NOTE: Listed in reading order, what follows is a complete bibliography of the Spenser novels. For a detailed analysis of each book including documentation of all known aphorisms and literary allusions contained therein, click on either the book title or the text below the description.
The Godwulf Manuscript (1973)
Spenser earned his degree
in the school of hard knocks, so he is
ready when a Boston university hires him
to recover a rare, stolen manuscript. He
is hardly surpised that his only clue is a
radical student with four bullets in his
chest. The cops are ready to throw the
book at the pretty blond coed whose prints
are all over the murder weapon but Spenser
knows there are no easy answers. He
tackles some very heavy homework and knows
that if he doesn't finish his assignment
soon, he could end up marked "D" -- for
dead. (CLICK HERE for
detailed info and analysis of this
book.)God Save the Child (1974)
Apple Knoll is the kind of
suburb where kids grow up right. But
something is wrong. Fourteen-year-old
Kevin Bartlett disappears. Everyone thinks
he's run away -- until the comic strip
ransom note arrives. It doesn't take
Spenser long to get the picture -- an
affluent family seething with rage, a
desperate boy making strange
friends...friends like Vic Harroway, body
builder. Mr. Muscle is Spenser's only lead
and he isn't talking...except with his
fists. But when push comes to shove, when
a boy's life is on the line, Spenser can
speak that language
too.Mortal Stakes (1975)
Everybody loves a winner,
and the Rabbs are major league. Marty is
the Red Sox star pitcher, Linda the loving
wife. She loves everyone except the
blackmailer out to wreck her life. Is
Marty throwing fast balls or throwing
games? It doesn't take long for Spenser to
link Marty's performance with Linda's
past...or to find himself trapped between
a crazed racketeer and an enforcer toting
an M-16. America's favorite pastime has
suddenly become a very dangerous sport,
and one wrong move means strike three,
with Spenser out for
good!Promised Land (1976)
Spenser is good at finding
things. But this time he has a client out
on Cape Cod who is in over his head.
Harvey Shepard has lost his pretty wife --
and a very pretty quarter million bucks in
real estate. Now a loan shark is putting
on the bite. Spenser finds himself doing a
slow burn in the Cape Cod sun. The wife
has turned up as a hot suspect in a case
of murder one...the in-hock hubby has 24
hours before the mob makes him dead...and
suddenly Spenser is in so deep that the
only way out is so risky it makes dying
look like a sure
thing.The Judas Goat (1978)
Spenser has gone to
London -- and not to see the Queen. He's
gone to track down a bunch of bombers
who've blown away his client's wife and
kids. His job is to catch them. Or kill
them. His client isn't choosy. But there
are nine killers to one Spenser -- long
odds. Hawk helps balance the equation. The
rest depends on a wild plan. Spenser will
get one of the terrorists to play Judas
Goat -- to lead him to others. Trouble is,
he hasn't counted on her being very blond,
very beautiful and very
dangerous.Looking for Rachel Wallace (1980)
Rachel Wallace is a woman
who writes and speaks her mind. She has
made a lot of enemies--enemies who
threaten her life. Spenser is the tough
guy with a macho code of honor, hired to
protect a woman who thinks that code is
obsolete. Privately, they will never see
eye to eye. That's why she fires him. But
when Rachel vanishes, Spenser rattles
skeletons in blue-blooded family closets,
tangles with the Klan and fights for her
right to be exactly what she is. He is
ready to lay his life on the line to find
Rachel Wallace.Early Autumn (1981)
A bitter divorce is only
the beginning. First the father hires
thugs to kidnap his son. Then the mother
hires Spenser to get the boy back. But as
soon as Spenser senses the lay of the
land, he decides to do some kidnapping of
his own. With a contract out on his life,
he heads for the Maine woods, determined
to give a puny 15 year old a crash course
in survival and to beat his dangerous
opponents at their own brutal
game.A Savage Place (1981)
TV reporter Candy Sloan
has eyest the color of cornflowers and
legs that stretch all the way to heaven.
She also has somebody threatening to
rearrange her lovely face if she keeps on
snooping into charges of hollywood
racketeering. Spenser's job is to keep
Candy healthy until she breaks the biggest
story of her career. But her star witness
has just bowed out with three bullets in
his chest, two tough guys have doubled up
to test Spenser's skill with his fists,
and Candy is about to use her own sweet
body as live bait in a deadly romantic
game - a game that may cost Spenser his
life.Ceremony (1982)
Pretty teenager April Kyle
is in grown-up-trouble, involved with
people who'd beat her up for a dollar and
kill her for five. Now she's disappeared,
last seen in the Combat Zone, that side of
Boston where nothing's proper, especially
the sex for sale. With Hawk, his sidekick,
Spenser takes on the whole X-rated
industry. From a specialty whorehouse in
Providence to stylish Back Bay bordellos,
he pits muscle and wit against bullets and
brawn until he finds what he's looking
for: April Kyle, little girl
lost.The Widening Gyre (1983)
The adoring wife of a
senatorial candidate has a smile as sweet
as candy and dots her "i's" with little
hearts. A blond beauty, she is the perfect
mate for an ambitious politician, but she
has a little problem with sex and drugs--a
problem someone has managed to put on
videotape. The big boys figure a little
blackmail will put her husband out of the
race. Until Spenser hops on the
candidate's bandwagon. But getting back
the tape of the lady's X-rated
indiscretion is a nonstop express ride to
trouble--trouble that is deep, wide and
deadly.Valediction (1984)
The most
dangerous man to cross is one who isn't
afraid to die. But the most deadly is one
who doesn't want to live. And Spenser has
just lost the woman who made life his #1
priority. So when a religious sect kidnaps
a pretty young dancer, no death threat can
make Spenser cut and run. Now a hit man's
bullet is wearing Spenser's name. But
Boston's big boys don't know Spenser's
ready and willing to meet death more than
halfway.
A Catskill Eagle (1985)
In the
detective business, Spenser sometimes has
to bend the law. Other times, to break it.
But he lives by his own inviolate rules.
And he loves just one woman -- even though
she is the one woman he's just lost. So
when Susan's desperate letter arrives,
Spenser doesn't think twice. His best
friend, Hawk, faces a life sentence. And
Susan has gotten herself into even bigger
trouble. Now Spenser has to free them
both...even if it means breaking his own
rules to do it.Taming a Sea Horse (1986)
Nice girls
don't. But blond, beautiful April Kyle
does. She's a hooker hooked on the wrong
guy -- and she's on her way to trouble. So
is Spenser. Looking out for April has
landed him in the crud of Times Square.
It's not a long way to big-business
boardrooms where blood money get laundered
into long green, sex is a commodity, and
young girls are the
currency.Pale Kings and Princes (1987)
Wheaton is a typical New
England small-college town, not the sort
of place for drugs and murder. But when a
reporter gets too inquisitive, he finds
both -- the latter on his own. Spenser's
call comes when the local cops work a
cover. He needs help to solve this one --
Hawk for back-up and Susan for insight on
the basics of jealousy, passion and hate!
What the trio finds is a cutthroat cocaine
ring, where drugs have value supreme and
human life has none at
all.Crimson Joy (1988)
A serial killer is on the
loose in Beantown and the cops can't catch
him. But when the killer leaves his red
rose calling card for Spenser's own Susan
Silverman, he gets all the attention that
Spenser and Hawk can give. Spenser plays
against time while he tracks the Red Rose
killer from Boston's Combat Zone to the
suburbs.Playmates (1989)
Spenser smells corruption
in a college town. Taft University's
hottest basketball star is shaving points
for quick cash. All manner of sleaze --
from corrupt academics to hoods with
graduate degrees -- have their fingers in
the pot. Spenser's search takes him from
lecture halls to blue collar bars and
finally into a bloody confrontation with
almost certain death. But Spenser saves an
arrogant young athlete -- even though it
nearly kills him to do
it.Stardust (1990)
When a Hollywood-based TV
series schedules filming in Boston,
Spenser smells trouble. When he signs up
to protect the show's star, Jill Joyce, he
knows it's on its way. First, there's Jill
herself. She's spoiled, arrogant, drugged
out -- made worse by fear. Someone is out
to get her -- does she imagine it, or is
it real? Spenser monitors her neurosis,
but finds evidence of harassment. It
escalates to murder. Now begins the
dangerous part -- while the act may have
ended, the murderer lingers
on.Pastime (1991)
Certain that his mother's
shady boyfriend is behind her
disappearance, Paul Giacomin calls upon
the skills of Spencer to help him find his
missing mother.Double Deuce (1992)
When
a teenaged girl and her infant daughter
are shot to death outside the Double Deuce
housing project, tenants of the
gang-plagued neighborhood turn to Hawk for
help. He, in turn, enlists Spenser's aid
in finding the killer. Their investigation
leads them to a dark world of drugs,
death, and despair Hawk wants Spenser
to wage war on a street gang. Susan wants
Spenser to move in with her. Either way,
Spenser's out of his element. So why not
risk both?Paper Doll (1993)
Hired by Loudon Tripp, an
aggrieved Boston aristocrat who believes
the brutal street slaying of his wife,
Olivia, to be something other than random
violence, Spenser immediately senses
Tripp's picture-perfect version of his
family's life is false. For starters, the
victim's reputation is far too saintly,
while her house is as lived-in as a stage
set and her troubled children don't appear
the product of a happy home. Spenser
plunges into a world of grand illusion,
peopled by cardboard cutouts, including: a
distinguished public servant with plenty
to hide; a wealthy executive whose checks
bounce; a sleepy southern town seething
with scandal; and the ambiguous Olivia
herself.Walking Shadow (1994)
A Massachusetts waterfront
town. A small repertory theater with a big
reputation. A soupcon of scandal. And
Spenser is on hand to steal the scene.
Hired by the Port City Theater Company's
board of trustees to investigate the
director's claim that he is being
followed, Spenser feels like a fish out of
water - until an actor is gunned down
during a performance of a politically
controversial play. Then Boston's premier
private cop and his cohort, Hawk, go into
action, plunging straight into a maze of
motives that constitutes a master class in
the difficulty of judging reality from
appearances. Spenser soon discovers that
solving the actor's murder is only a piece
of the puzzle.Thin Air (1995)
When a Boston police
detective's adored young bride, Lisa St.
Claire, disappears without a trace, he
enlists Spenser's help in tracking her
down. Sleuthing from a New England college
campus to the slick sports clubs of L.A.,
Spenser discovers all about Lisa -
including her past history of
prostitution, substance abuse, and
self-destructive love affairs - and
suspects she is being held prisoner by her
sociopathic Latino ex-lover in his
crumbling tenement fortress deep within
the barrio of a burned-out Massachusetts
mill town. Accompanied by a Chicano
shooter with an ironclad attitude and an
unflinching sense of honor, Spenser sets
in motion a complex plan to rescue Lisa.
As he wheels and deals with boozy, broken
cops and messianic local warlords, he is
forced to face some brutal truths and
question the very meaning of passion,
manhood, and
justice.Chance (1996)
This time
Spenser - the tough-but-tender sleuth
whose passion for justice repeatedly
plunges him into a sea of trouble - hires
out on a marital matter whose attached
strings entangle him with the Mob. When
big-time Boston hoodlum Julius Ventura
approaches Spenser and his redoubtable
sidekick, Hawk, about locating his only
daughter's missing husband, it's clear
he's not telling them the whole truth
about the blushing bride and the ardent
groom. In fact, he may be lying. But
something about these missing links
appeals to Spenser, and he agrees to take
the case. So begins an odyssey into the
netherworld of disorganized crime: from
the throne rooms of crime lords to the
Vegas strip; from two-bit wiseguys with a
genius for dangerous liaisons to
gangsters' molls in jeopardy; from larceny
to homicide. And that's just for openers.
All too soon, it becomes clear that what's
at stake is not young love, but control of
gangland Boston. Spenser and Hawk find
themselves dead-center in a circus of
violence whose shadowy ringmaster is all
too familiar to a private eye with a
past.Small Vices (1997)
Spenser is back. In Small
Vices, his 24th adventure, we find the
private eye working on a case of wrongful
incarceration — a case that reopens the
murder of a Boston coed. Spenser's cynical
and pushy nature gets him what he wants,
when he wants it, but it gets under
people's skin. Despite being threatened,
he doesn't drop the case; Spenser is a man
of principle and a man set in his ways.
Suddenly we see Spenser as we have never
seen him before: near death, having taken
three bullets from a hired assassin. Most
men would give up, but who ever said that
Spenser was like most men? Spenser embarks
on the long, hard road of rehabilitation
with his friend, Hawk, and his lover,
Susan, by his side. And from the start his
mind is set on one thing: regaining the
strength and skill to take on the would-be
assassin face to face, man to man, until
justice is done. Spenser has never come up
against something quite like this — a
professional killer who just might be his
equal...and then
some.Sudden Mischief (1998)
Brad Sterling - former
Harvard football player, ne'er-dowell, and
Susan Silverman's long-out-of-touch
ex-husband - is, by all appearances, a
successful businessman. But when he is
charged with sexual harassment in the
course of running a vast fund-raiser
called Galapalooza, he turns to Susan for
help. Though Brad denies the charge, he's
desperate, behind in alimony and child
support to other exes, and on the verge of
dissolution. When Spenser reluctantly
agrees to the case, he finds Brad denies
everything. Sterling claims everything is
fine - he is free of debt and free of
problems. While the harassment charge
begins to look more and more specious,
Spenser begins to sense there is something
wrong with Galapalooza, when leads to
charities turn into dead end. Susan,
meanwhile, becomes steadily more
problematic as she wrestles with demons
reinvigorated by the resurrection of her
ex-husband. As the questions mount, Brad
disappears, a body is found, and a shadowy
mob connection begins to coalesce. Spenser
finds himself fighting a two-front war:
against some very bad men on the one hand,
and an increasingly difficult Susan,
struggling with her own resurrection, on
the other.
Hush Money (1999)
When
Robinson Nevins, the son of Hawk's boyhood
mentor, is denied tenure at the
University, Hawk asks Spenser to
investigate. It appears the denial is tied
to the suicide of a young gay activist,
Prentice Lamont. While intimations of an
affair between Lamont and Nevins have long
fed the campus rumor mill, no one is
willing to talk, and as Spenser digs
deeper he is nearly drowned in a
multicultural swamp of politics: black,
gay, academic, and feminist. At the same
time, Spenser's inamorata. Susan, asks him
to come to the aid of an old college
friend, K. C. Roth, the victim of a
stalker. Spenser solves the problem a bit
too effectively, and K. C., unwilling to
settle for the normal parameters of the
professional-client relationship, becomes
smitten with him, going so far as to
attempt to lure him from Susan. When
Spenser, ever chivalrous, kindly rejects
her advances, K. C. turns the tables and
begins to stalk him. Then the case of
Robinson Nevins turns deadly. It is,
Spenser discovers, only the tip of the
iceberg in a great conspiracy to keep
America white, male, and straight. Spenser
must call upon his every resource,
including friends on both sides of the
law, to stay alive.Hugger Mugger (2000)
Spenser is
back and embroiled in a deceptively
dangerous and multi-layered case: someone
has been killing racehorses at stables
across the south, and the Boston P.I.
travels to Georgia to protect the two-year
old destined to become the next
Secretariat. When Spenser is approached by
Walter Clive, president of the Three
Fillies Stables, to find out who is
threatening his horse Hugger Mugger, he
can hardly say no: he's been doing pro
bono work for so long his cupboards are
just about bare. Disregarding the
resentment of the local Georgia law
enforcement, Spenser takes the case.
Though Clive has hired a separate security
firm, he wants someone with Spenser's
experience to supervise the operation.
Despite the veneer of civility, Spenser
encounters tensions beneath the surface
southern gentility. The case takes an even
more deadly turn when the attacker claims
a human victim, and Spenser must revise
his impressions of the Three Fillies
organization- and watch his own back as
well.Pot Shot (2001)
Boston
P.I. Spenser returns-heading west to the
rich man's haven of Potshot, Arizona, a
former mining town reborn as a paradise
for Los Angeles millionaires looking for a
place to escape the pressures of their
high-flying lifestyles. Potshot overcame
its rough reputation as a rendezvous for
old-time mountain men who lived off the
land, thanks to a healthy infusion of new
blood and even newer money. But when this
western idyll is threatened by a local
gang-a twenty-first-century posse of
desert rats, misfits, drunks, and
scavengers-the local police seem
powerless. Led by a charismatic individual
known only as The Preacher, this motley
band of thieves selectively exploits the
town, nurturing it as a source of wealth
while systematically robbing the residents
blind. Enter Spenser, called in to put the
group out of business and establish a
police force who can protect the town.
Calling on his own cadre of cohorts,
including Vinnie Morris, Bobby Horse,
Chollo Bernard J. Fortunato, as well as
the redoubtable Hawk, Spenser must find a
way to beat the gang at their own
dangerous game.Widow's Walk (2002)
When
fifty-one year old Nathan Smith, a
confirmed bachelor, is found dead in his
bed with a hole in his head made by a .38
caliber slug, it's hard not to imagine
Nathan's young bride as the one with her
finger on the trigger. Even her lawyer
thinks she's guilty. But given that Mary
Smith is entitled to the best defense she
can afford - and thanks to Nathan's
millions, she can afford plenty - Spenser
hires on to investigate Mary's bona fides.
Mary's alibi is a bit on the flimsy side:
she claims she was watching television in
another room when the murder occurred. But
the couple was seen fighting at a
high-profile cocktail party earlier that
evening and the prosecution has a witness
who says Mary once tried to hire him to
kill Nathan. What's more, she's too
pretty, too made-up, too blonde, and
sleeps around - just the kind of person a
jury loves to hate. Spenser's up against
the wall; leads go nowhere, no one knows a
thing. Then a young woman, recently fired
from her position at Smith's bank, turns
up dead. Mary's vacant past suddenly
starts looking meaner and darker - and
Spenser's suddenly got to watch his
back.Back Story (2003)
In 1974, a revolutionary
group calling itself The Dread Scott
Brigade held up the Old Shawmut Bank in
Boston's Audubon Circle. Money was stolen.
And a woman named Emily Gordon, a visitor
in town cashing traveler's checks, was
shot and killed. No one saw who shot her.
Despite security-camera photos and a
letter from the group claiming
responsibility, the perpetrators have
remained at large for nearly three
decades. Enter Paul Giacomin, the closest
thing to a son Spenser has. Twice before,
Spenser's come to the young man's
assistance; and now Paul is thirty-seven,
his troubled past behind him. When Paul's
friend Daryl Gordon-daughter of the
long-gone Emily-decides she needs closure
regarding her mother's death, it's Spenser
she turns to. The lack of clues and a
missing FBI intelligence report force
Spenser to reach out in every direction-to
Daryl's estranged, hippie father, to
Vinnie Morris and the mob, to the
mysterious Ives-testing his
resourcefulness and his
courage.Bad Business (2004)
When Marlene Cowley hires
Spenser to see if her husband, Trent, is
cheating on her, he encounters more than
he bargained for: Not only does he find a
two-timing husband, but a second
investigator as well, hired by the husband
to look after his wife. As a result of
their joint efforts, Spenser soon finds
himself investigating both individual
depravity and corporate corruption. It
seems the folks in the Cowley's circle
have become enamored of radio talk-show
host Darrin O'Mara, whose views on Courtly
Love are clouding some already fuzzy minds
with the notion of cross-connubial
relationships. O'Mara's brand of sex
therapy is unconventional at best,
unlawful-and deadly-at worst. Then a
murder at Kinergy, where Trent Cowley is
CFO, sends Spenser in yet another
direction. Apparently, the unfettered
pursuit of profit has a
price.Cold Service (2005)
When his closest ally,
Hawk, is brutally injured and left for
dead while protecting bookie Luther
Gillespie, Spenser embarks on an epic
journey to rehabilitate his friend in body
and soul. Hawk, always proud, has never
been dependent on anyone. Now he is forced
to make connections; to accept the medical
technology that will ensure his physical
recovery; and to reinforce the tenuous
emotional ties he has to those around
him." Spenser quickly learns that the
Ukrainian mob is responsible for the hit,
but finding a way into their tightly knit
circle is not nearly so simple. Their
total control of the town of Marshport,
from the bodegas to the police force to
the mayor's office, isn't just a sign of
rampant corruption - it's a form of
arrogance that only serves to ignite
Hawk's desire to get even. As the body
count rises, Spenser is forced to employ
some questionable techniques and even more
questionable hired guns, while redefining
his friendship with Hawk in the name of
vengeance.School Days (2005)
Lily Ellsworth - erect,
firm, white-haired, and stylish - is the
grande dame of Dowling, Massachusetts, and
possesses an iron will and a bottomless
purse. When she hires Spenser to
investigate her grandson Jared Clark's
alleged involvement in a school shooting,
Spenser is led into an inquiry that grows
more harrowing at every turn. Though seven
people were killed in cold blood, and
despite Jared's being named as a
co-conspirator by the other shooter, Mrs.
Ellsworth is convinced of her grandson's
innocence. Jared's parents are resigned to
his fate, and her boy himself doesn't seem
to care whether he goes to prison for a
crime he may not have committed." As the
probe goes on, Spenser finds himself up
against a number of roadblocks, from the
school officials who don't want him asking
questions, to Jared's own parents, who are
completely indifferent to the boy's
defense. Ultimately, Spenser discovers a
web of blackmail and some heavy-duty
indiscretions, and a truth too disturbing
to contemplate. Before the case reaches
its unfortunate end, he is forced to make
a series of difficult decisions - with
fatal consequences.
Hundred Dollar Baby (2006)
April Kyle, the
damsel in distress that Spenser rescued in
two earlier books, Ceremony (1982) and
Taming a Sea Horse (1986), again turns to
the iconic Boston PI for help in the 34th
entry in Parker's popular series. Cynical
yet romantic, Spenser easily handles the
immediate threat of some men trying to
muscle in on the high-class Boston
whorehouse April is running.
Unfortunately, that isn't the real
problem, and Spenser without much surprise
finds that April, the thugs and everyone
else involved is lying to him. Instead of
walking away, Spenser continues to probe,
following trails that lead to New York, a
con artist, mob connections and other
complications. This is vintage Parker,
with Spenser exchanging witty dialogue
with the faithful Hawk, sexy dialogue with
his beloved Susan and smart-alecky
dialogue with cops and villains. The old
pros can make it look easy, and that goes
for both the author and his hero as they
deliver the goods smoothly and with
inimitable style.
Now and Then (2007)
When a simple case
turns into a treacherous and politically
charged investigation, Spenser faces his
most difficult challenge yet-keeping his
cool while his beloved Susan Silverman is
in danger. Spenser knows something's amiss
the moment Dennis Doherty walks into his
office. The guy's aggressive yet wary, in
the way men frightened for their marriages
always are. So when Doherty asks Spenser
to investigate his wife Jordan's abnormal
behavior, Spenser agrees. A job's a job,
after all. Not surprisingly, Spenser
catches Jordan with another man, tells
Dennis what he's found out, and considers
the case closed. But a couple of days
later, all hell breaks loose, and three
people are dead. This isn't just a marital
affair gone bad. Spenser is in the middle
of hornet's nest of trouble, and he's got
to get out of it without getting stung.
With Hawk watching his back, and
gun-for-hire Vinnie Morris providing extra
cover, Spenser delves into a complicated
and far-reaching operation: Jordan's
former lover, Perry Alderson, is the
leader of a group that helps sponsor
terrorists. But Perry doesn't like Spenser
poking around his business, so he decides
to get to Spenser through Susan. The
Boston P.I. will use all his connections
both above and below the law to uncover
the truth behind Perry's antigovernment
organization. But what Alderson doesn't
realize is that Spenser will stop at
absolutely nothing to keep Susan out of
harm's way; nothing will keep him from the
woman he loves.