Small vices : a Spenser novel

Detective and mystery stories. Ellis Alves is no angel. His lawyer says he was framed for the murder of college student Melissa Henderson and asks Spenser for help. From Boston's back streets to Manhattan's elite, Spenser and Hawk search for suspects, including Melissa's rich kid tennis-star boyfriend. But when a man with a .22 puts Spenser in a coma, the hope for justice might just die along with the detective.

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 but remains dead to the world, plotting to pay back his shooter while recovering his strength in secret. From the back streets of Boston to Manhattan's most elegant thoroughfares, Small Vices delivers both galvanizing action, suspense and a complex meditation on morality and mortality in the blend that legions of Spenser fans recognize and appreciate.

Publishers Weekly

Spenser returns in top form (his 24th adventure, following Chance) to clear a man wrongly imprisoned for murdering a woman college student. Ellis Alves, a black man with sexual assaults on his record, was convicted easily when two witnesses said they saw him kidnap the victim. Former prosecutor Rita Fiore suspects a frame-up, however, and hires old pal Spenser to investigate. "You gonna get buried," Alves warns Spenser and his sidekick Hawk. Sure enough, reopening the case pits them against the victim's influential parents, her hostile tennis-star boyfriend and his wealthy family, and the state cop who arrested Alves. Four Boston thugs can't force Spenser off the case, but an imported hit man pours several bullets into him. Barely surviving, Spenser emerges from a coma with his gun hand useless. Parker writes a powerful, affecting description of Spenser's painful rehab. The sharp, densely compacted dialogue, a hallmark of this series, exceeds itself here. Even psychologist Susan Silverman's discourse, as she shrink-raps on Spenser's motivation, has a lower than usual pretense quotient. Susan wants to adopt a child with Spenser, but he is determined to risk another clash with the hit man. Spenser, still thoroughly convincing as the tough and decent PI, seeks bits of justice where he can. Even after 23 years on the job (The Godwulf Manuscript, Spenser's first appearance, was published in 1974), nobody does it better. BOMC selection (Apr.)

Ellis Alves is a bad kid from the'hood with a long record, but did he really murder Melissa Henderson, a white student from ritzy Pemberton College? Alves's former lawyers think he was framed, and they hire Spenser to uncover the truth. From Boston's back streets to Manhattan's elite, Spenser and Hawk search for suspects, including Melissa's rich kid tennis-star boyfriend. But when a man with a.22 puts Spenser in a coma, the hope for justice might just die along with the detective... Ellis Alves is no angel. But his lawyer says he was framed for the murder of college student Melissa Henderson...and asks Spenser for help. From Boston's back streets to Manhattan's elite, Spenser and Hawk search for suspects, including Melissa's rich-kid, tennis-star boyfriend. But when a man with a .22 puts Spenser in a coma, the hope for justice may die with him... A well-to-do honor student is murdered and police arrest a black man who has a long criminal record including sexual assault. The prosecution has no problem obtaining a conviction, even though she believes the man is not guilty. Spenser and Hawk must find the guilty party at great personal risk. In Boston, a girl student is murdered and police arrest a black man who has a history of sexual assault. The prosecution has no problem obtaining a conviction, even though the man is not guilty. PI Spenser is hired to find the man who is With 'Small Vices', Parker adds another masterpiece to the private-eye canon, a novel that is both galvanizing action-suspense and a complex meditation on morality and mortality, as Spenser's very future hangs in the balance. While probing the murder of coed Melissa Henderson, a crime in which Ellis Alves is the prime suspect, Spenser finds himself the target of an assassin and must play dead to find out who wants him off the case THE LAST TIME I SAW Rita Fiore she'd been an assistant DA with red hair, first-rate hips, and more attitude than an armadillo.