For me, the most intriguing part of COLD SERVICE, # 32 Spenser was Hawk's ongoing concern that he not just believe, but that he know who shot him, prior to his executing his retribution ramble. That concern remained at the back of my mind, as the forefront culprits seemed too obvious, too conveniently in the bulls-eye, while other characters who seemed to be on Hawk's side may not have been. I continued feeling that this plot would employ a super twist of a surprise, that I should watch for undercurrents in swamps and sewers of the Ukranian mob games.
Hawk's prominence here, working off his vendetta with Spenser's assistance, altered the mood of this offering beyond previous shifts in the baseline norm. Hawk came out of himself somewhat, yet he was even smoother and subtler, "looser" and quieter when slipping into the style-of-the-moment's speak or slink. Concerning Hawk leading the investigation and rap in this one, I might wonder if Spenser, Parker, or I enjoyed that spotlight on ebony more.
As may have been Parker's intent, I've not been able to like any of the female characters temporarily linked up with Hawk. Unable to see his uniqueness, they came off as whining sour. Needing to have Hawk explained by Spenser and/or Susan, these women still didn't (from my perspective) seem to get it, though they paid lip service. None of them comprehended Spenser, either. I have difficulty believing Hawk would like anyone who didn't "get him" on a first glimpse, like Susan did. However, I exited this story hoping an ebony female cameo here might step into full black-gardenia-bloom in a future book. So, yeah, I had a hard time warming to the female surgeon, Cecile, though her role provided intrigue and effect. The resulting explanations Spenser gave about "getting Hawk" were enlightening, especially the expressed differences between Hawk's and Spenser's early years' set ups.
Switching from set ups to scenes, I'll note that many shorts stepped out here with priceless panache, in which Spencer and Hawk ... Hawk and Spenser ... pursued the next and the next leads, to locations of people to interview for obtaining clues. In one, Hawk hung a man out a window high enough off the ground to surge terror into the dangling dude. In another, they stood in the rain on the door-stoop of Tony Marcus' wife, and clipped an amazing amount of information from her in a flowing dialogue, until she abruptly slammed the door in their faces. In the next chapter, the investigating team stepped out of the rain and through the door, then ignited a communication-gap powder-keg in the living room of Tony's daughter and her live-in dud. They left with a curse spewed at them, between those spewed between the couple who had been fueled into communication chaos.
As the tension built with each following-clue-visit (and build it did), I grew increasingly curious about how this one would do the rap and wrap. Der, Da team done gone beyond guut.
Chillingly beautiful and artistically exquisite describes the denouement scenes here. This subtle and sensitive story featuring Hawk held my favorite ending in the series. Chapter 60 read like a prayer for a vigil, in which the flame keepers, Spenser and Vinnie, wanted to step in so badly, the scent of that need was caught on each wisp of outgoing air. The chapter title could have been, "Attending The Thin Veil of Life's Breath." (In a few uncanny connections dramatizing dying eras and deteriorating areas, the concluding scenes' time-litany and mood mirrored another story, a nonfiction account in an Amazon Short,
Dark Diamond Twilight: A True Story
).
Alternate styles contrasted a pair of endings in COLD SERVICE, male and female, finely featuring a relationship angst subplot. In the female warp and wrap, Hawk, Spenser, Cecile, and Susan dined over a collection of quotable lines on styles of ownership in romantic realms. In the male done deal, the vigil attendance concluded a chilling service of unexpected design.
My favorite Spenser ending went here.
Linda Shelnutt
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