Double Deuce is perhaps the biggest missed opportunity of the entire Parker series, in my opinion. Coming on the heels of Pastime, and though a good read overall, it suffers from the same malady as that book — too much Spenser and Susan Silverman, too much psychobabble. Pastime should have had more Vinnie, and Double Deuce should have had far more of Hawk and his connection to the ghetto from which he’d made his way out, at great cost. I’m aware that people point to this as Hawk’s book because of the overall story-line, but having read this several times over the years, and now re-reading it, my disappointment is palpable. By shifting the focus of the series to Spenser and Susan, which really began in Valediction with another missed opportunity, it’s as if Parker could not allow Hawk to have the depth and backstory he deserved, placing him on equal footing with Spenser and Susan. So Parker kept the story-line to a formula of dialog and psychobabble, and Susan. Lots of Susan.

While this entry seemed like a cool one when I first read it all those years ago, reading it now I can see what might have been — not just for Hawk, but the entire series. Spenser gives us a wonderful opening, as young Devona Jefferson clings to her baby in the projects and is brutally gunned down. By having this sort of prolog, Parker could easily have interspersed the story of gangs, and the similarity between Hawk and young Major, with chapters where Hawk is alone with his thoughts, remembering his own youth, before he became the Hawk we know. It would have given Hawk the depth he deserved. Instead we get the Spenser and Susan stuff, moving in together and then analyzing it all to death, when what it really came down to is that they didn’t belong together — mainly because of her vanity and pretension, not Spenser’s work.

The promise of the poignant opening — one of the best in the series — continues for a bit, as Hawk corrals Spenser into helping him clean up Double Deuce, and find out who murdered Devona and her baby. The people he’s doing it for have suspect motives, one of them seeking the limelight as a platform. Hawk is also involved with a woman — the real reason he’s doing this — who works for a popular television journalist looking to exploit the situation for ratings. Then there’s a woman named Erin Macklin who is genuinely doing some good with the kids. Naturally, we get a healthy dose of Parker’s Boston-liberal viewpoint because he writes her — of course — as an EX-nun. She does whisky shots with Spenser at one point in the narrative. By writing her in this way, it gives Parker an opportunity to use Freud student, Theodor Reik’s quote — “The ways of the Lord are often dark, but never pleasant.” It was not the first time Parker had used this quote, as I recall. Un-huh.

Another issue lies with the plot — there isn’t one. Okay, maybe there is one, but it’s barely there. This is mostly just Spenser and Hawk sitting around waiting, in a chess game between Hawk and the young kid in whom he sees himself. It begs for Hawk’s real story, some flashbacks, or even some intimate scenes between Hawk and Jackie, but hey, then the series wouldn’t have been ALL about Spenser and Susan, ad nauseam. So Hawk gets shortchanged here, just as Vinnie got shortchanged in Pastime. Yes, it’s their moment to either shine (Hawk) or break out (Vinnie), but because of what Parker had done with Linda in Valediction, it could only be a spotlight, not a floodlight. We get some stuff with Tony Marcus before Double Deuce is over, but it all just falls into Spenser and Hawk’s lap. By this point in the series Parker had already made plot secondary to that elephant in the room which was Spenser and Susan. It’s a real shame. At one point, I just wished Vinnie would show up and pop everybody.

I’m still giving this three solid stars, because there are flashes of great stuff here. In it’s favor it is a quick, easy read which will entertain if you haven’t read it before. But for those who’ve read the series time and again over the years, it’s obvious that Double Deuce doesn’t go as deep as it could — or should have — into Hawk. I really think if Parker had written Double Deuce differently, he would never have allowed Hawk to become Tonto to Spenser’s Lone Ranger, which was already happening. The same could be said of Vinnie. Maybe that’s why Parker didn’t, because if he had, the series could no longer have been just about Spenser and the annoying Silverman. Perhaps that’s another reason why the next book in the series, Paper Doll, was so much better. He knew he’d blown this one… ( )

First edition very fine

I have never read a Robert B. Parker story that seemed dated. This one seemed a story stuck in the 1990s. Spenser and Hawk are asked to get a youth drug dealing gang to leave a public housing project alone. The title, Double Deuce, is for the street number of the project 22 Hobart Street in Boston. The story begins when 14 year old girlfriend of a rival gang member is killed in a drive-by shooting. The girls three month old child is found also dead under the young victim's body. Who killed Devona Jefferson and how will Hawk and Spenser get the Double Deuce gang to leave the housing project? Will Devona's killer or killers be brought to justice? Maybe not the best Spenser novel but still an enjoyable read. ( )

not impressed, getting repetitive

For my review please see my blog: Martin's View: Double Deuce. ( )