Rough Weather

Oooohhh-- I sneaked a little indulgence in between all the reading I've been doing for review sources and writing projects of late. I haven't read a Robert Parker Spenser novel in ages and it was a treat. I just never get tired of Spenser's smart alecky remarks and his repartee with Hawk. Like the Evanovich novels, fairly predictable but highly enjoyable. In this book, Spenser gets hired to be a stand-in date for a seemingly wealthy woman whose daughter is getting married. His old nemesis, the Gray Man, shows up with several men toting automatic weapons and kills the security guards and the groom (right after the vows--that's significant) and then kidnaps the bride. The whole thing seems very staged and not at all consistent with the Gray Man's usual MO. Spenser thinks the mother of the bride knows way more than she's telling and he's trying to get to the bottom of things while not getting killed by the Gray Man. Hawk is enlisted as his back-up and straight man. There's more relationship between Hawk and Susan than I remember from previous books, which was also fun. It was a pleasure to get reacquainted!