Sixkill, by Robert B. Parker (Putnam; 26.95)

In January 2010, the mystery world suffered an irreplaceable loss when Robert B. Parker died. Parker wrote a series of detective stories starring Boston sleuth Spenser. Sixkill is his last.  

When a young woman is found dead in the hotel room of grossly obese actor Jumbo Nelson, most everyone thinks he killed her—by squishing her, if nothing else. Oddly, the cops aren’t totally convinced. They know the 400-pound tub of lard will probably be convicted of the crime regardless of whether he did it, so before charging him, they want to make sure he’s actually guilty. They ask Spenser to look into the case.

Jumbo’s studio wants Spenser to report that the "repellent puke" (as Spenser calls him) is innocent. The studio is backed by organized crime figures, and they can be convincing. But Spenser has befriended Zebulon (Z) Sixkill, a Cree Indian who had served as Jumbo’s bodyguard until Spenser took him down in a fight. Now Spenser has taught the younger man how to better protect himself, and the grateful Z has Spenser’s back.

It’s a terrific story, and Z is an engaging character. I would have liked to have read other Spenser stories that included the younger man.

The book’s only flaw is the excruciatingly tedious Yoda-like dialogue between Spenser and his long-time girlfriend, Susan, such as this exchange, in which Susan describes Z:

 “He sounded rather like you,” Susan says.

 “You think?”

“I do,” she said

“Who better?” I said.

“No one, if your goal is to be a wiseass. . .”

“What better?”

It would be one thing if this were atypical, but the book is full of this annoying, stilted dialogue. So much so, in fact, that I actually wondered if someone else had added some to expand the book after Parker’s death despite a press release that described the book as the “last Spenser novel completed by the legendary Robert B. Parker.” I checked with the book’s publicist, who wrote back this rather patronizing denial:

As stated, it was the last Spenser novel completed by Parker. If someone else finished it, it wouldn’t have been *completed* by Parker, would it? So that is the answer: completely finished, yes.

So there you have it: only Parker is to blame for the book’s bad dialogue. 

I’ll miss Spenser. RIP, Robert B. Parker.