Widow's walk

Authors of long-running series must choose between allowing their characters to age--and, thus, signing their death warrants--or somehow letting them remain fixed in time as the world changes around them. Spenser fans know that Parker's inimitable Boston sleuth is a veteran of the Korean War, which would make him in advance of 70 today. But the Spenser we know and love plays to a perpetual 40, able to muse on aging and act a little crotchety now and again but still spry enough to kick heads with gusto or perform heroic deeds in the bedroom. He does plenty of both this time, in his twenty-eighth outing. A banker is found in bed with a bullet hole in his head, and his much younger and seemingly dense wife is accused of the murder. Spenser is hired by the defense to investigate, and he quickly develops his plan, which his longtime lover, Susan, describes as "blundering along annoying people." With the help of the imperturbable Hawk (also ageless), Spenser blunders along with his usual style: world-class banter combined with a world-class left hook. This is hardly a pivotal episode in the series, but it delivers the jaunty entertainment we've come to expect from Parker, even when he's running on cruise control. Spenser, Hawk, and Susan have always been fantasy figures living in a realistic world. They give us pleasure by doing the things we can only dream of doing, and that very definitely includes turning off the timer at age 40. --Bill Ott

Last year Parker published three strong novels including the excellent Spenser mystery Potshot. So he's entitled to a miss and a pass and gets one with this forgettable Spenser entry. Attorney Rita Fiore, who's worked with the Boston PI before, hires Spenser to find out if her new client, Mary Smith, whom Spenser's cop pal Quirk describes as "dumber than my dick," indeed shot to death her husband, banker and Mayflower descendant Nathan Smith, as the evidence indicates. Spenser's search for the truth takes him into one of the most confusing (for the PI and the reader) cases of his long career; unusual for Parker, pages are needed at book's end to explain who did what and why. Sidekick Hawk pitches in to protect Spenser, and gunsel Vinnie Morris lends a hand, too, as several folks Spenser talks to wind up dead, and as the PI is trailed, then attacked, by thugs headquartered at a crooked land development company with ties to the dead man's bank. Susan, Spenser's beloved, offers some advice as well, but the ritual appearances by Spenser's crew, human and animal (Pearl the Wonder Dog, ancient and slow, waddles in here and there), while earning a nod of gratitude from series fans, do little to advance or deepen the proceedings. The novel stirs to life only fitfully, most notably in the confrontational exchanges between a female lawyer implicated in the crimes and her powerful attorney father; here, Parker taps into truth about familial loyalties. The writing is as clean as fresh ice, and from the opening sentence (" `I think she's probably guilty,' Rita Fiore said to me"), it's clear that readers are in the hands of a vet who knows what he's doing; but what Parker is doing here is, alas, not very interesting. (Mar. 18) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Parker has his hands full defending a brassy young blonde with a shady past who really does seem to have shot her 51-year-old hubby in the head. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

When even Pearl the Wonder Dog is slowing down-she's deaf and arthritic and obviously hasn't long to live-you have to wonder whether Spenser will ever rouse himself from his recent doldrums (Potshot, 2001, etc.). Not this time. As usual, though, Boston's favorite private eye slides into his 30th case as smooth as a knife sinking into butter. The State is convinced that Mary Smith, with her brains and supermodel looks, shot her patrician banker husband Nathan to death even though she claims she was downstairs watching Survivor; her attorney, Rita Fiore, naturally taking Mary's view of the case, rouses herself from coyly propositioning Spenser long enough to ask him to dig up exculpatory evidence. Spenser's highly trained response is to ask for a list of Mary's friends-it's a long list including very few actual friends-then begin questioning them and, when he notices he's being followed by a pair of goons, to go on asking pointless questions until one of his conversations goads the goons into acting. The red-flag suspect, Smith financial advisor Brinkman Tyler, is soon dead, along with an unwisely chatty bank officer, an ex-con who claims Mary Smith hired him to ice her husband, and the ex-con's girlfriend; Spenser himself, not to be outdone, notches up a sixth casualty. But none of his obviously provocative questioning leads anywhere except the morgue and some gay bars catering to seriously underage drinkers until one of his dozen interchangeable suspects implicates another, and the whole house of cards-a complicated, forgettable scam-comes tumbling down. Spenser's always been as mannered and self-involved as he finds Marlon Brando, but it's hard to remember a single one of his earlier cases that provided so few non-Spenser pleasures. The bestselling hero's earned a rest between hits, of course, but what about the fans who made him a star?

Gavin's skilled voice conveys a growing sense of foreboding in Deepest Water, a haunting psychological suspense novel. So effectively does Gavin render a wide age range of characters that one forgets there is a single reader. The Women's Murder Club makes another appearance in 2nd Chance, and the quartet investigates a brutal murder in San Francisco. Leo effectively represents the women and others, while Piven portrays the villain, thus emphasizing the classic suspense elements. Two readers also enhance Smoke in Mirrors. Daniels and Vigesaa depict the hero and heroine, respectively, in this romantic suspense novel with gothic undertones. Electronically distorted voices intensify the mood as well. Drugs and academic rivalries run riot, and a librarian saves the day. Mantegna reprises his television role as Spenser and captures the ironic tone and terrific one-liners in Widow's Walk, a satisfying addition to the series featuring the Boston private investigator. Copyright 2019 Booklist Reviews.