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 First edition | |
| Author | Robert B. Parker |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Paul Bacon |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Spenser |
| Genre | Detective novel |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin |
Publication date | 1973 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 186 pp |
| ISBN | 0-395-18011-2 |
| Followed by | God Save the Child |
The Godwulf Manuscript is the debut crime novel by American writer Robert B. Parker.
Set in the early 1970s, this novel serves as the introduction to Spenser, a private investigator in Boston. Spenser, who served as an infantryman in the 1st Infantry Division during the Korean War [1] and as a former State trooper, is hired by Bradford W. Forbes, the president of an unnamed university (heavily implied to be Northeastern, the university at which Parker himself taught at the time) to recover a stolen illuminated manuscript, a medieval book of great historical and literary importance. It's being held for ransom by an unknown perpetrator who demands $100,000 be donated to a free school for the manuscript's return. It has no inherent monetary value since it cannot be fenced, and the university — a poor, inner-city school (much as Northeastern was at the time) — cannot afford the ransom.
Head of campus security Carl Tower recommends investigating a radical student group called 'SCACE' (Student Committee Against Capitalist Exploitation) and their secretary, Terry Orchard. After talking to Terry and her boyfriend Dennis Powell, Spenser gets into a minor altercation with Powell. Later that night, Spenser receives a call from Terry requesting help. Spenser arrives at her apartment to find Dennis murdered, the killer having used Terry's gun, and Terry had been overdosed on an unknown drug. He determines that the murder is an attempt to frame Terry and from that point on he is determined to clear her name, believing the missing manuscript and Dennis's murder are related.
Spenser's investigation leads him to Lowell Hayden, an English professor at the university who is reputedly an anonymous member of SCACE. Spenser asks permission of the English Department head to interview the members of the faculty, but is rebuffed. Ignoring the department head's warning, Spenser sneaks up to Hayden's office and interviews him anyway. Hayden denies knowing either Dennis Powell or Terry Orchard, although Spenser believes Hayden does in fact know them. Spenser leaves the English Department offices and is met by campus security: he has been summarily 'fired' from his job of looking for the manuscript.
Spenser is escorted by two of Broz's men, Phil (a top hand) and a low-level thug, to meet Joe Broz, a local crime lord, shortly after talking to Hayden. Broz warns Spenser to stop his investigation and hints that the manuscript will be returned if he does. The very next day the manuscript is anonymously returned to the university, just as Broz said it would be. Spenser gets no credit for its return.
Undeterred by this series of events, Spenser continues his investigation to prove Terry's innocence in the murder of Powell and tie it to the theft of the manuscript. Captain Yates has taken over the police investigation and is determined to railroad Terry Orchard into prison for Powell's death.
Spenser tries to contact Cathy Connelly, Terry Orchard's former roommate and the only other person who knew Terry owned a gun. Connelly doesn't answer her door so Spenser breaks in. He finds Connelly's body floating in the bathtub and a wound on the back of her head. Spenser's opinion is that she was murdered and the scene was staged to look like an accident. Boston Police Captain Yates believes the death was accidental but his subordinates, Lieutenant Martin Quirk and Sergeant Frank Belson, believe otherwise. They also no longer believe Terry Orchard murdered Dennis Powell. Spenser begins working unofficially with Quirk and Belson to find the truth behind the two murders. (This is the first of many such collaborations that continue throughout the Spenser series. It is a mutually beneficial relationship: the police are able to use Spenser to gather information that they could not obtain through strictly legal channels and Spenser is able to use police resources to which he would not normally have access.)
Spenser decides to trail Professor Hayden and maybe learn something. He sees two thugs get into Hayden's car at the university and Spenser follows them to Jamaica Pond. By then, it was dark. The two gunmen intended to kill Hayden, but Spenser killed one and took a bullet in his side from the other. After crawling away, he managed to kill the other gunman, but instead of helping Spenser, Hayden ran away.
Spenser was hauled away by an ambulance and as soon as he was able to walk, he left the hospital and went to see Mrs. Hayden. He convinced her to lead him to her husband's hiding place: a hotel downtown. In fact, Spenser had unknowingly led Broz's man Phil to Hayden. Phil intended to kill them all, but Hayden's wife launched herself onto Phil and bit down on his gun hand so that he was unable to shoot anyone but her. While Phil dealt with Mrs. Hayden, Spenser was on his back choking him to death. In the end, Phil and Mrs. Hayden were both dead and Spenser's wound was torn open again.
Spenser threatens Hayden in order to make him tell the truth to Quirk. This ties Joe Broz to Lowell Hayden, leading to Hayden's arrest for Connelly's murder and possibly Broz's arrest. Dennis Powell was in fact dealing heroin on the university campus, heroin supplied by Broz to Hayden, and Hayden to Powell. Hayden believed the heroin would allow people to expand their minds leading to an "open society;" Powell dealt it for the sake of the money to be made from it. Believing Powell had betrayed SCACE, Hayden had Broz put a hit on Powell, orchestrated the framing of Terry Orchard for the crime, and murdered Cathy Connelly himself to cover it up. The manuscript was stolen by Powell at Hayden's request to help fund SCACE's cause. Broz had Hayden return it in the hopes that Spenser would drop the case before discovering the heroin distribution scheme.
(This story also introduces Brenda Loring, a character that is referenced in many of the succeeding Spenser books.)
The two supporting characters most often associated with Spenser, Susan Silverman and Hawk, do not appear and are not mentioned in this novel. Spenser would meet Susan Silverman for the first time in God Save the Child , this book's immediate sequel. Hawk would turn up for the first time in Promised Land , book 4 of the series.
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.
Spenser: For Hire is an American crime drama series based on Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels. The series, developed for TV by John Wilder and starring Robert Urich, was broadcast on ABC from September 20, 1985, until May 7, 1988.
Crimson Joy is the 15th Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker.
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.
Small Vices is the 24th Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker.
Crime of Passion is a 1957 American film noir crime drama directed by Gerd Oswald and written by Jo Eisinger. The cast features Barbara Stanwyck, Sterling Hayden and Raymond Burr.
Hundred-Dollar Baby is the 34th Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker. The story follows Boston-based PI Spenser as he tries to help an old runaway prostitute he helped several years earlier, April Kyle.
Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities, the second series of the Nine Network crime drama series Underbelly, originally aired from 9 February 2009 to 4 May 2009. It is a thirteen-part series loosely based on real events that stemmed from the marijuana trade centred on the New South Wales town of Griffith. The timeline of the series is the years between 1976 and 1987. Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities primarily depicts the Mr. Asia drug syndicate and its influence on crime in Australia. Among the characters presented are real-life criminals Robert Trimbole, Terry Clark, George Freeman, Christopher Dale Flannery, Alphonse Gangitano and the Kane Brothers. The mini-series is a prequel to the 2008 production Underbelly, which was about the Melbourne gangland killings and forms part of the Underbelly series.
Ceremony is the ninth Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker, first published in 1982. It is the first of three Spenser novels involving the character April Kyle, who returns in Taming a Sea-Horse and Hundred-Dollar Baby. Kyle is a 16-year-old girl who has run away from home and, apparently, turned to prostitution.
Looking for Rachel Wallace is the sixth Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker, first published in 1980.
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.
Double Deuce is a 1992 novel by American writer Robert B. Parker, the 19th book featuring the private investigator Spenser. The story follows Boston-based Spenser as he and his friend Hawk butt heads against a street gang while attempting to unravel the murder of a teenage mother and her young daughter.
Pastime is the 18th Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker. The story follows Boston-based PI Spenser as he attempts to find a man's missing mother.
Walking Shadow is the 21st Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker.
Thin Air is the 22nd Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker. The story follows Boston-based PI Spenser as he searches for the wife of his longtime associate, Sgt. Frank Belson of the Boston Police Department.
Joe Mantegna portrayed Robert B. Parker's detective "Spenser" in three TV films on the A&E cable network between 1999 and 2001.
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".
Lullaby is the 41st novel featuring Robert B. Parker's fictional detective Spenser. It is the first official Spenser novel not written by Parker, but by Ace Atkins. Atkins was asked to write the novel after Parker's death in 2010.
Sixkill is the 40th book in Robert B. Parker's Spenser series and first published in 2011. It's the final book in the Spenser series written by Parker, who had died in 2010, before the book's release.