Taming a Sea-Horse

Reading the second entry in the sad April Kyle saga within the Spenser canon directly after reading the first, Ceremony, is almost a shock to the system. Because Ceremony came before Valediction, and Taming a Sea-Horse directly after Catskill Eagle, the change in the series is magnified. There is a resonance and depth to Ceremony completely missing in Taming a Sea-Horse. It’s like watching a solid episode of a well-written television series with real characters, then tuning in the next week only to discover it has become a slickly produced animated series. It gives the second April Kyle book a sense of unreality at first.

For the first sixty or seventy pages of this one, Spenser truly is just a wisenheimer, a flip jerk who can’t seem show more to stop popping off, even when normal conversation is called for. It gets better, but the flippancy continues, and when real moments do occur, it’s as if they’ve been dropped in from another planet. Because Catskill Eagle, the entry where Parker drove a stake into the heart of this series by having Spenser sacrifice lives in order to rescue the unfaithful and vain Susan Silverman from a sexual and moral mess of her own making, anything real or touching here is probably just a hangover from what the series had been, and was no longer going to be.

Four years have apparently passed since Spenser’s morally ambiguous solution to teenage prostitute April Kyle’s dilemma. Spenser is still deluding himself that it was the only logical decision, still thinking perhaps that it turned out okay for Linda Rabb in Mortal Stakes, so it can for April. It won’t be until the final April Kyle entry, that he realizes differently. In this one, the slim and blonde Patricia Utley hires Spenser to find April. Utley believes she has left her string of high-end girls because she has fallen in love with a pimp — something not uncommon among prostitutes. When Spenser does find her, it is just as Patricia Utley thought. But then April disappears completely, prostitute Ginger Buckey is murdered, and the pimp in question is scared. So Spenser keeps annoying people. Because most of this happens in New York, there is a minimum of Susan Silverman at the beginning, and that’s always a good thing.

Though the emotional grit of Ceremony is missing from this entry in the April Kyle saga, there is some good stuff here. The information about girls in the profession who end up at slaughterhouses, where they never get out of bed, is sad. And Ginger Buckey’s terrible history of familial betrayal is quite moving. Yet Parker can’t let that be real for very long, because this has become an animated show. Instead of having Spenser travel to Ginger’s hometown to mete out justice at the end, he has Utley go on about how special Spenser is for wanting to do it. In other words, making it all about Spenser, rather than about Ginger Buckey. It happens in the middle of the book instead, ruining its poignancy and impact. It feels like it’s there to fill pages, just like the smart aleck remarks. The reader doesn’t feel connected on any level more than a superficial one.

Spenser finally pulls a thread that leads him to the mob-connected Lehman, who runs a high-end string of smut clubs across the country. Annoying people some more leads him to St. Thomas, to one of the Crown Prince Club outlets. He brings Susan, and it is a surprisingly enjoyable section of the book. Their interaction is mostly devoid of psychobabble, and almost romantic. But there’s work to do. Spenser discovers that Ginger abandoned a powerful banker client to run off with April’s pimp/love. Soon he is right up against a crime boss so powerful that Tony Marcus doesn’t want to rock that boat. It will finally lead him to April Kyle, which is by far the most moving scene in the book.

It’s glitzy and moves fairly swiftly, but lacks the depth or poignancy of Ceremony. A generally enjoyable read, especially from the two-thirds point on. That’s when Parker seems to remember there should be a plot, and at least a touch of reality, so that the cartoon animation doesn’t swallow up everything the series had once been. Taming a Sea-Horse is almost like a colorful pulp story. There’s nothing wrong with that, but you can tell it’s being written by someone who’s slumming, rather than reaching their potential. I'm rounding up from 3.5 as pure entertainment, but don't equate that as meaning this is as good as Ceremony, because it isn't. That one is a solid four stars on a different level.

Taming a Sea-Horse is still pretty good, and worth a read, but the contrast between Ceremony and Sea-Horse is startling when you read them back-to-back. This is a compromised Spenser, and perhaps Parker too, both trying to find their footing after Catskill Eagle. Both would occasionally, but the footing would never be solid and assured again. show less

In sampling Parker's fiction, I continue to find his earlier novels to be his best work. This is my 12th "Spenser" novel (and at 1986, the earliest I've sampled), and in my view it compares very highly with several of those that came later. Sure, it's cheap popular fiction, but the plot is interesting, the dialogue clever, and the action fast paced and absorbing. One thing I liked in particular was how real the story seems. Private investigator Spenser doesn't know what's going on or what to do about it, and just makes himself a sufficiently annoying presence to the people he's up against (even with acts of a sophomoric nature) that they finally have to deal with him to get him off their backs. A less skillful writer would feel obliged show more to write a superhuman protagonist never at a loss for what to do to "solve" the crime. Spenser is all the more human for his flaws, even if his creator does make him and sidekick Hawk irresistably attractive to any females in the vicinity -- a little indulgence for which most male readers (at least) will likely forgive the author. There's much humor in this little novel, some great dialogue, some gripping action, and overall, a sufficiently absorbing story to make it a fine book to read near bedtime, for those who like the genre. For others, try Crime and Punishment or Anna Karenina. show less

Taming a Sea-Horse is Robert B. Parker’s 13th novel featuring the one-named Boston private eye Spenser. In Ceremony, the ninth of the series, Spenser “rescued” April Kyle, a young hooker from a life of low level prostitution by finding her a job with Patricia Utley, a high class madam. Here, April has left the “care” of Ms. Utley, and is now on the street working for a man named Robert, who claims to be a student at Juilliard. April thinks she is in love with Robert, and is hooking to help put him through school. Spenser’s detecting uncovers Robert as a pimp for a collection of hookers.

Spenser spends some time with Ginger Bucky, another of Robert’s stable, in investigating the mechanics of the prostitution trade. He learns show more from Ginger that her father raped her as a teenager, and then sold her to a brothel. Ginger shortly thereafter ends up murdered.

Parker’s tone is dark and philosophical in discussing prostitution. He is at his best in describing Spenser’s encounter with Ginger’s father, where Spenser demonstrates conclusively that the dad is not the toughest guy in rural Maine.

This book is not as crackling with snappy dialog as most Spenser novels. As a result, it seems a little preachy to readers who are expecting Parker’s usual brand of fluff and machismo. Although I would rate it “not bad,” I don’t think this book is Parker on his “A” game.

(JAB) show less

This was not the best Parker I have read. Spenser tries to find a girl he had left with a madam in a previous book. She disappears and in the meantime her friend and pimp are murdered. I like his books with more of Hawk and Susan. I do like his sarcastic way of speaking so it makes the book readable and humorous at the same time.

Synopsis: 'Nice girls don't. But blond, beautiful April Kyle does. She's a hooker hooked on the wrong guy—and she's on her way to trouble. So is Spenser.
Looking out for April has landed him in the crud of Times Square. It's not a long way to big-business boardrooms where blood money get laundered into long green, sex is a commodity, and young girls are the currency.' From author's website

Review: The ending isn't all roses, but it is realistic. Makes me wonder if April will be back in later books. Thankfully the love connection between Spenser and Susan is back to normal.

A rather early Spenser novel, with a pretty clear vut path through all of it, no huge twists and turns but enough suspense even so.

Spenser always seems to come into conflict with rich powerful criminals. This novel is no different. Trying to save a young prostitute, Spenser finds himself in dangerous situations.