Reviews for African Journal of Business And Economic Research

The average rating for African Journal of Business And Economic Research based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-07-02 00:00:00 Michael Stephen Sanger I knew that Robert B. Parker was phoning it in on a lot of these later Spenser books, but this one may be among the weakest and laziest of the bunch. Spenser gets hired by Marlene Rowley to see if her husband Trent is cheating on her. After he follows Trent to a hotel liaison with another woman, Spenser finds another detective trailing the lady Trent hooked up with. Things get weirder when that PI tells Spenser that he’s seen a third detective watching Marlene. As usual in this series, someone winds up getting murdered, and Spenser thinks the key is to figure out who hired the other detectives. He discovers several connections to a radio talk show host who advocates open marriages. However, RBP apparently thought that it was too much effort keeping track of all that so he shifted the focus to Trent’s company which is an energy broker. And this was written about the time Enron was folding. Take a guess as to where the story is headed... Seriously, it seems like RBP started out with some ideas about multiple detectives trailing different people and tying it in with a wonky radio show host. There was some potential there, but then he just dumps the other detective characters about halfway through and comes up with some convoluted reasons for the talk show guy to have a connection to the energy company to go with a ripped from the headlines style plot. It almost made me wonder if he didn’t have half the book written when Enron imploded, and he just decided to use a current story rather than continue with whatever he had been originally thinking. Plus, this one is just dull. There’s no action to speak of at all. Neither Spenser nor Hawk so much as punch a thug in the mouth. Almost every scene and bit of dialogue seems to have been something that RBP had written at least once before. And the Susan annoyance factor is extremely high. It feels like RBP was even bored writing it. Next up: Hawk gets shot to pieces and Spenser helps him get revenge in Cold Service. I have the oddest sense of déjà vu for some reason….

Review # 2 was written on 2017-05-25 00:00:00 Kristina Cox Terrific. One of his very best in every way. Most reviewers don't think highly of this book, but I strongly disagree... I think it's brilliant, almost a caricature of Detective Noir, with a set of femme-fatales, a mind-bogglingly confusing plot, an array of situations and characters from both Jungle Capitalism and Bedroom Farce genres. The book starts with a seemingly dull task for Spenser, and bit-by-bit Parker escalates it into a "true hairball", then almost farce. The humour builds slowly, until in the last half of the book there are dialogue or situations which rip repeated giggles and often guffaws from the discerning reader on every other page. “Here they are,” Freckles said. “State cops.” The car door opened and Healy got out. I said, “Evening, Captain.” He looked at me for a moment. “Oh shit,” he said. “Oh shit?” “Yeah. You’re in this.” “So?” “So that means it’ll be a fucking mess.” This book is very, very literate, with references to many classic and modern authors and their works. Don't be shy, when you see an obscure reference or phrase, look it up! It's truly worth the effort! Of particular note is the climax wherein Spenser teases the villains into more and more heated revelations, "bringing the discussions to a slow and vindictive boil" to the reader's delight. “What we have here,” I said, “is a roomful of culprits, with varying levels of culpritude.” My favourite, chapter 47, involves the shameful discovery of videotapes and a range of sex toys, "ick!" which had me laughing out loud. A hidden gem of a book, an excursion into literate humour by Parker, a gentle caricature of his amazing detective oeuvre. This is Spenser brought to a new level of fun, almost burlesque. Totally delightful. (The word "maroon" appears 4 times in this novel) Notes - 90.0% ".... "The Kinergy board of directors, as far as I can see, would have approved compulsory pederasty if urged by Trent and Bernie.” 70.0% ... hilarious chapter with videotapes and sex toys ... ick 50.0% ... Me too .... "I was making my own version of moussaka, with zucchini and onions and peppers and no eggplant. I hate eggplant." 41.0% ... it occurs to me that one of the central elements of Parker's worship of Joan is BADINAGE.... It's a wonderful dance for them.