Looking for Rachel Wallace : a Spenser novel /

The fabulously talented Parker (the Spenser series, the disappointing Wilderness) remains hung up on--and limited by--his over-enunciated interest in the place of macho in today's world of changing sex roles. Here macho/sensitive Spenser is hired by a Boston publisher to bodyguard Rachel Wallace, who's a most reluctant recipient of Spenser's services: she's the lesbian-feminist-radical author of the forthcoming Lovers and Tyrants (a distracting, probably unintentional, choice of title)--an exposÉ of business sex-discrimination that has provoked anonymous threats on Rachel's life. So, while Spenser follows Rachel around, they trade wisecracks, touch on issues, and arrive at some mutual respect. . . till pacifistic Rachel fires Spenser for using rough stuff on some hecklers. She's then promptly kidnapped--by a mysterious anti-gay group--and guilty Spenser must find her, sleuthing first in blue-collar Boston, then in the posh suburb where Rachel is in fact being held prisoner by a pair of crazed aristocrats who are desperately hiding the lesbianism in their own family. Unfortunately, Parker seems too absorbed in the sexual politics to craft the suspense here--the plotting's his thinnest, least credible ever. And the book too often resembles nothing so much as a trendy bull session. True, for every sententious line of dialogue, there are nine terrifically funny ones, and the Boston atmosphere still rings true--so this little book is certainly painless. But Parker is capable of the very best in serious detective fiction, and that won't materialize until Spenser stops tackling themes so literally and starts going back to real work. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.