Rough Weather

August 25, 2008
Spenser, the redoubtable Boston PI, struts his stuff in this 36th entry in the series, but may leave some readers wondering if his ethics will bear even casual examination. When Heidi Bradshaw hires Spenser to “support” her at her daughter's wedding on Tashtego Island in Buzzards Bay, Mass., an old nemesis of Spenser's, the Gray Man, who almost killed Spenser in Small Vices
(1977), also shows up on the island. Spenser is unable to prevent the kidnapping of the bride or the deaths that attend it. Assisted by a cadre of familiar players, Spenser persists in trying to find the missing bride in spite of warnings from the Gray Man. The trademark banter and snappy dialogue may seem more forced than natural. Spenser displays his machismo in dealing with a muscle builder and his detective skills in figuring out the Gray Man's connections to the case. A troubling conclusion produces one resolution and the promise of further consequences in the next installment.

September 1, 2008
How readers respond to the latest Spenser will probably depend on whether they judge mysteries by their openings or their endings (the middle of this novel is, in the Spenser tradition, a series of comically acerbic interviews with various suspects or people with knowledge of the victim, punctuated by fistfights and shootouts). The opening is a complete wow. Parker brings us to a ritzy wedding on a private island. The wedding is interrupted by a hurricane and by armed men (including the Gray Man, Spensers own recurring Professor Moriarty), who shoot the bridegroom and carry off the bride. The ending, however, is surprisingly inept and amateurishit is so clumsily deus ex machina that one wonders if Parker got bored with the whole thing and left it to an underling to finish. Before the disappointing ending, however, the reader is treated to all the familiar pleasures, the ah-inspiring comfort food of this series: Spenser sitting in his office overlooking Berkeley Street in Boston; the knock on the door announcing a client; Spensers rapier repartee with client and suspects; the return of his love, Susan, given a larger role here; the always amusing interplay with the mercurial Hawk, Spensers muscle; and Parkers graceful descriptions of interiors, meals, and clothes. The mystery hinges on solving the kidnapped brides backgroundand it works just fine until the spoiled ending.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)