Widow's Walk (Spenser Novels (Audio))

Rating:
Summary: Widow's Walk
Review: "Widow's Walk" is the 29th Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker. I look forward to getting his Spenser novels each Spring. Mary Smith is charged with the murder of her rich husband, Nathan Smith who was murdered in his bed. It appears that the only other person in the house was Mary. Mary claims that she was watching TV at the time. Parker does a great job with her character; Mary isn't very intelligent to say the least. Spenser begins to investigate and finds that someone doesn't want him on the case at all. He is followed, then someone tries to kill him. Then, other people involved in the case are found dead. Spenser is stumped until the very end. Spenser is back in Boston for this one after being in Georgia and Arizona for the last 2 books. I think this is an excellent addition to this long-running PI series.

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Summary: The Boston Red Sox of Private Cops
Review: Decades ago with his GODWULF MANUSCRIPT, Robert B. Parker largely reinvented the mystery sub-genre of the tough-guy private eye novel. He showed us all how to update this traditional American prototypical character for today's sensibilities, and Parker's Spenser has earned a place among the most popular of our age's PIs.

As does his beloved Red Sox, Parker sends a fresh Spenser mystery onto the field of play every year. Each spring, Spenser seems like a championship creation. Every novel is consistently thrilling, witty, unpredictable, and, in the end, a bit heartbreaking. This series is obviously written by a Red Sox fan. One knows when they begin that in the end all will not be idyllic.

WIDOW'S WALK fits this Spenser mold perfectly. Parker is amazingly consistent. In this novel, Spenser is hired by Rita Fiore (an series semi-regular)to help build her defense for her client Mary Smith. Mary's husband, Nathan, of Mayflower lineage, is murdered. Mary, his much younger and terribly unfaithful, widow is everyone's, including Rita's, favorite suspect.

Spenser springs into action. Pearl the Wonder Dog is on hand. Susan is here, and, of course, so is Hawk. WIDOW'S WALK has all we have grown to expect from Parker's series. The witty dialog snaps rapidly throughout. Parker's social observations are astute. The true origin of the crime rests with a real estate scam. As one reads WIDOW'S WALK, one has to hope that this year the Red Sox will actually find a way to win the World Series in October. The last time Parker's team won it, the Series was played in September.

WIDOW'S WALK is an excellent novel.

Rating:
Summary: Unfortunately, not a great introduction to Robert Parker
Review: I picked up Widow's Walk from the library, to listen to while I commuted to work. This was my introduction to Robert B. Parker and as such, also to Spenser.

Joe Mantegna reads very well for the characters and manages to convey very believable characters. As I listened, my imagination played some film noir soundtrack in the background.

There are a great many characters in the storyline. At one point I almost lost track of who was whom. And golly, everyone but the main characters seemed to die. It was as if they were all cursed with a Red Uniform from the original Star Trek days. And I think Parker seemed to concentrate more on having them dead than fleshing out the reasons or the writing behind the reasons for their deaths. The reasons just didn't seem to want to stick in my head. That felt unsatisfying.

All else considered, Widow's Walk was good for light reading, or listening, as the case was for me, but it wasn't exactly material that made me enthused about returning for another dose of Parker. I don't dislike his writing; it was just.. okay. It wasn't until I read the other Amazon readers' reviews for Widow's Walk that I figured I ought to give the earlier Spensers a go.

Rating:
Summary: Uninspired effort.
Review: I'm a Spenser fan and have read the complete Spenser series. In a saga that covers 30 some-odd novels, some will be better than others. This is not one of the better chapters in this series.

In this book, Spenser is hired by the leggy redhead attorney, Rita Fiore, one of the semi-regular repeat characters that populate this series, to determine out who killed Nathan Smith. Nathan was an upper crust banker with an impeccable reputation in Boston. He was killed in his bed--allegedly while his much younger wife, Mary, was watching television in another part of their three-story home.

Rita's not sure if her client is guilty or not. Neither is Spenser, who concludes that Mary is either the densest broad or one of the better-unknown actresses on the 7 continents.

In typical Parker fashion, an inept attempt is made to put Spenser off the case. When that backfires, the bodies start to fall, and a full fledged cover-up is underway.

The book has several flaws atypical of a Spenser novel. Susan, Spenser's squeeze, is self-flagellating over the death of a gay client. That Susan has a side issue is nothing new-but this one is unnecessarily obtrusive and distracting from the story. Spenser himself is projected as rather bland in this story-the famous wise cracking and internal musings are almost entirely absent. Hawk is but a bit player here--one wonders why Parker included him at all. And the ending is obscure and evasive. I read the book and am still unclear exactly who the killer actually was.

I'm disappointed but not despondent. Parker has slipped before only to come roaring back. Hopefully, that will be the case this time as well.

Rating:
Summary: Reliable Fare
Review: This is the typical Spenser novel - same great characters: Spenser, Susan and Hawk + good story line and humor. Parker does smart tough guy dialogue as well as anyone. Spenser's self-deprecating humor always rings true.

So why only three stars? There is nothing to distinguish this book from any of the other Spenser novels. The plot was fairly good, but so are all of the books in this series. It is -as are all the Spenser novels - goos light reading.