{"id":9554,"date":"2018-01-04T11:45:07","date_gmt":"2018-01-04T16:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=9554"},"modified":"2026-01-23T19:34:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T00:34:02","slug":"small-vices-audible-version","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9554","title":{"rendered":"Small Vices, Audio Book"},"content":{"rendered":"

Small Vices<\/a><\/em>, Audible Version (1997) Robert B. Parker<\/a> narrated by Burt Reynolds <\/p>\n

\"Small<\/a>This is, hands down, one of my favorite Spenser books.<\/p>\n

It’s a story that puts Spenser’s complexity right up front, as the client he is hired to clear is an unlikable career criminal. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust don\u2019t get romantic on this one,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cEllis is a bad guy. Maybe he didn\u2019t have much choice about that, but it don\u2019t mean he ain\u2019t bad. You get him loose, you may be doing him a favor. You ain\u2019t helping anyone else. And you probably ain\u2019t helping him. You get him out, he gonna go back.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But it’s more than that. This is the first book I remember reading where after getting hurt the main character has to take time to recover and rehab. And that rehab is a significant part of this book, just as it would be in real life.<\/p>\n

\u201cMight take a while,\u201d Hawk said. \u201cHill\u2019s a bitch.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cHere we go,\u201d I said. <\/p>\n

We started up. I was half dragging my left leg. Hawk walked slowly beside me. On the right there was a lemon grove, the wet fruit glistening among the green leaves. Nobody seemed to be harvesting it. The fruit was yellow and heavy on the trees and littered the ground, some of it rotting beneath the trees. I was gasping for breath. I looked up and the mailbox was still thirty yards away. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo reason not to stop and rest,\u201d Hawk said. <\/p>\n

I nodded. I looked back. The wet black road surface gleamed. I was twenty yards up the hill and I couldn\u2019t talk. We stood silently together in the steady rain. I was wearing an Oakland A\u2019s baseball cap, and white New Balance sneakers, jeans, and a bright green rain jacket that Susan said was the ugliest garment she\u2019d ever seen legalized. In the left-hand pocket the Detective Special weighed about two hundred pounds. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow . . . high . . . is . . . this . . . hill?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cNever measured it,\u201d Hawk said. \u201cTakes me \u2019bout ten minutes to walk up, five minutes to run.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cRun?\u201d I said. <\/p>\n

Hawk grinned. \u201cSee that tree sticking out over the road? Let\u2019s aim for that, when you ready.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That entire chapter is for me the very heart of what makes Spenser, Spenser. And the heart of his relationships with Hawk. It is also something I remembered and thought about after I broke my ankle and was going through my own rehab: it takes time and work. <\/p>\n

That chapter reminded me not to give up. Still does.<\/p>\n

But there are so many passages that stick in my mind from this story. Take Hawk’s summation of the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo,\u201d Hawk said, \u201cAlves borrows or steals a car one night, an inconspicuous old pink Caddy. He drives out to Pemberton in his inconspicuous car, where there ain\u2019t no black folks, and the cops pay attention to any that they see. He cruises around in his inconspicuous car until he spots a white girl on a busy street, drags her into his inconspicuous car in front of witnesses, drives her somewhere, takes off her clothes and strangles her, though he maybe doesn\u2019t rape her, dumps her body in the middle of the Pemberton Campus, and rides on back home with her clothes and the aforesaid ligature in his inconspicuous car, so in case the cops stop him he can incriminate himself.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the audio version, Burt Reynolds annunciates every instance of in-con-spic-uous, which further emphasizes just how ridiculous the case against Alves is.<\/p>\n

When you put everything together, it’s an all but perfect story, of doing something because you said you would, of persisting, and doing what is right, even if it’s not necessarily good.<\/p>\n

As far as the narration, Burt Reynolds is so far my favorite narrator of this series. He has Spenser and Hawk pretty perfect, and makes me feel the story.<\/p>\n

The editing and production are pretty bad, however. The music is distracting, and in the shift from tape\/cd to mps, there are a lot of abrupt and pretty awful cuts. It was a nice idea, but didn’t work out at all.<\/p>\n

Another thing to note: Burt Reynold’s voice is deep, and he often elides words together. I like it, except when there is any kind of background noise, in which case it is extremely difficult to catch all the words. Keep that in mind.<\/p>\n

But despite those flaws, this remains one of my favorite mysteries and one of my favorite audio books.
\nRating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

Publisher: Phoenix Books<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Small Vices, Audible Version (1997) Robert B. Parker narrated by Burt Reynolds This is, hands down, one of my favorite Spenser books. It’s a story that puts Spenser’s complexity right up front, as the client he is hired to clear is an unlikable career criminal. \u201cJust don\u2019t get romantic on this one,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cEllis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,37,668,8,742,43,41],"tags":[484,617,106,107],"class_list":["post-9554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-10","category-audio-book","category-comfort-read","category-mystery","category-physical-health","category-private-eye","category-reread","tag-burt-reynolds","tag-injury","tag-robert-b-parker","tag-spenser"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-2u6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":89,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/89","url_meta":{"origin":9554,"position":0},"title":"Small Vices","author":"Michelle","date":"July 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Small Vices (1997) Robert B. Parker Okay, so I didn't totally resist, but I've limited myself to just Small Vices, which is one of my favorite Spenser books. Small Vices was my introduction to Spenser. It is also the reason I have some small affection for Burt Reynolds. Back when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comfort Read"","block_context":{"text":"Comfort Read","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/reread\/comfort-read"},"img":{"alt_text":"small vices.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.klishis.com\/Books\/images\/small%20vices.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":325,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/325","url_meta":{"origin":9554,"position":1},"title":"Small Vices","author":"Michelle","date":"November 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Small Vices (1997) Robert B Parker On the trip to get my grandmother, as I was driving alone I wanted a book to listen to, to help me stay awake and coherent. I grabbed Small Vices, read by Burt Reynolds to keep me company on the trip. I really do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"small_vices","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/11\/small_vices.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3909,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3909","url_meta":{"origin":9554,"position":2},"title":"Small Vices (Audio)","author":"Michelle","date":"July 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Small Vices (2002) written Robert B. Parker narrated by Burt Reynolds This audio book was my first exposure to Robert B. Parker. I was doing mind-numbingly dull lab work, and audio books kept me from losing my mind, so I was willing to try almost anything. I fell in love\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comfort Read"","block_context":{"text":"Comfort Read","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/reread\/comfort-read"},"img":{"alt_text":"Small Vices","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/small-vices-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":22125,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22125","url_meta":{"origin":9554,"position":3},"title":"Small Vices, Audio Book","author":"Michelle","date":"July 28, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Small Vices, Audio Book (1997) Robert B. Parker narrated by Burt Reynolds (Spenser) Since my name was anathema at Pemberton, I had to employ guile. I called the alumni office and said my name was Anathema and I was with the IRS. \u201cWe have an income tax refund for Ms.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Small Vices","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/small-vices.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12695,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/12695","url_meta":{"origin":9554,"position":4},"title":"Small Vices, Audio Edition","author":"Michelle","date":"April 2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Small Vices, Audio Edition (1997) Robert B. Parker narrated by Burt Reynolds It's been more than two decades, so this review is going to be completely full of spoilers, because I want to talk about the many reasons why I love this book so very much. So if you haven't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "10\/10"","block_context":{"text":"10\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/10-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Small Vices","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/small-vices.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9665,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/9665","url_meta":{"origin":9554,"position":5},"title":"Hugger Mugger, Audio Edition","author":"Michelle","date":"February 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Hugger Mugger (2000) Robert B Parker narrated by Joe Mantegna Walter Clive has hired Spenser to come down to Georgia to see who has been shooting his horses. What Spenser finds makes no sense: there is no rhyme or reason to the shootings, and the in-house security has seen nothing.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio Book"","block_context":{"text":"Audio Book","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/audio-book"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Spenser-Hugger-Mugger.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}