Reading the second entry in the sad April Kyle saga within the Spenser canon directly after reading the first, Ceremony, is almost a shock to the system. Because Ceremony came before Valediction, and Taming a Sea-Horse directly after Catskill Eagle, the change in the series is magnified. There is a resonance and depth to Ceremony completely missing in Taming a Sea-Horse. It’s like watching a solid episode of a well-written television series with real characters, then tuning in the next week only to discover it has become a slickly produced animated series. It gives the second April Kyle book a sense of unreality at first.

For the first sixty or seventy pages of this one, Spenser truly is just a wisenheimer, a flip jerk who can’t seem to stop popping off, even when normal conversation is called for. It gets better, but the flippancy continues, and when real moments do occur, it’s as if they’ve been dropped in from another planet. Because Catskill Eagle, the entry where Parker drove a stake into the heart of this series by having Spenser sacrifice lives in order to rescue the unfaithful and vain Susan Silverman from a sexual and moral mess of her own making, anything real or touching here is probably just a hangover from what the series had been, and was no longer going to be.

Four years have apparently passed since Spenser’s morally ambiguous solution to teenage prostitute April Kyle’s dilemma. Spenser is still deluding himself that it was the only logical decision, still thinking perhaps that it turned out okay for Linda Rabb in Mortal Stakes, so it can for April. It won’t be until the final April Kyle entry, that he realizes differently. In this one, the slim and blonde Patricia Utley hires Spenser to find April. Utley believes she has left her string of high-end girls because she has fallen in love with a pimp — something not uncommon among prostitutes. When Spenser does find her, it is just as Patricia Utley thought. But then April disappears completely, prostitute Ginger Buckey is murdered, and the pimp in question is scared. So Spenser keeps annoying people. Because most of this happens in New York, there is a minimum of Susan Silverman at the beginning, and that’s always a good thing.

Though the emotional grit of Ceremony is missing from this entry in the April Kyle saga, there is some good stuff here. The information about girls in the profession who end up at slaughterhouses, where they never get out of bed, is sad. And Ginger Buckey’s terrible history of familial betrayal is quite moving. Yet Parker can’t let that be real for very long, because this has become an animated show. Instead of having Spenser travel to Ginger’s hometown to mete out justice at the end, he has Utley go on about how special Spenser is for wanting to do it. In other words, making it all about Spenser, rather than about Ginger Buckey. It happens in the middle of the book instead, ruining its poignancy and impact. It feels like it’s there to fill pages, just like the smart aleck remarks. The reader doesn’t feel connected on any level more than a superficial one.

Spenser finally pulls a thread that leads him to the mob-connected Lehman, who runs a high-end string of smut clubs across the country. Annoying people some more leads him to St. Thomas, to one of the Crown Prince Club outlets. He brings Susan, and it is a surprisingly enjoyable section of the book. Their interaction is mostly devoid of psychobabble, and almost romantic. But there’s work to do. Spenser discovers that Ginger abandoned a powerful banker client to run off with April’s pimp/love. Soon he is right up against a crime boss so powerful that Tony Marcus doesn’t want to rock that boat. It will finally lead him to April Kyle, which is by far the most moving scene in the book.

It’s glitzy and moves fairly swiftly, but lacks the depth or poignancy of Ceremony. A generally enjoyable read, especially from the two-thirds point on. That’s when Parker seems to remember there should be a plot, and at least a touch of reality, so that the cartoon animation doesn’t swallow up everything the series had once been. Taming a Sea-Horse is almost like a colorful pulp story. There’s nothing wrong with that, but you can tell it’s being written by someone who’s slumming, rather than reaching their potential. I'm rounding up from 3.5 as pure entertainment, but don't equate that as meaning this is as good as Ceremony, because it isn't. That one is a solid four stars on a different level.

Taming a Sea-Horse is still pretty good, and worth a read, but the contrast between Ceremony and Sea-Horse is startling when you read them back-to-back. This is a compromised Spenser, and perhaps Parker too, both trying to find their footing after Catskill Eagle. Both would occasionally, but the footing would never be solid and assured again. ( )

First edition signed very fine

Spenser always seems to come into conflict with rich powerful criminals. This novel is no different. Trying to save a young prostitute, Spenser finds himself in dangerous situations. ( )

Spenser looks for a missing hooker and discovers connections in high places. Characters are beginning to bore me.

Please see my blog for my review: Martin's View: Taming A Sea-Horse. ( )