Plot summary
Spenser is hired by a wealthy woman, Marlene Rowley, to gather evidence on her husband's infidelity. While following the husband, Trent, one evening and finding him meeting his mistress, Spenser discovers that she too is being followed by another private detective. Things get even stranger when Spenser discovers that Marlene Rowley is also being followed by a third P.I.
Eventually, Trent winds up dead as Spenser is waiting to follow him outside his place of business, Kinergy, where he is CFO. The investigation picks up steam as Spenser tries to solve the murder. More people end up dead and the other two P.I.s Spenser ran into disappear. The story involves corporate corruption and an accounting scandal that only a detective as determined as Spenser can unravel.
Several Spenser-verse reappearing characters are featured in this book including Hawk, Vinnie Morris, Susan Silverman and Pearl, their dog.
Spenser is a fictional private investigator created by the American mystery writer Robert B. Parker. He acts as the protagonist of a series of detective novels written by Parker and later continued by Ace Atkins and Mike Lupica. His first appearance was in the 1973 novel The Godwulf Manuscript. He is also featured in the 1980s television series Spenser: For Hire and a related series of TV movies based on the novels. In March 2020 he was featured in the Netflix thriller film Spenser Confidential.
Robert Brown Parker was an American writer, primarily of fiction within the mystery/detective genre. His most famous works were the 40 novels written about the fictional private detective Spenser. ABC television network developed the television series Spenser: For Hire based on the character in the mid-1980s; a series of TV movies was also produced based on the character. His works incorporate encyclopedic knowledge of the Boston metropolitan area. The Spenser novels have been cited as reviving and changing the detective genre by critics and bestselling authors including Robert Crais, Harlan Coben, and Dennis Lehane.
The Lady in the Lake is a 1943 detective novel by Raymond Chandler featuring the Los Angeles private investigator Philip Marlowe. Notable for its removal of Marlowe from his usual Los Angeles environs for much of the book, the novel's complicated plot initially deals with the case of a missing woman in a small mountain town some 80 miles (130 km) from the city. The book was written shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor and makes several references to America's recent involvement in World War II.
Dead Man's Folly is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in October 1956 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 5 November of the same year. The US edition retailed at $2.95 and the UK edition at twelve shillings and sixpence (12/6). It features Hercule Poirot and Ariadne Oliver.
Paper Doll is the 20th Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker. The story follows the Boston-based PI Spenser as he tries to solve the apparently random killing of the well-regarded wife of a local businessman.
The Godwulf Manuscript is the debut crime novel by American writer Robert B. Parker.
God Save The Child is the second book in Robert B. Parker's Spenser series and first published in 1974. In this tale, Spenser is hired to find Kevin Bartlett, a missing 15-year-old boy, by the child's parents. This novel introduces the detective's longtime love interest, Susan Silverman, and his friend Lieutenant Healy.
Cool and Lam is a fictional American private detective firm that is the center of a series of thirty detective novels written by Erle Stanley Gardner using the pen name of A. A. Fair.
School Days (2005) is a work of detective fiction by American author Robert B. Parker, the 33rd in his acclaimed Spenser series.
Potshot is the 28th Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker. The story follows the fictional Boston-based PI Spenser as he tries to identify the killer of a widow's husband. As is often the case, Spenser's probing uncovers much more than just a simple—or single—murder.
Widow's Walk (2002) is a detective novel by American crime writer Robert B. Parker, the 29th in his Spenser series.
The Judas Goat is the fifth Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker, first published in 1978.
Chasing the Bear: A Young Spenser Novel is a 2009 novel by Robert B. Parker. Though set in present day, it is a prequel to Parker's venerable Spenser series of novels. Unlike the rest of the Spenser series, Chasing the Bear is a young adult novel and not strictly detective fiction.
A Catskill Eagle is the 12th Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker, first published in 1985. The title comes from a quote from Herman Melville.
Death in Paradise is a crime novel by Robert B. Parker, the third in his Jesse Stone series. It was made into a film in 2006.
Back Story is a crime novel by Robert B. Parker, the 30th novel in his Spenser series. In the novel, private investigator Spenser takes on a 28-year-old cold case murder, but gets pressured by FBI agents and a mobster to drop his investigation, which only increases his curiosity.
The Widening Gyre is a 1983 novel by Robert B. Parker, featuring his private detective character Spenser. The title comes from the first line of W. B. Yeats poem "The Second Coming".
Cormoran Strike is a series of crime fiction novels written by British author J. K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The story chronicles the cases of the fictional British private detective Cormoran Strike and his partner Robin Ellacott. Seven novels have so far been published in a planned series of ten. The seventh novel, titled The Running Grave, was released on 26 September 2023. As of February 2024, the series has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and was published in more than 50 countries, being translated into 43 languages.
A Savage Place is a detective fiction novel by American writer Robert B. Parker, the 8th book in the Spenser series.
Spenser Confidential is a 2020 American action comedy film directed by Peter Berg, with a screenplay written by Sean O'Keefe and Brian Helgeland, and based on characters created by Robert B. Parker. The film stars Mark Wahlberg, Winston Duke, Alan Arkin, Iliza Shlesinger, Bokeem Woodbine, Donald Cerrone, Marc Maron, and Austin Post in his first film appearance, and marks the fifth collaboration between Wahlberg and Berg after Lone Survivor, Deepwater Horizon, Patriots Day, and Mile 22.
