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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780425168288
ISBN number: 042516828X
Label: Berkley
Manufacturer: Berkley
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: May 01, 1999
Publishing house: Berkley
Sale Popularity Level: 76860
Studio: Berkley
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Product Description:
Spenser's back. And Susan's ex is quaking in his boots...
Susan Silverman's ex doesn't call himself 'Silverman' anymore--he's changed his name to 'Sterling.' And that's not the only thing that's phony about him. A do-gooding charity fundraiser, he's been accused of sexual harassment by no less than four different women. And not long after Spenser starts investigating, Sterling is wanted for a bigger charge: murder...
'Sparkling.'--Detroit Free Press
'A highly satisfactory addition to a well-rounded series.'-- Houston Chronicle
'Smooth as silk.'-- Orlando Sentinel
'A corker.'-- Buffalo News
Amazon.com Review:
Sudden Mischief, the 25th Spenser novel, finds Robert B. Parker's seemingly ageless sleuth once again engaging Boston's bad guys and sorting out life's moral dilemmas, all (or mostly) in the name of love. When Spenser's girlfriend, psychiatrist Susan Silverman, asks him to investigate charges of sexual harassment leveled against her ex-husband, Brad Sterling, the detective agrees, though the assignment 'shows every sign of not working out well.' As the sexual harassment allegations melt like April snow, Sterling drops out of sight, a dead body appears in his office, and Spenser discovers a murky slush of clues that suggest Sterling's work as a marketing genius for local charities has been a front for some truly despicable criminal activities. As always, the more-than-slightly-shady Hawk is on hand to help Spenser sort the good from the bad, but Spenser is left to his own devices when it comes to making sense of the emotional havoc the case creates in his relationship with Susan. And what devices they are: emotionally mature and physically dynamic, Spenser once again proves himself as detective, friend, lover, and human being as Sterling's reappearance forces Susan to examine her past and her conscience while searching for her own autonomy. As always, Spenser endures as an intelligent, ethical, and poetic private eye, even if his endless middle age seems a bit supernatural. Parker's nimble, Spartan prose suits a character who carries his years in wisdom rather than body fat. If the heart of any truly great detective series is a truly great detective, Sudden Mischief and the rest of Parker's Spenser novels surely fit the bill. --L.A. Smith
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Rated by buyers 
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I love Spenser but this novel was way too much psychoanalysis for me. It got a bit boring, too. Why Susan was attracted to bad men and all that baloney did nothing to make me feel for Susan and why was Rachel Wallace in this? The story line had a lot of promise but it just faltered. Won't keep me from reading more of Parker's books on Spenser.
Rated by buyers 
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In "Sudden Mischief," Susan comes to Spenser asking him to help out her ex-husband, Brad Sterling (he has changed his name). Brad is "on the edge of dissolution" and has been sued for sexual harassment by four women after he chaired a major charity event. However, when Spenser goes to talk to Brad, Brad laughs it off - claiming he is doing fine, there is no problem with harassment and Susan was over-reacting. Puzzled, Spenser starts to dig. And, of course, that brings some bruisers to bear upon him. Discovering that the charity event brought no money to any of the charities - except maybe one mysterious charity chaired by another of Brad's ex-wives called Civil Streets, but Spenser cannot be sure because no one will talk to him about it - Spenser becomes suspicious. Also, the harassment suit comes under fire when Spenser discovers love letters and naked pictures of one of the woman under Brad's bed.
Well paced and intricately plotted, this novel had more twists than the California coastal highway. I enjoy the Spenser novels, because they keep you guessing until the end. Not to be missed!
Rated by buyers -
SUDDEN MISCHIEF, # 25 in the Spenser series, provided another prime work up on the Man/Woman relationship scene, dealing with ex-hubby scars, Susan's turtle-snap moods, and a new-and-improved conversational skill from Dr. Sigmund Spenser. I'm roaring onward toward the end of the series with continued amazement at how many miasmas of human angst Parker has been able to muck into, for Spenser to clarify and deodorize; and how many relationship scenes and character cards he can lay bare on any table, with Spades called true.
Opening what I might term "The Pandora in The Relationship," a scene between Spenser and Susan slipped suddenly from the most comfy of cozy, with humour set and staged on-a-roll ... to sour milk, paused peace, and stomach knots. I felt that hit along with Spenser, possibly more than any other emotional toll taken in the series (except when Susan left in VALEDICTION, # 11 in the series). The way Spenser worked with and through the situation was a perfect expression of ... not of psychological actualization ... but of the wisdom of a dynamically-operating human maturity. This scene and Spenser's "self-talk" in understanding the dense drama underlying Susan's behavior took the reader ozone holes beyond the trite advice to "roll with the punches."
I particularly enjoyed the few glove punches of tribute to X-Files here, in the slight, playful change in the style of humour between Hawk and Spenser, and in the Lone Gunman computer geek. SUDDEN MISCHIEF was another example of the cultural evolutionary intrigue contained in this triple-decade-running series. In this one and in a few previous recent offerings readers were also given hints of the beginning of The-Waitress-Hurry-Rush-Syndrome, which appeared to have begun in the nineties.
In SUDDEN MISCHIEF Spenser stepped up to the tallest measure of being Susan's hero, savior, Knight-in-Shining Armor, and her Shrink. Acting as her shrink, Spenser's jangled the jargon from the popular surge of psycho-self-help books which carried "come-communicate" concepts from the 70's and 80's into the 90's. Spenser's part of every dialogue with every character seemed to have suddenly altered in MISCHIEF in a manner which felt somewhat but not totally, tongue-in-cheek. The alteration came through the famous style of the Shrink's SILENCE, the true listening mode ... of no response ... to stretches of out-loud contemplations from whomever happened to be the partner in repartee (or payer of shrink-wrap fees). I enjoyed the fact that the dialogues often took place over meals or in interesting restaurants, so that when Spenser worked the no response deal, he replaced the saved mouth motion with warm, moist bites of fresh, spongy bread, and savored the yeasty flavor. Usually his comment in that venue went something like, "I took a bite of .... It was good."
Spenser did the shrink silence with as much perfection as he has done all else. Even so, one of the reasons for sucess of his perfection was his ability to see (and note) his and Susan's flaws here. And, Susan's self-actualization scene in chapter 48 was truly incredible in Parker's perfection of process of her coming to that catharsis, with Spenser providing support in an awesomely effective way of stand-aside-but-be-ready.
As noted above, it appeared to me that the humour had changed slightly in this one, with appetizer overtures in recent previous offerings as well. Some of the conversational fun-poking definitely seemed to have taken on a warmly entertaining edge of the X-Files, Fox Mulder type.
The combo of these subtle changes continued to herald the "Signs of the Times," reinforcing my sense of one of the major values in this series being its feathered function as a cultural-evolution-landmark for the 70's, 80's, 90's, and 00's.
Sometimes series authors have espoused a wish that they could get out of the limitations of a genre and write something "significant." Parker has repeatedly and unfailingly honored his series genre, while packing his products with the ultimate in literary significance. Possibly the greatest gift in this accomplishment is that readers can choose to see this significance (and be awed by it). Or, they can merely let go of cares and worries, and be entertained by pure escape fiction.
I wonder if RBP was born on the precise point of an Annular Solar Eclipse, to have continually generated and successfully manifested so much primal, pivotal creativity. Or maybe ... like yesterday ... Robert B. Parker was born during a Blue Moon peaking full in the company of Jupiter and Vesta (the asteroid). All I know about that is that he was born in 1947 (or 48?), a Baby Boomer like many of us.
Another man, born in 1928, wasn't a Baby Boomer, nor an author, yet he reminds me of Parker, in the sense of the above described type of continued creative generation and manifestation. See ... Read More
Rated by buyers 
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I enjoy Robert Parker's books a lot, and SUDDEN MISCHIEF is one of the better novels in his Spenser series.
Many of Parker's books after 1990 are hit and miss, especially when it comes to the mystery plots. Fortunately, SUDDEN MISCHIEF has a fully developed storyline that kept me interested in what was going on. This novel is also noteworthy in that Parker reveals key information about the past of Dr. Susan Silverman, a key character in the series.
If you've never read Spenser before, my advice is not to start with this novel. It's the 25th book in a long running series, and features some key characters that were introduced in prior novels. I would recommend looking at some of the early novels instead, like THE JUDAS GOAT and LOOKING FOR RACHEL WALLACE. Generally speaking, the very best Spenser novels are the earliest ones, written before 1985.
Rated by buyers -
Susan's ex-husband, Brad Sterling, needs help. He is being sued for sexual harassment. He doesn't have enough money to defend himself. The husband of one of the litigants calls Spenser a bouncer. An attorney friend tells Spenser to be careful.
Spenser sends Hawk to Marblehead, confident that Hawk can find a way to blend in. The specifics of the harassment claim are not described by anyone Spenser encounters. The charities that were supposed to receive the proceeds of a benefit gala, Galapalooza, arranged by Brad, received nothing. Brad has refused to hire a lawyer to represent him.
Next Spenser and Hawk find out that Brad is living in one room in Brighton and that he is not paying his bills. Spenser goes to see Brad's sister. She relates that he, Brad, is always on the verge of bankruptcy. She and her husband found it necessary to cut him off a year and half ago. Spenser meets one of the women claiming harassment at a mall in Peabody. He learns the suit is bogus, just brought into being because a wife needed to find a way to meet the justifiable suspicions of her husband.
By this point Brad is both missing and a murder suspect. Spenser learns that Galapalooza is probably a scheme to launder money. Brad appears. Some symbolism is involved in his misdeeds and has misfired. He feels that everyone has let him down.
The story delineates the Susan-Spenser relationship and history in interesting fashion.
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