has been running for so long (The Godwulf Manuscript appeared more than 35 years ago) and the characters have become so well-established that reading a new one is a little like reading a Greek myth you've never encountered before. You know how Spenser, Susan, Hawk, and the rest of Parker's stock company are going to think and act . . . just like you know that Achilles is going to be proud and invincible, Odysseus wily and cunning, Athena wise and grave, and so on. You don't really want to see Achilles embark on a second career as a minstrel or Athena get plastered and whoop it up with Bacchus and Apollo.

Viewed on those terms, Now and Then delivers the goods in the solid, polished, professional way we've come to expect from Parker. Spenser, Susan, Hawk, and the rest do what they do and the mystery--does it really matter what the details are, at this point in the series?--unspools in competent if not especially inspired fashion. Long-time fans of the series will, inevitably, find many of the scenes familiar (the Nth visit to a suspect's old high school, the Nth dig at pompous college professors, another instance of Susan endangered by a client (see Crimson Joy) and so forth. Among the familiar bits, however, Parker still manages to offer details that are fresh: Frank Belson's eye for crime-scene detail, Vinnie Morris' long-ago career as an electrician, the need to patch bullet holes in the wall after a shoot-out. If you still enjoy a few hours spent in the company of the old gang, watching them be their archetypal selves, you'll enjoy the book.

Note: Many fans of the series have, over the years, become a little fed up with the relationship between Spenser and Susan and the amount of time that Parker spends showing us how besotted they are with each other. I don't fall into that category myself (I like the idea of a tough-guy detective in an adult, emotionally fulfilling relationship with a woman, and I can put up with Susan's implausible perfection on the grounds that we only see her through the eyes of someone blind to her faults). If you do fall into that category, be warned: The principal subplot in Now and Then is Spenser and Susan talking about their relationship and how the events of his current case echo what they went through twenty years earlier (in Valediction and A Catskill Eagle). I'm not sure whether I buy the subplot or not, but I have to give Parker credit for being willing, at this stage of the series, to examine one of its least-examined elements. ( )

Spenser and Susan edge towards getting married. A bad guy edges towards endangering Susan, but doesn't actually do it. Parker should have pushed this closer to the edge. ( )

ALWAYS ENTERTAINING