1. Sixkill by Robert B. Parker

#39 Spenser
listened in the car
2011, G P Putnam's Sons
293 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished January 2, 2017
Goodreads rating: 3.99 - 7,617 ratings
My rating: 2.5
Setting: Contemporary Boston

First line/s: "It was spring.  The vernal equinox had done whatever it was it did, and the late March air drifting in through the open window in my office was soft even though it wasn't even warm yet."

My comments: Zebulon SIXKILL, called Z.  That's where the title came from.  A Cree Indian from Montana, by way of the California college football scene. Befriended...and trained...by Spenser, he has the same kind of comedic skills as Hawk.  They get stronger and stronger as the story evolves.  Hawk seems to be somewhere in Asia.  And why another Hawk-type character?  This book was short (as are they all), and a good half of this was repartee between Spenser ans Susan Silverman, which I must admit got a little tiring.  I also got tired hearing about how little Susan ate, half bites of tiny fruits, tiny sips, tiny bites.  It was entertaining for the boring, long, tedious ride from Maine to PA but not a particularly thrilling book.  Disappointing, actually.  And I do love Parker and Spenser.  2.5 to be honest.

Goodreads synopsis:  On location in Boston, bad-boy actor Jumbo Nelson is accused of the rape and murder of a young woman. From the start the case seems fishy, so the Boston PD calls on Spenser to investigate. Things don't look so good for Jumbo, whose appetites for food, booze, and sex are as outsized as his name. He was the studio's biggest star, but he's become its biggest liability. 
          In the course of the investigation, Spenser encounters Jumbo's bodyguard: a young, former football-playing Native American named Zebulon Sixkill. He acts tough, but Spenser sees something more within the young man. Despite the odd circumstances, the two forge an unlikely alliance, with Spenser serving as mentor for Sixkill. As the case grows darker and secrets about both Jumbo and the dead woman come to light, it's Spenser-with Sixkill at his side-who must put things right.

47. Night and Day by Robert B. Parker

Jesse Stone #8
Listened in the car returning from the east coast to Tucson
2009, Putnam
289 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 9/5/16
Goodreads rating:  3.91 - 4,621 ratings
My rating: 3/5
Setting: Contemporary Paradise, MA

First line/s:  "Jesse Stone sat in his office at the Paradise police station, looking at the sign painted on the pebbled-glass window of his office door."

My comments:  A short, simple story that isn't so much mystery as it is a study of characters, personalities, and situations.  It includes a high school principal checking her female student's underwear, a peeping Tom, a swinger's club, and the thought processes that Stone goes through as his ex-wife, Jen, leaves him once again.  Perfect easy listening for the first five hours of my road trip. James Naughton read it perfectly, and I pictured Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone throughout.  A TV show in my head, as the miles progressed....

Goodreads synopsis:  Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone confronts a town’s darkest secrets in the shocking new novel from the New York Times–bestselling author and “America’s greatest mystery writer” (The New York Sun).
          Things are getting strange in Paradise, Massachusetts. Police Chief Jesse Stone is called to the junior high school when reports of lewd conduct by the school’s principal, Betsy Ingersoll, filter into the station. Ingersoll claims she was protecting the propriety of her students when she inspected each girl’s undergarments in the locker room. Jesse would like nothing more than to see Ingersoll punished, but her high-powered attorney husband stands in the way. At the same time, the women of Paradise are faced with a threat to their sense of security with the emergence of a tormented voyeur, dubbed “The Night Hawk.” Initially, he’s content to peer through windows, but as times goes on, he becomes more reckless, forcing his victims to strip at gunpoint, then photographing them at their most vulnerable. And according to the notes he’s sending to Jesse, he’s not satisfied to stop there. It’s up to Jesse to catch the Night Hawk, before it’s too late.

46. The Professional - Robert B. Parker

#37 Spenser
listened to cd - audio read by Joe Mantegna
2009 Random House audio
289 pgs.
Adult mystery
Finished in July, 2015 - back and forth from PA to ME?
Goodreads rating: 3.79
My rating: I didn't rate this in July, I'm now doing this bookkeeping in December, so I can't remember my immediate reaction to the story.  I'll go with a 4....

Goodreads synopsis:  A knock on Spenser's office door can only mean one thing: a new case. This time the visitor is a local lawyer with an interesting story. Elizabeth Shaw specializes in wills and trusts at the Boston law firm of Shaw & Cartwright, and over the years she's developed a friendship with wives of very wealthy men. However, these rich wives have a mutual secret: they've all had an affair with a man named Gary Eisenhower- and now he's blackmailing them for money. Shaw hires Spenser to make Eisenhower "cease and desist," so to speak, but when women start turning up dead, Spenser's assignment goes from blackmail to murder.
     As matters become more complicated, Spenser's longtime love, Susan, begins offering some input by analyzing Eisenhower's behavior patterns in hopes of opening up a new avenue of investigation. It seems that not all of Gary's women are rich. So if he's not using them for blackmail, then what is his purpose? Spenser switches tactics to focus on the husbands, only to find that innocence and guilt may be two sides of the same coin.
     With its eloquently spare prose and some of the best supporting characters to grace the printed page, The Professional is further proof that "[t]here's hardly an author in the crime novel business like Parker"

26. Hundred-Dollar Baby by Robert B. Parker

Spencer #34

Audio read by Joe Mantagna

5 unabridged cds

2006 Putnam Adult

291 pgs.

Adult Mystery

Finished 3/29/2015

Goodreads rating: 3.79

My rating:   4 - Loved it

PBS - will now trade it back in

Setting: contemporary Boston with a couple of forays to NYC

My comments:  It makes me so sad to know that Robert B. Parker is gone.  I feel like I know Spencer, that he's a personal friend.  I've read almost every one of the books in this series at least once.  Spencer's tongue-in-cheek humor, morality, friendships, intelligence, honor, and "his" Boston are all tremendously endearing to me. Then this story, which he wrote nearing the end of his life, about his re-acquaintance with April Kyle and the efforts he went through to "save" her once again. There's a very thin line between goodness and badness - and Parker has always made me realize that there can be a lot of goodness in the bad guys and badness in the good ones. These mysteries, for me, aren't just figuring out whodunnit.  They probe deeper, and leave me thinking for a good long while.

Goodreads book summary:  A client from a decades-old case reaches out to Boston PI Spenser-but can he rescue troubled April Kyle once more? 
          Longtime Spenser fans will remember that once upon a time, though not so long ago, there was a girl named April Kyle-a beautiful teenage runaway who turned to prostitution to escape her terrible family life. The book was 1982's Ceremony, and, thanks to Spenser, April escaped Boston's "Combat Zone" for the relative safety of a high-class New York City bordello. April resurfaced in Taming a Sea-Horse, again in dire need of Spenser's rescue-this time from the clutches of a controlling lover. But April Kyle's return inHundred-Dollar Baby is nothing short of shocking.
          When a mature, beautiful, and composed April strides into Spenser's office, the Boston PI barely hesitates before recognizing his once and future client. Now a well-established madam herself, April oversees an upscale call-girl operation in Boston's Back Bay. Still looking for Spenser's approval, it takes her a moment before she can ask him, again, for his assistance. Her business is a success; what's more, it's an all-female enterprise. Now that some men are trying to take it away from her, she needs Spenser.
          April claims to be in the dark about who it is that's trying to shake her down, but with a bit of legwork and a bit more muscle, Spenser and Hawk find ties to organized crime and local kingpin Tony Marcus, as well as a scheme to franchise the operation across the country. As Spenser again plays the gallant knight, it becomes clear that April's not as innocent as she seems. In fact, she may be her own worst enemy. 

52. Bad Business - Robert B. Parker

# 31 in the Spenser series
audio read by Joe Mantegna
2004, Random House Audio
5 unabridged cds (6 hrs.) $29.95
Goodreads rating:  3.74
My rating:  4 (out of 5)
paper 336 pgs.

There's something about Spenser.  I never tire of him, having read most of his adventures.  I've gotten used to Joe Mantegna becoming his voice, though that's not the voice of Spenser I hear in my head.  In this investigation, Spenser is hired to do some checking-up on spouses that may or may not be cheating. What he uncovers is a group of people that may or may not be ummmm...spouse swapping....or who knows what, because there are several couples of a high-profile business that are beginning to be murdered.  Actually, they start dropping like flies.  Who knows who's a good guy and who's a bad guy?  Most of the characters that Parker's introduced are mentioned or appear, with lots of Susan Silverman and Hawk.  Spenser's humor, his cooking, his philosophising, are all present as well.  A good, quick read.

26. Stranger in Paradise - Robert B. Parker

Audio read by James Naughton
Random House Audio, 2008
$14.99
5 discs, 5 hrs.
Rating: 3.5

I'm writing this many months after I listened to it......This is not a Spenser, it's a Jesse Stone, who is the police chief of Paradise, Massachusetts, a town on or near the Cape, if I remember right. He is visited by someone that Jesse knows is wanted, an Apache hitman named "Crow." And although Crow is the "bad guy," it seems that Jesse has some respect for him. Crow's looking for a young girl who grew up in the area and is now hanging with gangs. He is working for her father, who wants her brought to him in Florida. And Jesse's ex-wife is investigating gang violence for the TV station she works for. The story winds around itself and is solved in Parker's ever-clever, no-holes-barred way.

27. Painted Ladies - Robert B. Parker

Spenser #39 (published posthumously)
Audio read by Joe Mantegna
Random House Audio, 2010
5 unabridged cds (5.5 hours)
$32.00
304 pgs.
Rating:  5 (though I missed Hawk)

I don’t think, when I first heard Joe Mantegna read the Spenser books, I liked his rendition of the Spenser I had in my head. Apparently his voice has grown on me, because I loved the reading of this story. Mantegna’s voice is now Spenser’s voice for me. I noticed in Barnes and Noble yesterday that the very last Spenser that Parker wrote before he died is now on sale. So sad. What a fantastic writer, storyteller, humorist, even!

In this, the 39th Spenser, Pearl falls in love! Nice touch, and a great way to end the story. Pearl, by the way, is Susan and Spenser’s dog. Romping in the Public Gardens with Otto is a riot. Such infused humor throughout the story.

Spenser is hired by Ashton Prince as a body guard during the payment of a ransom for a unique Dutch painting, Lady with a Finch. When Prince is blown up during the exchange, Spenser feels he didn’t do his job well enough and joins the team of Belson, Quinn, and all sorts of others that Parker has introduced throughout the years. Hawk is absent – somewhere out of the country, but Susan is very much a part of this story, including helping in unique ways throughout Spenser’s investigation.

Excellent story. Parker just kept getting better and better.

24. School Days - Robert B. Parker

Spenser series #33
audio read by Joe Mantegna
Random House Audio, 2005
5 unabridged cds
$14.95
6 hrs.
304 pgs.
rating:  4.5

Classic Spenser.  He said.  She said.  a little philosophical thinking, a little gourmet "throwing together" of a meal, a lot of Pearl and very little of Susan in this one.

17 year-old Jared Clark and a friend have gone into their private high school in Dowling, Massachusetts on a killing spree.  Jared's wealthy socialite grandmother hires Spenser to prove his innocence.  So Spenser charges in, in his usual style, to entertain us and to make us think.  I love the way that Parker could always piece together a story!

Spenser is in and out of the prison, speaking to the two boys, back and forth to Dowlling to probe the head of school, the school psychologist, some of the townies and some of the private school peers of the boys. Included are local and Boston gangs that run drugs and guns and an assortment of the usual interesting characters that Spenser either scorns or likes a lot.

Good stuff.  Went fast. 

R.I.P. Robert B. Parker

1932 - 2010

I never met Robert B. Parker, although we lived in the same town for many years. I saw him a couple of times - once he was out washing his car in the driveway. He and his family lived in Lynnfield, Mass., the town in which I grew up. Years later my husband, Steve, discovered Spenser. We both read the mysteries...gulped them down, actually, going back to the very first one, The Godwulf Manuscripts. His Smithfield was my Lynnfield. I don't think he changed the names of many places in his books, we used to discuss why he might want to disguise Lynnfield. Then some of his settings made it to Maine, where we lived. One weekend we drove down to Belfast to see if we could discover where he was describing (we did). On at least two weekends, while visiting my family in the Lynnfield/Wakefield/Reading areas, we traced a couple of his jaunts in and around the suburbs of Boston - Middleton, Peabody, up Rte. 114, book description open on my lap while Steve drove.... We went to the Boston bars where Spenser went, giggling over our drinks.

I am extremely saddened to hear of Parker's death on Monday (January 18, 2010) at age 77. He felt like someone I knew. HE was Spenser. I feel horrible for his wife, Joan. It makes me ache, knowing that he was Steve's favorite author, and that Steve read every one of his books through 2000 (and that's a lot of books). It's Parker (and Spenser) that got my son, Brian reading. Other than Hatchet (Paulsen), Brian had never had any interest in reading. The outdoors was calling much too loudly. But he is now a voracious reader of murder mysteries - and it began, shortly after his dad's death - by reading all the Spenser novels, most of which he found on his dad's bookshelf.

Mr. Parker, thanks for the laughs (you must have had a wonderful sense of humor), for the wonderful mysteries, for the gentle tough-guy persona of Spenser....and also for instigating my own trips around Massachusetts and glimpses into other parts of the country, for being the spark that got my kid to read, and for sparking all the talks and sharing and audio-book listening on long car rides that were part of my own married life.

For some informative reading about Robert B. Parker, here are a few websites I checked out this morning:

This was the best - Parker and his son, Dan, singing Moon River. It's really wonderful!

Here's are comments from one of the funniest and clever young adult authors I know - David Lubar.

This site has a huge list of tributes and blogs about Parker.

Here's one of the Boston Globe obituaries, and here's one from the London Telegraph.

And lastly, here's a tribute from fellow Boston author, Dennis Lehane.

59. Rough Weather - Robert B. Parker

Spenser Series No. 36

Audio read by Joe Mantegna

Random House audio, 2008

5 cd's, 5.5 hours

304 pgs.

Rating: 3

I used to really enjoy Spenser novels. Not only did they take place in familiar locales (the "Smithfield," Massachusetts, where Spenser used to frequent, is actually based on Lynnfield - where I lived until I was in junior high, where my grandparents always lived, and where my brother now lives), but the descriptions of the area were so familiar with reminders of my childhood. The mysteries were pretty darn good, too. I've read many, many of the series - and I truly cannot believe that there are now 36. Wow.

I enjoyed the way the story unfolded, I enjoyed the reparte between Spenser and his sidekick, Hawk. I'm getting really tired of Susan Silverman. Parker uses mostly dialogue to tell the story - and this is where my biggest complaint comes in. "Come in," he said. "Won't stay long," she said. The book is riddled with "saids." It's really apparent when read aloud. And it's really started to irritate me.

This time Spenser is hired by Heidi Bradshaw, a rich Boston socialite, to be available at her daughter's wedding on Tashtego Island, off the coast of Massachusetts somewhere. During a hurricane the bride is kidnapped and the new groom is gunned down. A previous nemesis, Rugar, aka The Gray Man, seems to be the culprit, and Spenser and Hawk begin their journey of philosophical sleuthing. It seems a bit unresolved in the end - so I'm guessing that Parker has saved wiggle room for another story.