I read this on my flight to live in Italy for a period. I loved it, and I was frustrated by it at the same time. As I read it, I remembered why I love Parker so much: the tight use of language, not only Spenser's banter, but his ability to pack a lot of information and imagery into a few words with an clarity of vision that other writers never accomplish in twice the words. He pays tribute to the noir detective novels from the heyday of Hamell, and Ross McDonald (he was selected McDonald's estate to finish McDonald's final novel--Poodle Springs). And yet his stories are modern. The reason this frustrated me, is all my Parker books are packed up in the States, and it'll be tough for friends to get to them. So it's going to be about a year before I can get my hands on them again, and it's going to be a long drought. Unless I can the English-only store here in Florence to order me a couple every so often. Great for Parker fans. I have been reading some Robert B Parker stuff for a couple of weeks now, Jesse Stone, Sunny Randall and now Spenser. So when I came across some more books in the library I just grabbed them and brought them home. In Rough Weather I wasn’t expecting a comedy but the dialogue was splattered with as many funny antidotes from many of the characters as there was blood from the many victims. Spenser was hired to attend a very up market wedding on a private island his job was to be a spare husband for the woman who’s daughter was getting married. Heidi Bradshaw was no ordinary mother of the bride she was rich so money was no problem hiring Spenser what was a problem was that during the wedding Spenser’s old nemesis Rugar turned up.It was then that the mayhem started, the clergyman and the groom were the first casualties as Rugar shot them both then it were a matter for Spenser to get out of the way with his beloved partner Susan Silverman. Rugar kidnapped the none too blushing bride and when the storm that has sprung up abated flew her off the island by helicopter. Then Spenser had to get off the island himself and once back to something like normality he took it upon himself at his own expense, having been dismissed by Heidi, to try and find out what he could. This had happened on his watch so to speak but more to the point the way in which it was donng e was not Rugar’s way, he was a professional and this kidnapping was anything but.And so Spenser sets out to unravel the murders and the mayhem, and more is forthcoming during his quest as he starts to home in on the truth, along the way he has help from both the police and villains alike. He is also ably helped by his friend and bodyguard Hawk and during all this the banter and dialogue made me giggle quite often, the writing is sublime. I enjoyed this novel immensely although the subject matter is nothing to laugh about. A cracking read, in some ways a sort of tragicomedy sort of book but one that makes me want to read more Spenser stories.
