I don't think this is a spoiler to say--while the Godwulf Manuscript is the hook into the mystery, the reason for Spenser to become involved into what appears to be an innocuous case of a missing book, it is sort of just very incidental to what is going to eventually go down. And it ends up being quite a ride. I thought Kinsey Millhone took a bit of a beating on a regular basis, but Spenser (and that is with an "S"-like the poet) endures more than just a little roughing up by local thugs. After meeting him in this first foray into the Spenser mystery series, I think it is quite par for the course.
A wiseacre. That's what Spenser is. Wile he might be just a little too "tough guy" for me, I like him and want to see where he goes next. Granted Kinsey is very independent, quite savvy, an admitted liar, preferred singleton (now, though married twice before), but she has a decided moral code. She knows her shortcomings and will bend the rules, but only to a point. The jury is out on Spenser.
They do have some similarities. They are working in pre-technology America--she in Santa Teresa, California and he in Boston. She was a cop for a short while. I am not sure what Spenser's backstory is, but he is a fine cook, drinks a lot of hard liquor (no matter the time of day). They both pack weapons, both are sleuths of the hardboiled variety, both spend time at the gym. He is a natty dresser, albeit ca. 1973, while she cuts her own hair with finger scissors and has one black dress for a variety of situations.
I imagine some readers would pick up this first Spenser mystery and think--this feels a little dated. Indeed it takes place in 1973 and I think at least one character sported sideburns. But I prefer to think of the story being steeped in atmosphere. It is America in the 70s and all the details are true to life, which I like. I read historical fiction, and this is simply fiction portraying a specific time and place, and I call that authenticity. And it is a few of those details, clothing-wise, that caught my eye and I want to share, because they are so descriptive.
The novel takes place in part on a college campus.
"The buildings around the university were old red brick. Many of the windows were boarded, and few of the rest had curtains. Along the avenue was some of the detritus that gathers at the exterior edge of a big university: used-book shops, cut-rate clothing stores featuring this year's freaky fashions, a porno shop, a school of astrology-reading in a store-front, a term-paper mill, three sub joints, hamburger, pizza, fried chicken joints, and a place selling soft ice cream. The porno shop was bigger than the bookstore."
Terry Orchard is the student we are most interested in as she is perhaps the one with knowledge of and maybe ownership of the stolen manuscript.
"She looked like students I'd seen before, the real goods, faded Levi jacket and pants, faded and unironed denim shirt, hair pulled back tight in a pigtail like an eighteenth-century British sailor. No make-up, no jewelry. On her feet were yellow leather work shoes that laced up over the ankle. She wasn't built soyou can tell from where I was, but I would have bet my retainer she wouldn't be wearing a bra."
And for the time, Spenser, you natty dresser, you.
"Gray, hard-finished slacks with a medium flare, blue paisley flowered shirt with short sleeves, blue wool socks, mahogany-colored buckle boots with a side zipper, broad mahogany belt with a brass buckle."
Oh, my. Yes, no doubt the height of fashion back then! I want to keep reading the books for the descriptions alone. I will have to describe Spenser's cooking sometime as well! I do think, though, it is time for S is for Silence first. Tag team detective work!