|
|
DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 3, No. 24 |
|
reviews the latest Spenser mystery by Robert B. Parker WIDOW'S WALK |
 |
Spenser's dumb client
poses real challenges
of TheColumnists.com
Rita Fiore,
the sexy and forever turned-on Boston lawyer, wants Spenser the
private eye to go to work shoring up the alibi of her client,
a pretty dodo who's accused of murdering her wealthy husband,
in Robert B. Parker's new mystery "Widow's Walk" (Putnam,
$26).
Spenser often has his work cut out for him. This time is no exception.
The client, Mary Smith, would make Irma Peterson look like a
genius--and if you're too young to remember the main character
of "My Friend Irma," then you have no business reading
any Spenser novels.
In short, Mary is a real numbskull, which may explain why she was watching "Survivor" on TV when her husband died from a gunshot room in the bedroom upstairs. The police don't think he took his own life, as Mary does, because they have a witness who says Mary once tried to hire him to kill her husband. They also can't seem to find anyone else who had the opportunity to plug him while Mary was watching TV downstairs.
Spenser does his best to question Mary for details the cops may have overlooked, but she's almost too dumb to be interviewed. She tells him he's "too nosy" until her lawyer finally convinces her Spenser is trying to help her.
This may be the kind of loser case you get in you've been a private eye so long that you should be using a walker and being fed on i.v. tubes. Spenser hasn't told us his age lately, but he once was a prizefighter who sparred with Jersey Joe Walcott and that makes him around 75 at least.
No matter, though. Parker's Spenser is the best private eye in American detective fiction and has been for at least the past 20 years. He's tough, but sensitive, which may be why he doesn't just walk away from Mary Smith, the client whose philosophy may be "it pays to be ignorant."
The very fact that Spenser is on the job makes some people in Boston underworld circles nervous. Even though he seems to be getting nowhere in proving Mary innocent, he's being shadowed by a pair of clumsy thugs who seem to be well-connected in the Boston crime world. Once Spenser and his nasty-looking sidekick, Hawk, start tracking the trackers, they decide to kill Spenser, which, of course, is a very big mistake.
 |
seems to be enjoying himself when creating a new Spenser mystery. |
As always, the new Spenser novel is thin on plot and heavy on witty dialogue. You don't read Parker's Spenser to get lost in a maze of mystery clues. Parker writes better dialogue than anybody else on the mystery scene today and that's why you read him. It's also why these crisp and often amusing mysteries zip by so fast that you sometimes think you're scarfing down the literary equivalent of Doritos.
Yet I find the calores far from empty. Parker is an engrossing conversationalist and so is his detective. You don't hear his kind of sassy and snappy talk much these days, so it's always a treat to break open a Spenser novel and start grinning as this tough, sharp-eyed old pro starts to outsmart and outwisecrack the punks just the way Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, Lew Archer, Jim Rockford and the other great P.I.'s used to do.
"Widow's Walk" eventually leads Spenser into a corrupt scheme at the murdered husband's bank and turns up some strange characters from Mary's past, lurking around on the sidelines. Meanwhile, Rita Fiore keeps pressuring Spenser to step out on his longtime squeeze, Susan Silverman, and give her the tumble she knows he's been aching to give her after all these years. Will Spenser finally succumb? Let that be a surprise for you, should you be that naive.
Is "Widow's Walk" a classic mystery? Certainly not, but it's a highly entertaining timekiller. This is No. 29 in the Spenser series, so don't expect any major breaks in the formula. Just prepare to enjoy a mystery master doing his job competently and with his usual highly-developed sense of fun.
© 2002 by Ron Miller.
The Ron Miller caricature is © 2001 by Jim Hummel. The book
cover illustration is © 2002 by Putnam. The photo of Robert
B. Parker is © 2002 by John Earle.
Ron Miller is the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," the official companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series. He'll be teaching new mystery and pop culture classes at Whatcom Community College and Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, during the fall term.
| Home | About Us | Archives | Talkback | Shopping Mall |