Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 17
 Ceremony: mistaken identity September 5, 2010
Pierce Timberlake (Santa Rosa, CA USA)
I read this book many years ago, and thought it was typical of what is good about Robert B. Parker's Spenser series. However, I'm not writing here to review the book; that has already been done well enough by others. I'm writing to point out that there is an error in the matching of the reviews with the book supposedly being reviewed.
Of the reviews posted for "Ceremony" (sixteen as I write this), three are reviewing a completely different work, apparently a supernaturally-themed B-movie on VHS, which happens to have the same title. These three are also three of the four reviews that give a score of less than four stars. This skews the "average review" score, while wasting the time of anyone looking for info about the Parker book.
(The fourth reviewer who gives " Ceremony" a low score apparently does have the right work, if a misguided opinion. I'll take the high road and not disparage his review; I'll just point out that he spells Spenser incorrectly.)
For the record, "Ceremony" (the one by Robert B. Parker), poses an interesting, and at least semi-profound moral dilemma, which Spenser (as usual), doesn't seem to linger over too long. Interestingly, Spenser encounters the teenage prostitute again in a much later book, ("Hundred Dollar Baby"), now older and a madame, but the later story takes a darker turn. "Hundred Dollar Baby" is good, but I think I might like "Ceremony" better.
 Service & Product August 18, 2010
The seller was very prompt on delivery(within the week) and the book itself was in perfect condition. Quite satified with the quick delivery and product.
CEREMONY by Robert B. Parker January 23, 2010
Michael R. Reagan
I am a serious reader of historical books, but when I want something entertaining I turn to Robert Parker's books. Ceremony is a great read of the once employed city detective Spencer. Because of Spencer's lack of respect for the rules and regulations binding all other law officers, he is now in business for himself as a private eye. He is not discriminating as to who he works for either. This is the first book in a series about a young April Kyle who's family life and environment leads her into the seedy world of prostitution, crime, and corruption. For some reason Spencer is the shining Knight who comes to the rescue; but in a way the average reader cannot anticipate. Smart, confident, and with a cutting edge wit; Spencer is a great read!
A book which is sure to spark conversation March 8, 2009
J.R. Reardon (Boston, Massachusetts)
I have just completed another Robert B. Parker book: "Ceremony." While I enjoy Mr. Parker's storytelling, the ending, which I do not wish to give away, disturbed me.
Despite my opinion on the ending, I still give it 4 stars. Mr. Parker, as the author, is an excellent storyteller, and the one who creates the ending for his book: here, Spenser must come up with a quick solution to save a young girl from the jaws of a low-line prostitution ring - a girl who does not want to go back to the safety of her childhood home. I have thought about Spenser's solution in this story for some time now, and I honestly cannot say that I have an alternative, based on the character Mr. Parker created.
I would recommend this book, but I am not sure everyone would agree with the ending. If you are looking for an ending which may spark conversation, this book has done so for me.
J.R. Reardon
author, "Confidential Communications"
 A Love/Hate Relationship, Without the Love September 17, 2008
Karen Shaub (the inner reaches of the outer limits)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
No one loves low budget horror flix more than I do, or is more likely to cut then ample amounts of slack than I am, but there are certain movies that have just rubbed me the wrong way and unfortunately for everyone connected with CEREMONY, this film is one of them. I'm not going to complain about horrendous hair-dos or out-dated wardrobes from days of yore, the film was made in 1994 so nothing is quite so antiquated that it would raise cries of "Yuck!" from even the most coiffure and sartorially conscious critic. The camera work and the lighting are no worse than a thousand other films I've endured--a bit of squinting here and there gets you through the dimmest scenes just fine. Several of the actors DO appear to be graduates of the Snidely Whiplash Academy of the Dramatic Arts, and they use their mentor's patented lip curl to convey nearly every emotion from disgust to anger to fear. Apart from that, the acting is par for the low budget course. So what you may ask has me so ticked off at this movie?
The story begins well enough with low budget potential just bustin' out all over the place. It seems that one of the Lord's servants became jealous of Christ and his position next to God, and this envious angel was cast out--not to hell, but to our physical world. Satan saw that she (its always a female, isn't it--how sexist can you get) was weak and vulnerable and was able to overpower her. (All of this is demonstrated for us in glorious low budget manner with the camera on a woman who is apparently in heaven, then after being bathed in some sort of light that annoys her, she finds herself lying on the sand in the desert, where she cries and screams until a very thin person wearing camel hooves and some surprisingly effective make-up for this production comes over and forces her to spit tapioca out of her mouth. That was Satan possessing her.) This all took about 4 minutes, probably the best 4 minutes of the film. After that we're thrown 1400 years into the future which is, of course, the present.
Sylvia Brindisi (Emilie Talbot)is our heroine. Her Grandfather (played by Forry Ackerman)is in a nursing home because his condition requires the kind of round the clock care that the family's hinky housekeeper Gloria can't provide. And its not a good time for him to be out of commission either, because the Brindisi Family's Big Raison d'Etre is coming up the very next day! Without Gramps Sylvia will have to deal with it all by herself. Naturally she doesn't take Forry's advice --NO GUESTS ALLOWED! And she invites everyone she can think of from the cute married couple who think she's having a couples' retreat to Dr. Davidson the secular humanist bleeding heart liberal Dean of Theology, who's also teaching a class in religion Sylvia is taking. She warns everyone though, do not come unless you truly believe in God. Everyone assures her that they do, even the professor who has all his fingers, toes, and even his eyes crossed while he's doing it.
Later that night when they all assemble at her huge home, Sylvia finally tells them why she has invited them, and why it was so important that they believe in God. She recaps the story of the jealous angel and tells how her ancestors had built a device in which they had trapped her and held her prisoner, how they had consulted philosophers and wisemen and calculated the date of the Final Judgment to the year, month, day, hour, and minute. And how at that precise time the device would open and this evil creature would be released to face the wrath of God. And that time was to be midnight that very night. Well, the secular humanist gets all sarcastic, of course, and doubts the story and the existence of the device (which is sitting on the other side of the room the whole time she's telling the story), whereupon Sylvia merely goes, "Voila!" Adding that she has no idea if there's anything in there or not but she doesn't want to be there alone when it opens.
The next step is for Sylvia to conduct a little Holy Communion for the group's protection, and I'm not the only one who had things starting to stick in their throat at this point--so did good ol' Dr. Davidson, the eucahrist was giving him more problems than Aunt Betty's fruitcake, which he vomited up as they left the room--the eucahrist. There wasn't any fruitcake. WEll, the time comes, and goes, and the angel/demon is a no-show. Someone remarks about the difficulty of precision watch making--and BINGO! There she is!
Before you know it there are dead people all over the house because everyone had to split up and look for the demon after she broke out of the circle as we all knew she inevitably would. (She did it with the help of a dog, if you're interested.) Well, eventually Sylvia gets the demon back into the circle and contains her just in time for dawn, which is very important because that's when the device will close back up whether she is in it or not. And she gets that last little magic candle lit just in time and that nasty old fallen angel gets sucked right back into that clocklike thingie for an indeterminate amount of time.
AND GUESS WHAT? EVERYBODY WHO WAS DEAD GETS UP AGAIN! EXCEPT OF COURSE FOR THE EVIL, SECULAR, HUMANIST, BLEEDING HEART, LIBERAL, COLLEGE PROFESSOR WHO IS SHOWN SCREAMING HIS LUNGS OUT IN HELL! Yes, that's why I hate this flick. They might just as well have dedicated it to Ann Coulter, except that no one knew who she was in 1994. Why couldn't the dead true believers just have gone to their eternal reward in heavenly bliss--nope they got up and lived again! And that's the part that really irks me. I have absolutely nothing against the scriptwriter giving them an afterlife full of puffy little white clouds and streets paved with gold and whatever other dandy delights he may care to dream up, but dead should be dead! Now if he wanted to play fair and resurrect the professor that would have been cool with me too, it could have carried a much more interesting message of redemption or something with it, but NO, we have to kill the bloody, liberal, elitist intellectual and put him in his place once and for all!
I wonder if the screenwriters had just flunked their finals or something, this has such a nasty, vindictive feel to it.
This is really a 1 and 1/2 star film, the other 1/2 is for unrealized potential.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 17
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