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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 10, No. 2 |
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Ron reviews No. 36 in the series of SPENSER detective novels
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Spenser vs. The Gray Man:
The Battle Goes On...
of TheColumnists.com
Sherlock Holmes had Prof. Moriarty, Nayland Smith had Dr. Fu Manchu and the 87th Precinct detecives had The Deaf Man. Recurring villains are deeply embedded in the long history of the mystery because we always hate to let then go if they're really, really nasty.
Surely that's why The Gray Man is back to torment Boston's leading P.I., Robert B. Parker's Spenser, in "Rough Weather" (Putnam, $26.95), the 36th mystery in that long series that I consider the best one going in modern American mystery fiction.
We first met The Gray Man, whose real name may be "Rugar," more than 20 years ago when he shot and nearly killed Spenser. It's the closest Spenser has come to death in any of his many hard cases. The Gray Man is a hired killer, a former CIA operative who's as clever and as cool as Spenser himself. In fact, the two adversaries have developed a positive respect for each other over the decades.
But we know their respect goes only so far, so when The Gray Man warns Spenser that he'll die if he continues to look into a case with The Gray Man's marks all over it, we know Spenser had better plan on getting him first.
The case that brings these two foes together again is launched with a most dramatic event: A massacre at a society wedding. Spenser has been hired to lend his imposing presence to the wedding between the daughter of beautiful socialite Heidi Bradshaw and the son of a rich and powerful family. Is he really there to be bodyguard to Mrs. Bradshaw? Spenser isn't really sure.
The wedding takes place on a small island owned by Mrs. Bradshaw. Though she has employed a trained security force to make sure no trouble ensues, a team of professional killers arrives, led by The Gray Man, and shoots up the place, killing security guards and the bridegroom, then kidnapping the bride, still wearing her wedding gown.
Spenser, who's there with longtime girlfriend Susan Silverman, manages to kill one of the assassins, but is helpless to stop the carnage wrought by the heavily-armed hit team while keeping Susan out of danger. Though he has no client at first, Spenser is determined to rescue the bride and find out who arranged the attack, conducting the investigation on his own, without pay. In a way, it's a vendetta: Spenser vs. The Gray Man.
Spenser's probing leads him to many discoveries about the treacherous, grasping Heidi Bradshaw and the broken men she's left behind. His trail also leads him into the Boston underworld and eventually brings him closer and closer to his ultimate showdown with The Gray Man.
Yes, if you're concerned about it, Spenser finally is joined in his battle by his longtime ally, Hawk, the shady operative who walks the thin line between assassin and detective, protecting Spenser's back.
For me, one of the enduring pleasures of following the career of Spenser is his relationship with Hawk, who is African-American. They are best friends and would die for each other, but the banter between them sometimes makes you wonder how they've stayed tight for so long.
For example, when Spenser concludes Hawk isn't wearing a gun, he remarks that he hasn't known Hawk to be unarmed "since you were a pickaninny."
"Pickaninny?" Hawk asks--and
you expect at least a frown for Spenser.
"I value tradition," says Spenser.
Later, when Spenser realizes Hawk is joining the investigation, risking his own life to help Spenser, Spenser asks him why he's doing it.
"Don't want to lose the only guy left in the world who uses the word pickaninny," says Hawk, stoic as ever.
"Rough Weather" is further proof that Parker is as good as he ever was at crafting detective stories. Though Spenser ought to be as old as Parker by now, who's in his early 70s, you'd never know it. Like Parker, Spenser just keeps on doing what he does better than just about anybody else in the detective genre.
©2008 by Ron Miller. The illustration is courtesy of Putnam. This column first posted Dec. 8, 2008.
Ron
Miller is a former nationally syndicated television columnist
and the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," the official
companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series. He currently
writes about television mysteries for MYSTERY SCENE magazine.
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