{"id":441,"date":"2011-06-23T11:41:45","date_gmt":"2011-06-23T18:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=441"},"modified":"2011-06-26T06:28:46","modified_gmt":"2011-06-26T13:28:46","slug":"goodbye-and-thanks-for-the-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/?p=441","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye, and thanks for the series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bob Moyer says this about this review: \u201cI had the privilege to hear Robert B. Parker read from his excellent baseball novel Double Play<\/em>. \u00a0Afterward, he answered questions in his gruff but somehow gracious way \u2013 until someone asked him about his ‘research’ on the times, Jackie Robinson, etc. \u00a0Parker interrupted him and said, ‘Wait a minute … I didn’t do any research. \u00a0I’m a writer.<\/p>\n

‘We make these things up.’ ”<\/p>\n

I still laugh every time I think of that. Like his writing \u2013 short, sweet, to the point. \u00a0Like Elmore Leonard, he just writes the parts you read, not the parts you skip over.”<\/p>\n

By Robert Moyer<\/p>\n

SIXKILL. A Spenser Novel. By Robert B. Parker. Putnam. 293 pages. $26.95.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Back in the first book, before he was a best-seller, the private eye named after a 16th century poet listens to a pompous college president exhort him to search for The Godswulf Manuscript<\/em>.\u00a0 Spenser simply replies, \u201cWin one for the Gipper.\u201d That wisecrack is arguably the first in a long string of snappy comebacks that lead through 39 books and 40 years to the latest adventure, Sixkill<\/em>, where he does it again. Spenser is seated at his desk, feet up, when a professional assassin walks in and tells him not to worry, he won\u2019t kill him today.\u00a0 Without batting an eye or putting a wrinkle in his carefully tailored sport coat, Spenser replies, \u201cPromises, promises.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so it goes, another in this series in which the plot, at least serviceable, at best stunning, gives Spenser a chance to munch specially prepared meals, muse about life and crime with his main squeeze Susan, make wisecracks, muscle around the bad guys, and, oh yes, dispense justice.<\/p>\n

The plot here is an updated replay spun out of Hollywood\u2019s sordid past, the Fatty Arbuckle scandal of 1921.\u00a0 A young girl is found dead in the hotel room of the very disgusting but very successful comic actor Jumbo Nelson.\u00a0 Everyone thinks Jumbo did it \u2013 except the cop investigating. Everyone wants Spenser to find out whodunit \u2013 except Jumbo.\u00a0 He fires Spenser, but, of course, that doesn\u2019t stop our gourmet gumshoe.\u00a0 He doggedly continues until he has come across a satisfactory conclusion.\u00a0 In this case, he wrangles his way through a bevy of bad guys hired by the Hollywood Mafia, who have a fortune tied up in Jumbo\u2019s success.\u00a0 He has help, however \u2013 Sixkill<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Former star football player, nightclub bouncer, and Jumbo\u2019s \u201cdriver, booze buddy and pimp,\u201c\u00a0Cree Indian Zebulon Sixkill is the heart of this book.\u00a0 Until he was introduced to Spenser\u2019s fists, he had never lost a fight.\u00a0 Jumbo fires him for getting beat up, but Spenser, sensing a sputtering spirit inside the hulking body, takes him under his wing.\u00a0 Before long, Sixkill has stopped swigging the juice and started sprinting and swinging fists at Spenser\u2019s (updated) boxing club.\u00a0 Before long, he\u2019s slinging bon mots and bodies around in a Spenser-like style; it all concludes quite satisfactorily (Parker can put some punch into his fight scenes) in a Boston version of Custer\u2019s Last Stand.<\/p>\n

Spenser and Sixkill survive the book; Parker didn\u2019t.\u00a0 He passed away in 2010, but rumor has it that the series lives on.\u00a0 Perhaps they\u2019ll\u00a0just segue to a Sixkill series, something like Son of Spenser, or Spenser Lit<\/em>e.\u00a0 However, whoever takes over will be hard pressed to keep Parker fans happy.\u00a0 The Spenser series was \u2013 is \u2013 the most consistent, satisfying and quick-reading success in modern mystery fiction.\u00a0 We\u2019ll miss you, Robert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bob Moyer says this about this review: \u201cI had the privilege to hear Robert B. Parker read from his excellent baseball novel Double Play. \u00a0Afterward, he answered questions in his gruff but somehow gracious way \u2013 until someone asked him about his ‘research’ on the times, Jackie Robinson, etc. \u00a0Parker interrupted him and said, ‘Wait […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14],"tags":[27,105,104],"class_list":["post-441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mysteries","category-thriller-suspense","tag-mystery","tag-robert-parker","tag-spenser"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=441"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":444,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441\/revisions\/444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindabrinson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}