Rating: 
Summary: Nobody Cares
Review: In a scene in Robert Parker's "Widow's Walk," Spenser is explaining his newest case to Susan Silverman while she makes egg salad. When I found myself thinking about why Susan would decide to use Miracle Whip instead of mayonaise, and paying no attention to whether Spenser's ditsy blonde client killed her husband, I realized that something had gone seriously wrong here. Even Parker is more interested in the egg salad than he should be. He doesn't seem to care about the people he created, nor about what happens to them. I can understand it, poor guy. Imagine trying to keep caring when you're writing the twenty-ninth book of a series. But, although it is easy to understand, it is not at all easy to keep ploughing through the result. "Widow's Walk" is a badly written book, and even Spenser himself -- who's greatest appeal for me is his rock-solid resolve to help wherever he can -- can't help on this one. He says, more than half-way through the book, that he has no idea what is going on with his case. And neither do we. The novels we never forget share one thing in common. They make us care a very great deal about what happens to their characters. Pick up "The Count of Monte Cristo" and you'll see that Dumas accomplished it in what may be a record, in the first paragraphs of the first page. Dickins does it. Tolstoy does it. Flaubert does it. And Parker does it. Paul Giacomin as he grew into himself, under Spenser's inimitable guidance, is a beautifully wrought and memorable character. Spenser lends his strength, his wit, his savvy and his great heart to his clients because he cares what happens to them. And so do we. But not in "Widow's Walk." Forget this one happened, Parker, and please do it for us again.
Rating:
Summary: Spenser Is Old And It Shows
Review: Larger than usual print, huge margins, a dying dog, a boring Susan; she's even worse than usual. Spenser must be in his 60's, closing in on 70, he did fight in Korea in the 50's after all. Parker writes as if Spenser's still around 40 and it just doesn't work. The young punks would run him and Hawk--another old man now--into the ground.
Maybe Parker needs to set his next Spencers in the past, so we can see him again in his prime when Spenser was so incredibly original and exciting.
This book is a huge disappointment to those of us who have followed this series from the very start.
Sad.
Rating: 
Summary: Walk on by this one
Review: In the tradition of mystery fiction there comes a time when a popular series character is allowed to gracefully exit, stage left. Conan Doyle had Holmes retire to the english countryside and John D.McDonald had McGee forsake his errant knight quests in his last adventure. It saddens me to say this but it is past time for Mr. Parker to let Spenser retire; it has been to many years since the pleasures of a Looking For Rachel Wallace or Promised Land or God Save the Child graced our lives. Perhaps it is the difficulty of maintaing two other series characters, or maybe the seduction of what I imagine is a quite lucrative book contract, that keeps Mr. Parker writing Spenser novels, but Widows Walk is so unispiried and so deslutory that is besmirches the authors fine previous work. I have read all the previous Spenser novels and have been a loyal and enthuiastic fan for over 15 years, so I do not say this lightly. If you want to know how inspired a writer Parker can be, read any of the above mentioned works or read the sublime non-series novel Love and Glory, I doubt you will be disappointed. And like me, hope that Mr. Parkers next Spenser will provide a gracefull and dignified closing to what has been, until recently, one of the great series of modern times.
Rating:
Summary: Not With a Bang, but a Whimper
Review: It saddens me that the author of "Looking for Rachel Wallace" and "Ceremony" and too many other page turners of style, substance, humor and personality seems to have come to the end of his character. Spenser has become a wan imitation of himself. The book (Widow's Walk)is of an agreeable thickness, but when opened one is struck be the thickness of the paper, the wide spaces between the lines - evidence that there is less here than meets the eye. And the story itself bears out this unhappy circumstance. Susan, Hawk, Quirk and Spencer himself mouth the same words as in an earlier happier time, but they seem to have lost their zest, their enthusiasm for their lives and their story. The events and their resolution strain the credulity of this reader accustomed to better! Too bad. The book isn't really terrible, just slightly dull.
Long lived series characters like Travis McGee, Spenser, even Wolfe and Poirot may indeed have a built in half life after which they become drab and colorless. It's a shame, but I almost wish Spenser would fall off Moriarty's cliff! I remember Peter O'Donnell (?) killing off Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin. I regretted it at the time, but now I think they may have had a more honorable fate!
Ward Smith
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: parker misses by a mile
Review: This latest novel in the suspense series tries to generate a more complex and intricate plot than some of the previous outings, which tend to be notable because Spenser and Hawk are so honorable and the "bad guys" so deserving of the punishment they receive. But here the killer remains in the shadows throughout, and the reader feels no genuine satisfaction at his eventual defeat. A real disappointment! What a relief that I checked it out of the library and didn't actually but it!
Rating: 
Summary: Spencer - Always an Interesting Story
Review: While I found the book to be very entertaining, I did notice the writing was larger than normal. I hope it will stay this way so special eye-glasses are not necessary. Next book I would like to see much more of Hawk, Susan and Pearl. Robert B. Parker is my favorite author and I wish he would complete more than 1 Spencer Novel each year. Tall order!
Rating:
Summary: TOO MUCH!
Review: There's simply too much going on in this story! There's the death of Nathan Smith itself, the catalyst that sets everything in motion. There's bank intrigue, shady real estate shenanigans, and an awful lot of dead bodies -- even by Spenser standards. There are references to previous cases, invoked by Susan and a cop. A father-daughter relationship is put to the test. A sacrifice is made for love. There's Hawk and Vinnie and a gay photographer who is so stereotypically flamboyant he makes Jack from WILL AND GRACE seem like a candidate for ABC's Monday Night Football broadcast booth. And on the subject of homosexuality, there's Susan's rather unconventional views on gender orientation and her problems with one of her patients, which leads her to hire the voracious Rita. It's a lot to keep straight, especially because I must admit I cared little about most of these auxilary machinations or the characters involved in them. The only secondary story I found moving was that of Pearl, the one-time wonder dog. When writing about the dog, Parker actually achieves the humanity he strives for in some of the other subplots.
Rating:
Summary: Only if you love Spenser...
Review: If you've come to know and love Spenser, Susan, Hawk, and supporting cast, you'll probably enjoy this latest outing. And breeze through it in a single evening. (Lots of white space on every page. With standard typography it would come in at about 150 pages, I'd guess.) Otherwise, I'd recommend you start with one of the early books in the series and go from there. This one, while endearing, is a mite sketchy.
Rating:
Summary: Better than the Last
Review: This book was much better than Death in Paradise. Although I wasn't really sure who the killer was. I did throughly enjoy the book. I felt that Susan kind of drag the storyline with her contining self-pity a little bit. But all and all it was very good.
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