An extended period of rainfall allowed me to read several books that I did not want to place in their regular place in the blog.
So, you can read reviews of these books above.
Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone returns in a brilliant new addition to the New York Times-bestselling series.
Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone returns in a brilliant new addition to the New York Times-bestselling series.
Paradise, Massachusetts, is preparing for the summer tourist season when a string of car thefts disturbs what is usually a quiet time in town. In a sudden escalation of violence, the thefts become murder, and chief of police Jesse Stone finds himself facing one of the toughest cases of his career.
Pressure from the town politicians only increases when another crime wave puts residents on edge. Jesse confronts a personal dilemma as well: a burgeoning relationship with a young PR executive, whose plans to turn Paradise into a summertime concert destination may have her running afoul of the law.
"Blue-eyed Devil"
Law enforcement in Appaloosa had once been Virgil Cole and me. Now there was a chief of police and twelve policemen. Our third day back in town, the chief invited us to the office for a talk.
The new chief is Amos Callico: a tall, fat man in a derby hat, wearing a star on his vest and a big pearl-handled Colt inside his coat. An ambitious man with his eye on the governorship—and perhaps the presidency—he wants Cole and Hitch on his side. But they can't be bought, which upsets him mightily.
When Callico begins shaking down local merchants for protection money, those who don't want to play along seek the help of Cole and Hitch. But the guns for hire are thorns in the side of the power-hungry chief.
When they are forced to fire on the trigger-happy son of a politically connected landowner, Callico sees his dream begin to crumble. There will be a showdown—but who'll be left standing?
"Split Image"
The body in the trunk was just the beginning.
Turns out the stiff was a foot soldier for local tough guy Reggie Galen, now enjoying a comfortable "retirement" with his beautiful wife, Rebecca, in the nicest part of Paradise.
Living next door are Knocko Moynihan and his wife, Robbie, who also happens to be Rebecca's twin. But what initially appears to be a low-level mob hit takes on new meaning when a high-ranking crime figure is found dead on Paradise Beach.
Stressed by the case, his failed relationship with his ex-wife, and his ongoing battle with the bottle, Jesse needs something to keep him from spinning out of control. When private investigator Sunny Randall comes into town on a case, she asks for Jesse's help.
As their professional and personal relationships become intertwined, both Jesse and Sunny realize that they have much in common with both their victims and their suspects—and with each other.
.
"The Professional"
Boston P.I. Spenser returns in a flawless addition to New York Times-bestselling author Robert B. Parker's flagship series.
A knock on Spenser's office door can only mean one thing: a new case. This time the visitor is a local lawyer with an interesting story.
Elizabeth Shaw specializes in wills and trusts at the Boston law firm of Shaw & Cartwright, and over the years she's developed a friendship with wives of very wealthy men.
 |
| Spenser liked Anita O'Day. |
As matters become more complicated, Spenser's longtime love, Susan, begins offering some input by analyzing Eisenhower's behavior patterns in hopes of opening up a new avenue of investigation. It seems that not all of Gary's women are rich.
So if he's not using them for blackmail, then what is his purpose? Spenser switches tactics to focus on the husbands, only to find that innocence and guilt may be two sides of the same coin.
"Bad Business"
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.
"Back Story"
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.
"Hundred-dollar baby"
A cheating husband and a wayward wife provide Spenser with an unconventional and dangerous surveillance job.
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.
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.
With razor-sharp characterizations and finely honed prose, this is Parker writing at the height of his powers.
"Back Story"
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.
 |
| The Agawam Diner, where Spenser and brother Paul met for breakfast. |
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.
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.
Taut, tense, and expertly crafted, this is Robert B. Parker at his storytelling best.
"High Profile"
The murder of a notorious public figure places Paradise, Mass in the media spotlight.
When the body of controversial talk-show host Walton Weeks is discovered hanging from a tree on the outskirts of Paradise, police chief Jesse Stone finds himself at the center of a highly public case, forcing him to deal with small-minded local officials and national media scrutiny. When another dead body—that of a young woman—is discovered just a few days later, the pressure becomes almost unbearable.
Two victims in less than a week should provide a host of clues, but all Jesse runs into are dead ends.
But what may be the most disturbing aspect of these murders is the fact that no one seems to care—not a single one of Weeks's ex-wives, not the family of the girl. And when the medical examiner reveals a heartbreaking link between the two departed souls, the mystery only deepens.
Despite Weeks's reputation and the girl's tender age, Jesse is hard-pressed to find legitimate suspects. Though the crimes are perhaps the most gruesome Jesse has ever witnessed, it is the malevolence behind them that makes them all the more frightening. Forced to delve into a world of stormy relationships, Jesse soon comes to realize that knowing whom he can trust is indeed a matter of life and death.
"Cold Service"
"Cold Service"
When Spenser's 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.
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.
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.
A client from a decades-old case reaches out to Boston PI Spenser-but can he rescue troubled April Kyle once more?
Longtime Spenser fans will remember that once upon a time, though not so long ago, there was a girl named April Kyle-a beautiful teenage runaway who turned to prostitution to escape her terrible family life. The book was 1982's Ceremony, and, thanks to Spenser, April escaped Boston's "Combat Zone" for the relative safety of a high-class New York City bordello.
April resurfaced in Taming a Sea-Horse, again in dire need of Spenser's rescue-this time from the clutches of a controlling lover. But April Kyle's return in Hundred-Dollar Baby is nothing short of shocking. When a mature, beautiful, and composed April strides into Spenser's office, the Boston PI barely hesitates before recognizing his once and future client.
Now a well-established madam herself, April oversees an upscale call-girl operation in Boston's Back Bay. Still looking for Spenser's approval, it takes her a moment before she can ask him, again, for his assistance. Her business is a success; what's more, it's an all-female enterprise. Now that some men are trying to take it away from her, she needs Spenser.
April claims to be in the dark about who it is that's trying to shake her down, but with a bit of legwork and a bit more muscle, Spenser and Hawk find ties to organized crime and local kingpin Tony Marcus, as well as a scheme to franchise the operation across the country.
As Spenser again plays the gallant knight, it becomes clear that April's not as innocent as she seems. In fact, she may be her own worst enemy.
"Now and then"
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.
"School Days"
When fifty-one-year-old Nathan Smith, a once-confirmed bachelor, is found 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.
The celebrated series continues as a troubled teenager accused of a horrific crime draws Spenser into one of the most desperate cases of his career.
Lily Ellsworth—erect, firm, white-haired, and stylish—is the grand 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 the boy himself doesn't seem to care whether he goes to prison for a crime he might not have committed.
"Widow's Walk"
 |
|
Spenser's favorite artists
|
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 the other 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 a 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.
With lean, crackling dialogue, crisp action, and razor-sharp characters, "Widow's Walk" is another triumph.
If you can set aside your insistence on logic, you'll find POTSHOT an exciting story with Parker's well known dialogue, enough tough-guy testosterone to keep you revved up for days, and an increasingly mature relationship between Susan and Spenser to provide a safe anchor as a counterpoint to Spenser's danger-filled occupation.
"Pot Shot"
A beautiful widow asks Boston private investigator Spenser to discover who killed her husband and bring them to justice. When he arrives in Potshot, Arizona, Spenser discovers a rough mob, led by the preacher holding the town hostage, demanding payoff from the businesses, and generally depressing real estate values. If he'll clean up the town, the city fathers offer him a major payoff.
The first question to ask whenever a new Spenser novel hits the shelves is whether the old Spenser of "The Promised Land" or other early mysteries is back. With "Potshot", we can answer with a nearly emphatic yes. In this novel, author Robert B. Parker avoids the unfortunate obsession with Susan Silverman (Spenser's relationship seems to have settled down to a comfortable but sexy one), overuse of Hawk (although he is definitely there), and excessive moral ambiguity (Spenser is definitely the hero of "Potshot" as well as the protagonist).
 |
| Buckhead in Atlanta |
With Parker's snappy dialogue and action-filled pacing, I didn't want to stop reading.
A major flaw in the story logic is the only thing that keeps me from giving "Potshot" a full four star rating. Parker never really addresses the question of why Mary Lou came to Spenser in the first place. This question is asked several times in the novel and becomes a major plot point. Still, not only does "Potshot" not provide an explicit answer, it is difficult to imagine any convincing explanation.
A major flaw in the story logic is the only thing that keeps me from giving "Potshot" a full four star rating. Parker never really addresses the question of why Mary Lou came to Spenser in the first place. This question is asked several times in the novel and becomes a major plot point. Still, not only does "Potshot" not provide an explicit answer, it is difficult to imagine any convincing explanation.
If you can set aside your insistence on logic, you'll find POTSHOT an exciting story with Parker's well known dialogue, enough tough-guy testosterone to keep you revved up for days, and an increasingly mature relationship between Susan and Spenser to provide a safe anchor as a counterpoint to Spenser's danger-filled occupation.
"Chance"
Once again, Robert B. Parker makes artfulness look easy, with "Chance." 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 wise guys 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.
"Melancholy Baby"
When Sunny Randall helps a young woman locate her birth parents, she uncovers the dark truth about her own past.
Reviews
"Excellent...Sunny's own regulars hold their own in the tale. There's little here that Parker hasn't done before, but he does it so well here, with his impeccable prose and charismatic heroine, that fans will tremble with delight."
—Publishers Weekly
—Publishers Weekly
"Parker can spin a tale with the best of them—most of the time, he is the best of them—...he riffs smoothly off Sunny's blue mood."
—The New York Times Book Review
—The New York Times Book Review
"A Boston private eye who is both tough and literate and very, very witty and who has both a female shrink and a really mean muscle guy in the background—if this were a parlor game, the answer would instantly appear to be "Spenser."...a fun series...Parker's gift for plot construction quickly comes to the fore, delivering a tantalizing mix of standard mystery fare (threats, murders, suspense) and some intriguing shards from the characters' pasts...teasing...riveting."
—Booklist
—Booklist
"In his fourth Sunny Randall novel, Grand Master Parker, as always, leavens his story with sly wit while relying on dialog to advance the plot and develop character."
—Library Journal
—Library Journal
"Melancholy Baby is Robert B. Parker's fourth Sunny Randall novel, and like Sunny, it's a peach. In his Spenser novels and elsewhere, Parker has always been good with troubled-family dynamics—he's a kind of Ross McDonald with humor and wit—and especially with lost, bratty kids who seem hopeless but aren't...Randall herself is full of surprises."
—The Washington Post Book World
"Hush Money"
—Atlanta Journal Constitution
"Appaloosa"
"A Catskill Eagle"
“Blue Screen”
Sunny Randall, the Boston P.I. with a personal life as tangled as that of her clients, is hired on as a bodyguard to an up-and-coming starlet, and discovers some ugly truths behind her glossy façade.
Buddy Bollen is a C-list movie mogul who made his fortune producing films of questionable artistic merit. When Buddy hires Sunny Randall to protect his rising star and girlfriend, Erin Flint, Sunny knows from the start that the prickly, spoiled beauty won't make her job easy. And when Erin's sister, Misty, is found dead in the lavish home they share with sugar daddy Bollen, there doesn't seem to be a single lead worth pursuing.
But then Sunny meets Jesse Stone, chief of police in Paradise, Massachusetts, under whose jurisdiction the case falls.
Tracking Misty's murderer reveals a host of seedy complications behind Erin's glamorous lifestyle as well as Buddy Bollen's entertainment empire, made up of shady film deals and mobsters out for revenge. But in a world where there's little difference between the good guys and the bad, exposing the killer could prove to be Sunny's undoing.
—The Washington Post Book World
Spenser has his hands full when he takes on two cases at once. In the first, a high-minded university might be hiding a killer within a swamp of political correctness. And in the other, Spenser comes to the aid of a stalking victim, only to find himself the unwilling object of the woman's dangerous affection.
Reviews
"The shamus and his sidekick still crack wise, Spenser's code of honor remains untarnished, and he and Susan maintain a lusty relationship. Plus, Parker still excels in creating timely situations...Parker writes well about the complexity of relationships, his portrayal of academic bureaucracy is on target, and he struggles—against a macho tradition—to convey gender, sexual identity and race issues with sensitivity."
—Atlanta Journal Constitution
"Parker's Spenser mysteries are so dialogue-driven that you don't realize how well-crafted the plot is until you finish the book, and this is no exception. Hush Money is so much fun primarily because of the repartee between Spenser and everyone he encounters."
—San Francisco Examiner
—San Francisco Examiner
"With the release of each new Spenser novel, critics and fans regularly gather like friends at a funeral...an intelligent, entertaining series...Though Mr. Parker has ushered in the age of a mellower, more introspective Spenser (less slam-bang violence, fewer one-liners), there is a subtle joy inherent in watching beloved characters grow old with the rest of us."
—The Dallas Morning News
"Hugger Mugger"
Someone's making death threats in Dixie—against a thoroughbred horse destined to be the next Secretariat. At the owner's request, Boston P.I. Spenser hoofs it down South—where the lies are buzzing...and the dying is easy.
Reviews
"A murderous brew that will have readers' hearts racing like those of horses on the fast track."
—Forbes
—Forbes
"Parker is a pro at entertaining us, with a light touch. Spenser's trademark self-deprecating wit and middle-aged male-fantasy lifestyle are in top form in a novel that races along the edges of the horse world...Hugger Mugger is dandy entertainment."
—Denver Rocky Mountain News
—Denver Rocky Mountain News
"The snappy back-and-forth dialogue and rimshot wisecracks are here in abundance."
—Chicago Tribune
—Chicago Tribune
"Hugger Mugger finishes strong and puts Parker in the winner's circle again."
—Associated Press
"Spare Change"
Boston P.I. Sunny Randall joins forces with the most important man in her life—her father—to crack a thirty-year-old case.
Hi Phil,
You miss me? I got bored, so I thought I'd re-establish our relationship. Give us both something to do in our later years. Stay tuned.
Spare Change
You miss me? I got bored, so I thought I'd re-establish our relationship. Give us both something to do in our later years. Stay tuned.
Spare Change
 |
| Charles Hotel in Cambridge |
When a serial murderer dubbed "The Spare Change Killer" by the Boston press surfaces after three decades in hiding, the police immediately seek out the cop, now retired, who headed the original task force: Phil Randall. As a sharp-eyed investigator and a doting parent ("You're smart. You're tough. You, too, are a paradigm of law enforcement perfection, and you're my kid"), Phil calls on his daughter, Sunny, to help trap the criminal who eluded him so many years before.
Sunny is certain that she's found her man after interviewing just a handful of suspects. Though she has no evidence against Bob Johnson, she trusts her intuition. And she knows the power she has over him—she can feel the skittishness and sexual tension that he radiates when he's around her—but persuading her father and the rest of the task force is a different story.
When the killer strikes a second and third time, the murders take a macabre turn, as the victims each eerily resemble Sunny. While her father pressures her to drop the case, Sunny's need to create a trap to catch her killer grows.
In a compelling game of cat-and-mouse, Sunny uses all her skills to draw out her prey, realizing too late that she's setting herself up to become the next victim.
A richly imagined novel of the Old West, as spare and vivid as a high plains sunset, from one of the world's most talented performers.
It was a long time ago, now, and there were many gunfights to follow, but I remember as well as I remember anything the first time I saw Virgil Cole shoot. Time slowed down for him. Always steady, and never fast...
When it comes to writing, Robert B. Parker knows no boundaries. From the iconic Spenser detective series and the novels featuring Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone, to the groundbreaking historical novel Double Play, Parker's imagination has taken readers from Boston to Brooklyn and back again. In Appaloosa, fans are taken on another trip, to the untamed territories of the West during the 1800s.
When Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch arrive in Appaloosa, they find a small, dusty town suffering at the hands of renegade rancher Randall Bragg, a man who has so little regard for the law that he has taken supplies, horses, and women for his own and left the city marshal and one of his deputies for dead. Cole and Hitch, itinerant lawmen, are used to cleaning up after opportunistic thieves, but in Bragg they find an unusually wily adversary—one who raises the stakes by playing not with the rules, but with emotions.
This is Robert B. Parker at his storytelling best.
"Sixkill"
On location in Boston, bad-boy actor Jumbo Nelson is accused of the rape and murder of a young woman. From the start the case seems fishy, so the Boston PD calls on Spenser to investigate.
The situation doesn't look good for Jumbo, whose appetites for food, booze, and sex are as outsized as his name. He was the studio's biggest star, but he's become their biggest liability.
In the course of the investigation, Spenser encounters Jumbo's bodyguard: a young, former football-playing Native American named Zebulon Sixkill.
Sixkill acts tough, but Spenser sees something more within the young man. Despite the odd circumstances, the two forge an unlikely alliance, with Spenser serving as mentor for Sixkill.
As the case grows darker and secrets about both Jumbo and the dead girl come to light, it's Spenser-with Sixkill at his side-who must put things right.
"Gunman's Rhapsody"
A novel of the Old West, imagined as only Robert B. Parker can.
"He already had a history by the time he first saw her...he was already a figure of the dime novels, and he already half-believed in the myth of the gunman that he was creating, even as it created him."
Robert B. Parker, the undisputed dean of American crime fiction, has long been credited with single-handedly resuscitating the private-eye genre. As the creator of the Spenser, Jesse Stone, and Sunny Randall series, he has proven, again and again, that he is "Boston's peerless man of mystery" (Entertainment Weekly). Now he gives his fans the book he always longed to write-a brilliant and evocative novel set against the hardscrabble frontier life of the West, featuring Wyatt Earp.
It is the winter of 1879, and Dodge City has lost its snap. Thirty-one-year-old Wyatt Earp, assistant city marshal, loads his wife and all they own into a wagon, and goes with two of his brothers and their women to Tombstone, Arizona, land of the silver mines. There Earp becomes deputy sheriff, meeting up with the likes of Doc Holliday, Clay Allison, and Bat Masterson and encountering the love of his life, showgirl Josie Marcus. While navigating the constantly shifting alliances of a largely lawless territory, Earp finds himself embroiled in a simmering feud with Johnny Behan, which ultimately erupts in a deadly gunbattle on a dusty street.
Here is the master's take on the hallowed Western, as expertly crafted as the Spenser novels, and with the full weight of American history behind it.
"Family Honor"
"Robert B. Parker has always been a master of razor-sharp and witty dialogue, hard-driving suspense and memorable characterization," says the Houston Chronicle. With both the classic Spenser series and the more recent Jesse Stone novels, Parker's spare prose and tight storytelling have earned him critical praise and popular success in equal measure. In Family Honor, he creates an entirely new character—young, smart, and, for the first time, female.
Her name is Sunny Randall, a Boston P.I. and former cop, a college graduate, an aspiring painter, a divorcee, and the owner of a miniature bullterrier named Rosie. Hired by a wealthy family to locate their teenage daughter, Sunny is tested by the parents' preconceived notion of what a detective should be. With the help of underworld contacts she tracks down the runaway Millicent, who has turned to prostitution, rescues her from her pimp, and finds herself, at thirty-four, the unlikely custodian of a difficult teenager when the girl refuses to return to her family.
But Millicent's problems are rooted in much larger crimes than running away, and Sunny, now playing the role of bodyguard, is caught in a shooting war with some very serious mobsters. She turns for help to her ex-husband, Richie, himself the son of a mob family, and to her dearest friend, Spike, a flamboyant and dangerous gay man. Heading this unlikely alliance, Sunny must solve at least one murder, resolve a criminal conspiracy that reaches to the top of state government, and bring Millicent back into functional young womanhood.
"A Catskill Eagle"
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.
Reviews
"If you like tight writing, no wasted words and interesting characters, Parker will be your cup of tea."
"Fool Me Twice"
By Michael Brandman
Summer in Paradise, Massachusetts, is usually an idyllic season—but not this time. A Hollywood movie company has come to town, and brought with it a huge cast, crew, and a troubled star.
Marisol Hinton is very beautiful, reasonably talented, and scared out of her wits that her estranged husband's jealousy might take a dangerous turn. When she becomes the subject of a death threat, Jesse and the rest of the Paradise police department go on high alert.
And when Jesse witnesses a horrifying collision caused by a distracted teenage driver, the political repercussions of her arrest bring him into conflict with the local selectment, the DA, and some people with very deep pockets.
There's murder in the air, and it's Jesse's reputation as an uncompromising defender of the law—and his life—on the line.
—USA Today
"Love and Glory"
Boone Adams met Jennifer Grayle when they were both 18 and lost her when they were both 22. His life from that point was a steady descent through the circles of American culture until he hit bottom in Los Angeles 10 years later.
Now he has nothing left but his love for Jennifer, a love that has remained unsullied and still, the eye at the center of his hurricane, his only stay against confusion. It saves him. Slowly, with agonizing effort, he comes back – across the country, across the years, across the despair that nearly destroyed him, sustained only by his determination to get Jennifer back.
"Love & Glory" is a story of love and commitment and regeneration, told in the language of our time and set among the artifacts of recent American culture. In prose that often soars, "Love & Glory" speaks not only of desolation but of possibility. It speaks not only of Boone and Jennifer but of America, and it hints, obliquely, that perhaps we are not merely “boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
At its heart, "Love & Glory" is a male romance – it would be despised, however, by most male readers who are hooked into the Texas Chainsaw Massacres that pass as male oriented fiction today. It is an old fashioned book, about old fashioned values. It is a book for romantics not thrill seekers.
Boone Adams met Jennifer Grayle when they were both 18 and lost her when they were both 22. His life from that point was a steady descent through the circles of American culture until he hit bottom in Los Angeles 10 years later.
Now he has nothing left but his love for Jennifer, a love that has remained unsullied and still, the eye at the center of his hurricane, his only stay against confusion. It saves him. Slowly, with agonizing effort, he comes back – across the country, across the years, across the despair that nearly destroyed him, sustained only by his determination to get Jennifer back.
"Love & Glory" is a story of love and commitment and regeneration, told in the language of our time and set among the artifacts of recent American culture. In prose that often soars, "Love & Glory" speaks not only of desolation but of possibility. It speaks not only of Boone and Jennifer but of America, and it hints, obliquely, that perhaps we are not merely “boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
At its heart, "Love & Glory" is a male romance – it would be despised, however, by most male readers who are hooked into the Texas Chainsaw Massacres that pass as male oriented fiction today. It is an old fashioned book, about old fashioned values. It is a book for romantics not thrill seekers.
"Double Play"
Robert B. Parker fans have been quick to embrace each addition to his remarkable canon, from the legendary Spenser series to the novels featuring Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall. And his occasional forays into the past "Gunman's Rhapsody," a fresh take on Wyatt Earp, and "Poodle Springs," based on a Raymond Chandler story -- have dazzled critics and confirmed his place among the greatest writers of this century. With "Double Play," he presents us with a book he was literally born to write.
It is 1947, the year Jackie Robinson breaks major-league baseball's color barrier by playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers -- and changes the world. This is the story of that season, as told through the eyes of a difficult, brooding, and wounded man named Joseph Burke.
Burke, a veteran of World War II and a survivor of Guadalcanal, is hired by Brooklyn Dodgers manager Branch Rickey to guard Robinson. While Burke shadows Robinson, a man of tremendous strength and character suddenly thrust into the media spotlight, the bodyguard must also face some hard truths of his own, in a world where the wrong associations can prove fatal.
A brilliant novel about a very real man, "Double Play" is a triumph: ingeniously crafted, rich with period detail, and re-sounding with the themes familiar to Parker's readers-honor, duty, responsibility and redemption.
Buddy Bollen is a C-list movie mogul who made his fortune producing films of questionable artistic merit. When Buddy hires Sunny Randall to protect his rising star and girlfriend, Erin Flint, Sunny knows from the start that the prickly, spoiled beauty won't make her job easy. And when Erin's sister, Misty, is found dead in the lavish home they share with sugar daddy Bollen, there doesn't seem to be a single lead worth pursuing.
But then Sunny meets Jesse Stone, chief of police in Paradise, Massachusetts, under whose jurisdiction the case falls.
Tracking Misty's murderer reveals a host of seedy complications behind Erin's glamorous lifestyle as well as Buddy Bollen's entertainment empire, made up of shady film deals and mobsters out for revenge. But in a world where there's little difference between the good guys and the bad, exposing the killer could prove to be Sunny's undoing.
