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.

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. 

11. Robert B. Parker's LULLABY - Ace Atkins

#1 written by Ace Atkins, but at least #40 in the Spenser series

audio read by Joe Montagna

2012 Random House Audio

320 pgs.

Written for adults

Finished March 22, 2013

Genre:Murder Mystery

Goodreads Rating: 3.87

My Rating: 4/short, entertaining, funny-in-its-own-specail-way, even nostalgic!

Acquired: PBS

Setting: Contemporary Boston

1^st sentence/s:

My comments:  I don't' know if it was Ace Atkins' actual writing, Joe Montagna's familiar reading, or a combination of both, but I could hear Parker's voice in most of this. Well, enough of Parker's voice to feel satisfied. Good story, good ole Spencer and Hawk!

Goodreads Review:  When fourteen-year-old Mattie Sullivan asks Spenser to look into her mother’s murder, he’s not completely convinced by her claim that the police investigation four years ago was botched. Mattie is gruff, street-smart, and wise beyond her years, left to care for her younger siblings and an alcoholic grandmother in a dilapidated apartment in South Boston.  But her need for closure and her determination to make things right hit Spenser where he lives- they’re the very characteristics he abides by. 

Mattie believes the man convicted of the crime is innocent and points Spenser to the Southie toughs who she saw carrying her mother away hours before her murder. Neither the Boston PD nor the neighborhood thugs are keen on his dredging up the past, but as Spenser becomes more involved in the case, he starts to realize that Mattie may be onto something. Spenser will need Hawk’s help to find peace for Mattie – a job that’s more dangerous than he ever thought.

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.

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.