This latest one in the series opens, as many do, with Spenser gazing out his office window at the women passing below on Berkeley Street. Middle of September finds the women starting to display the fall fashions, the Red Sox out of contention, and the sky grayish but not overcast. His musings are interrupted by Ms. Heidi Bradshaw who would like to hire him.
She has a home off the coast on Tashtego Island. She wants to hire Spenser to be there for an event in late October and isn’t at all specific as to why she wants Spenser around. “I want you to be the man I can turn to if I need something.” (Page 9) As long as he can bring Susan, longtime girlfriend, Spenser is agreeable and takes the job.
October comes quickly and on the appointed day Dr. Susan Silverman, looking ravishing as always, and Spenser arrive at the island. Pearl the wonder dog had to be left back home and that is probably just as well. Everything is under tight control as it should be considering the monies under Heidi Bradshaw’s control and her expensive tastes. After all, her only daughter is getting married. So things have to be perfect. But, Ms. Bradshaw can’t control the fact that a hurricane is coming closer by the hour and the weather is worsening. She also can’t control the fact that multiple murders, a kidnapping, and the return of the notorious “Gray Man” will disrupt the wedding.
This latest Spenser plows absolutely no new ground in terms of character development, the characters themselves or plot. Entertaining enough as a story, the book dusts off numerous old associates that have made this journey many times before. The novel also dusts off many an old conversation between Spenser and Susan about what makes him different that the “Gray Man’ or Hawk or several other returning characters. It also reaches a conclusion that is utterly predictable and as such borders on the clichéd. The minimalist prose continues so chapters are short, descriptions lacking, and the novel has a feel of a short story padded to novel length.
And yet, this is Spenser. One can’t help overlooking the numerous weaknesses in the book simply because Spenser is an old favorite. As such, it is hard to be critical because it would be nice to be Spenser for a day. And if Susan Silverman was around, the night would be pretty good too.
Take it for what it is which is simplistic reliable entertainment that pleasantly diverts one’s attention from the real world. Considering how most things are these days in the real world, that kind of mindless fun reading is a good thing. Especially since the Steven Seagall movies are so bad lately.
Rough Weather: A Spenser Novel
Robert B. Parker
Thorndike Press
http://gale.cengage.com/thorndike
2008
ISBN# 1-4104-0841-8
Hardback—Large Print Version
329 Pages
Review copy provided by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2008
“By The Light Of The Moon”
The Carpathian Shadows Volume 2
Print or E-book
http://www.booksforabuck.com/sfpages/sf_08/carpathian_shadows2.html
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5 users commented in " Book Review: “Rough Weather: A Spenser Novel” by Robert B. Parker "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackWhen I first started reading the Spenser mysteries, I decided Robert Parker was trying to write like Hemmingway. Unfortunately, like you said, the characters are not well drawn. I quit reading them because I thought a fifth grader could write better than Parker.
I have kept reading though it seems to me there are getting lower on the scale. I’m not sure how much is him and how much is the publisher worrying about his fans. Once they get an author typecast a certain way they are loath to do anything to change that image.
I was sorely disappointed in this latest Spenser novel. It seemed very weak, used ten words when two would have sufficed, used a typecast that probably added 100 pages to the book, and had redundant conversations between himself, Susan and Hawk that probably added another 50 pages. After I read the first 6 chapters, I was thinking plagarism as it was so similar to a book I read several years ago; the party on the island, storm to isolate it, bad guys doing their thing, hero unable to stop it, and the escape by unusual means. (submarine in the other book).
I have enjoyed the Spencer novels in the past and wish I hadn’t read this one as it was such a letdown.
I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with this latest Spenser outing. While it doesn’t hold a candle to the early stuff (hardly anything does as far as classic hardboiled detective fiction goes), it was a welcome reprieve from the stale stories Parker has churned out for the past five or six years. Sure some of the conversations feel a tad cut and pasted, but just as often Spenser felt like he was back in top form with his trademark one-liners. I can only hope we’re seeing the front end of a trend here as far as Spenser goes.
Sure, “Rough Weather” is typical latter-day Spenser, the one-liners, glib conversations, the sexual activities of the never-aging Susan and Spenser. Sure, it’s predictable. But, it is Robert B. Parker, tossing out his annual bone to his Spenser fans. And, because I love the earlier RB Parker, I look forward to reading Spenser year after year. I had been hoping that Robert B. would be serving up something different with his other two series — Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall — and, at first, he did seem to write in a different voice for each. However, they, too have fallen into the same ‘ole banter of the Spenser novels. I think Parker has become tired and burnt-out (look at his photo on the jacket of “Rough Weather”). Oh well, at the top of his writing, Robert B. Parker was one of the best. I’ll always remember and appreciate him for that.
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