On Chasing Trails and Parker’s Broken Trust
May 14, 2024 |
| My copy of Robert B. Parker's Broken Trust by Mike Lupica |
Good afternoon beautiful people,
Hope you are enjoying this rainy Tuesday.
Loving my day so far - started it off with Bible Study and prayer, followed by what was meant to be a walk on one of the trails near my apartment. Well, the walk ended up being a run in Lancaster County Central Park.
Out of nowhere that my body desired to run, and since she had the endurance for it, I let her fly (no I wasn’t going that fast) - I think the green-ness of the greenery on the trail, and the chirping of the birds played a part in this desire (see some of the scenes I captured below).
After I got back home, I did some house stuff as I waited for the official start of a 8 part virtual learning program on maternal substance use disorder.
I finished everything with some minutes to spare, so I decided to sneak in the last chapters of Broken Trust, a fictional book I had been reading in April that I shelved to prepare for my end of semester exams.
When I first got the book, I was a little confused about who the author was - the cover reads Robert B. Parker's Broken Trust by Mike Lupica. A little digging untwisted my knot - Robert B. Parker was an American writer who wrote investigative/detective types (y'all know this genre is my jam - read my 'review' of the last detective book I read). He had a couple of series including the Spenser series which this book is based on. When he died in 2010 (on his desk, writing a novel), his sons (later), decided to get people to continue with the various series he had. One of those people was Mike Lupica, whose bio on the book’s jacket says is a sports journalist. So the book was written by Lupica for the Spenser series that Parker created.
I am aware this is a whole series and I am jumping on the Spenser wagon a little late in the game, but here is my 2 cents. The story is set in Boston, which is on my places I would like to live in…there is something about that New England area that I like - there was a time my dream of living in New England was so strong, I was looking at schools and attending admission webinars...but I digress.
Spenser, the protagonist, is a private investigator, who is seeing Susan, a therapist - and my best part about their relationship is that they do not live together. I am for this life - not from the 'wait until marriage' angle, but from the ‘yes we are together but please let me have my own space’ point of view...but I digress yet again.
Susan gets a client who thinks something is up with her husband. Susan refers said client to Spenser to help investigate what's happening with the husband, who happens to be a tech millionaire and founder of a 'battery production' company that is about to merge with an international 'car production' company. Only problem, or so we think at the start of this journey, is that the husband is acting suspicious. A couple of days later, the wife ends up dead, and husband missing in action. Another couple of days after this, someone who works in the husband’s company is thrown from their home balcony, an act that is made to look like a suicide.
Spenser is now working for a dead client, and needs to figure out who killed her. He also wants to know who killed the dude who just died, if there is a connection between the two deaths. Then there is the husband’s disappearance, reappearance and silence. Most importantly, Spenser needs to know if all this is connected to why he was hired in the first place? Additionally the husband's business partner really wants the merger to go through because he has done some shady things.
We learn a lot about Spenser and Susan's relationship, a lot about eateries in Boston, because they are always going out for meals, or he is meeting some of the Boston PD detectives, and other contacts in eateries. We also get a little in depth of husband's company, his 'right hand' man, how he met his wife, encounter some domestic violence among other background details to help us solve the case alongside Spenser.
I will not give it all away incase you want to read the book. It is a good read though I felt it was a little heavy on the Spenser - Susan relationship side of things. A little digging shows that the Susan character was actually created after Parker (the original creator of the series)'s wife, so may be grace can be granted there - keeping up with the series' roots.
Should you read it, yes...especially if you are in mood for a mix of investigation, some fighting and shooting, relationships, corporate drama, a mental health twist, revenge killings and hiding overseas.
Until the next review,
Sending loads of love and light,
Sitawa
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