Spenser novels
“The toughest, funniest, wisest, private eye in the field these days.”—Houston Chronicle
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...
Appie 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...
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...
Cape Cod businessman Harvey Shepard is in over his head. He lost a quarter million on a shady real estate deal, the loan shark is circling, and now he needs a private investigator to find out where his wife, Pam, disappeared to. Spencer takes the case, but finding...
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...
Rachel Wallace is a tough young woman with a lot of enemies.
Spenser is a tough guy with a macho code of honor, hired to protect a woman who thinks that kind of code is obsolete. Privately, they will never see eye to eye.
But when Rachel vanishes. Spenser is ready to lay his life on the line—to find Rachel Wallace.
“A...
7) Early autumn
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...
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...
9) Ceremony
Praise for Ceremony
“Sizzling.”—The...
11) Valediction
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.
12) A Catskill eagle
Praise for Taming a Seahorse
“Irresistible!”—The Bergen Record
“A...
15) Crimson Joy
In the city of the Red Sox and the Red Line someone is leaving roses—red ones, of course—on the bodies of women he kills. For a psychologist named Susan Silverman and a P.I. named Spenser, the case is personal. But Spenser knows it's the wrong man. Because the right one has come calling on Susan—with a red rose in hand.
“A...
16) Playmates
17) Stardust
First, there’s Jill herself. She’s spoiled, arrogant, drugged out—and 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...
18) Pastime
Ten years ago, Paul Giacomin's corrupt father and loose mother used the boys as a pawn in their violent race: only Spenser could call them off and straighten out the misled teen-almost getting killed in the process. Paul is now twenty-four and reconciled to his mother's wanton ways. But when Patty Giacomin vanishes, Paul begs Spenser to help him rescue her from the clutches of her boyfriend, a shady character he's sure coerced his mother into running.
...19) Double deuce
20) Paper doll
21) Walking shadow
"Fast moving and witty... one of his best." Spenser is investigating the Port City Theater Company, where the director claims he is being stalked. When an actor is shot dead during a performance, all clues lead to the local Chinese Mafia whose roots run deep in this drab waterfront city. With Hawk and ex mobster Vinnie assisting, Spenser eventually triumphs in one of his most compelling adventures.
22) Thin air
When the bride of a Boston police detective vanishes, he hires Spenser to find her. His path leads from a New England college campus to glamorous L.A. Sports clubs. When the trail turns to a world of prostitution, drug abuse, and self-destruction, Spenser must enter ghetto tenements to continue his search. Ultimately, Spenser must hire a Chicago hitman to help him free the girl from a sociopathic ex lover. Working through gang leaders and corrupt
...23) Chance
24) Small vices
The bad kid from the 'hood has a long, long record, but did he really murder the white coed from ritzy Pemberton College? His former lawyers believe that he was framed, and they hire Spenser and Hawk to uncover the truth. Plumbing the depths of the seamy side of life, they encounter a no man's land of twisted cops and spoiled rich kids with peculiar private proclivities. When a master assassin's bullet takes Spenser down, he survives the attack
...25) Sudden mischief
26) Hush Money
When Robin Nevins, the son of Hawk's boyhood mentor, is denied at the University, Hawk asks Spenser to investigate. It appears the denial is tied to the suicide of a young gay activist, 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
...27) Hugger mugger
28) Potshot
29) Widow's walk
Read by
Boston's premier P.I investigates the murder of a prominent local banker, with family ties to the Mayflower - and perhaps the mob.
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...
30) Back Story
31) Bad business
32) Cold Service
Spenser quickly learns...