Rough Weather (Spenser Mystery)

Spenser is back with a great story well crafted by Robert B Parker. He has written 35 Spenser novel before this and quality seems to get better and better with each passing year Spenser is hired to help Heidi Nradshaw with a minor security detail. It should be a straightforward job for Spenser: show up for appearances at Heidi's daughter's wedding and spend some quality time with his girlfriend Susan. Yet when his old nemesis Rugar-the Gray Man from Small Vices shows up and problems ensue. The daughter is kidnaped and Spenser never lets go of a losing case. With Hawk and Susan by his side, this white knight is on a quest for answers to questions that are unanswered in his mind The plot twists and turns, this listener is thrilled. However, the ending in this piece seem rushed. Too pat, too final for a Spenser novel. For most mysteries it would be good, but here it seems lacking something. On the whole, it is a great piece of detective fiction with pulp fiction overtones Joe Mantegna is a wizard behind a good story and most any audio he does. His vocal shadowing is that of legend. On this production, he is a craftsman and a vocal storyteller who can create an image clear as a sunny day with his voice. Blend this with Parker's winning text and you have a sure bet for a great audio time Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

If you've never read Robert Parkers beloved Spenser books, this is an excellent one to pick up. It has all of the best details of Spenser, from his interesting connection in and out of law enforcement to his relationship with Susan. For old Spenser fans, there are some very unexpected twists in this one!

If you have read most of Robert Parker's previous Spenser books, you know what you are in for. Familiar characters - Spenser, Hawk, Susan Silverman, Healy, Pearl, Belson, Tony Marcus, etc. This familiarity is not a bad thing. It actually is one of the main reasons I enjoy the Spenser books. You can count on witty repartee among Spenser, Susan, and Hawk. You know Spenser will toy with some big thug in a fight. You know attempts will be made on his life. You know you will be able to laugh at the typical behavior of Susan's dog Pearl. All of this is just great fun. Rough Weather fits the pattern of the previous books. We even get the Gray Man back as the villain. All of the Spenser books are short, have numerous chapters, and can be read quickly. The temptation is always there to read just one more chapter before going to sleep. Just one more. The specific plot really doesn't matter that much. In this one, Spenser is hired by a wealthy socialite to act as a bodyguard at her daughter's wedding at a private island off the coast. The Gray Man appears and all hell breaks loose with a kidnapping, murders, and a hurricane all going on at the same time. Spenser spends the rest of the book working his way through a web of lies to arrive at an interesting final solution. Mr. Parker clearly has a successful pattern with the Spenser books, and Rough Weather fits right in. Read it. You'll enjoy it.

Spenser is back, with a bang. Actually multiple bangs. He is hired to squire around a mother at her daughter's wedding. Then the 'gray man' reappears in the Spenser saga. Then all hell breaks loose. There are bodies on the floor; the bride is abducted and no one really understands why. The mother has a set of suspicious ex-husbands along with a case of very warm undergarments. She is basically a rich lech with a growing tendency to leave dead bodies in her wake. Spenser must make sense of all of this, avoid being killed by the gray man, and still find time to eat pasta bolognese with Susan and drink Krug champagne with Hawk. Readers of my reviews know that one of the metrics I use in judging a Spenser novel is the proportion of Hawk-time vs. the proportion of Susan-time, my decided preference being for the former rather than the latter. Here they appear in more or less equal proportions but Susan is more tolerable than usual, probably because the actual violence with which she and Spenser are presented keeps the cutesy talk to a minimum. Hawk, as always, never overstays his welcome. The dialogue between and among the three is consistently strong and the action quotient is far higher than in the average Spenser novel. This book starts with a sequence of superb action scenes and the plot is tighter than most. There is a bona fide 'mystery' and it is solved plausibly and satisfactorily. There are also some moral dilemmas that prompt interesting results and interesting dialogue. The book is less talky than some Spensers but the dialogue is welcome because it is executed so skillfully. There are also appearances by Tony Marcus, Quirk, Healy and other members of the Spenser ensemble, including Pearl. Highly recommended.

Reading a Spenser novel is like breaking open a fine bottle of wine. You know once you try it you find that it's smooth and satisfying. And, of course, once you finish it off you'll have a damn headache knowing it'll be another year before the next one comes out. ROUGH WEATHER is Parker's latest Spenser yarn, with some old and familiar characters we know and like and some we don't like and who scare the hell out of us, like the Gray Man. ROUGH WEATHER is a quick read. The dialogue is always spot on and Spenser, well, he always gives us a sense of what the world could be, if only we could step up to the proverbial plate and stand tall. On a final note it might be wise when you buy this book to put it away for awhile, at least until Parker gets closer to releasing the next one. That way you can become a bookaholic like the rest of us and open up one right after another.