The Judas GoatRobert B. Parker |
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 8/13/2010 |
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A year earlier Hugh Dixon was in London with his family when terrorists threw a bomb into the building. His family was killed. His legs were paralyzed. Dixon had seen all of them while he was lying in the carnage. Now he hires Spenser, a private investigator to find the nine people who were involved. The wealthy man will cover Spenser's expenses to go to London and pay a hefty fee for each terrorist found. Once in London, Spenser doesn't have a starting point to look for a small terrorist group that has loose connections. He puts an ad in the newspaper. That produces results. There's a woman who appears to be answering his ad. Instead, he is being set up for an attack. Then two men try to kill him in his hotel room. Dixon promised the fee for each terrorist found dead or alive. So far they die as they try to take out Spenser. But there are too many people still involved. Plus it's difficult being one person on surveillance of the woman. Spenser contacts his shadowy friend Hawk to come to England and help him. The woman unknowingly leads them to more people in the terrorist group. Before the two find all of the terrorist members, Spenser and Hawk have to go to Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and finally Montreal for the 1976 Montreal Olympics. They need to prevent another incident similar to the one in Munich in 1972. The Judas Goat is one of the earlier Spenser novels. Spenser has a hoodlum attitude with a large set of ethics and his own rules. His sense of ethics and rules don't always agree with the law or even with his clients. He has been happily dating the same woman for over three years. The Spenser novels are written in first person, so he doesn't deny attraction to other women but he prefers Susan. Some readers may be offended by conversations between Spenser and Hawk. Hawk is a sophisticated black man with a shady history. But he will drop into "black slave English" when the two are working together. His words are demeaning. His attitude isn't. He knows he his parodying his own background and twisting for his and Spenser's entertainment. He isn't threatened by his own words. Nor will he allow anyone else to speak like that around him. Robert B. Parker has filled out Spenser's character. The Judas Goat shows how Spenser can be a thug when needed. While predictable in some ways, it has its twists. For example, the Olympics don't come in until the last quarter or so of the book. Once it does the reader knows what is supposed happen there. Good detective fare, The Judas Goat keeps the reader hooked. Notice: Graphic violence, Suggestive dialogue or situations |
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The Series:
The Godwulf Manuscript |
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