Helpful Score: 3
Robert B. Parker's last book - I would have loved it no matter what. But the novel did not disappoint. The old favorite characters are there - Spenser, Susan, Quirk, Pearl and so many more - sadly Hawk is missing. At the request of the police, Spenser is hired to prove the guilt or innocence of a famous movie actor who has been involved in the strangulation death of a young girl. Or has he? The man is so vulgar, so horrendously fat,so immersed in his habits of alcohol. sex and drugs that it is hard to even imagine his innocence. When Spencer is forced to take on "Jumbo's" bodyguard and beats him, the youg Cree Indian is fired. He becomes Spenser's protege. And so it goes ... Parker's wonderful character development, short chapters, amazing resolution. I suspect that Sixkill, the Indian, was a character that Parker had hoped to develop for other books. You are going to like him and will wish for more. Isn't it odd that when the author dies so do the characters you've grown to love. Now we'll never know how the great romance between Susan and Spencer will turn out or read another moving dedicaion to Joan? Great book.
