Robert B. Parker Books In Order

Spenser Books In Publication Order

  1. The Godwulf Manuscript (1973)
  2. God Save the Child (1974)
  3. Mortal Stakes (1975)
  4. Promised Land (1976)
  5. The Judas Goat (1978)
  6. Looking for Rachel Wallace (1980)
  7. Early Autumn (1981)
  8. A Savage Place (1981)
  9. Ceremony (1982)
  10. The Widening Gyre (1983)
  11. Valediction (1984)
  12. A Catskill Eagle (1985)
  13. Taming a Sea-Horse (1986)
  14. Pale Kings and Princes (1987)
  15. Crimson Joy (1988)
  16. Playmates (1989)
  17. Stardust (1990)
  18. Pastime (1991)
  19. Double Deuce (1992)
  20. Paper Doll (1993)
  21. Walking Shadow (1994)
  22. Thin Air (1995)
  23. Chance (1996)
  24. Small Vices (1997)
  25. Sudden Mischief (1998)
  26. Hush Money (1999)
  27. Hugger Mugger (2000)
  28. Potshot (2001)
  29. Widow’s Walk (2002)
  30. Back Story (2003)
  31. Bad Business (2004)
  32. Cold Service (2005)
  33. School Days (2005)
  34. Hundred-Dollar Baby / Dream Girl (2006)
  35. Now and Then (2007)
  36. Rough Weather (2008)
  37. The Professional (2009)
  38. Painted Ladies (2010)
  39. Sixkill (2011)
  40. Silent Night (With: Helen Brann) (2011)
  41. Lullaby (By:Ace Atkins) (2012)
  42. Wonderland / Spenser Confidential (By:Ace Atkins) (2013)
  43. Cheap Shot (By:Ace Atkins) (2014)
  44. Kickback (By:Ace Atkins) (2015)
  45. Slow Burn (By:Ace Atkins) (2016)
  46. Little White Lies (By:Ace Atkins) (2017)
  47. Old Black Magic (By:Ace Atkins) (2018)
  48. Angel Eyes (By:Ace Atkins) (2019)
  49. Someone to Watch Over Me (By:Ace Atkins) (2020)
  50. Bye Bye Baby (By:Ace Atkins) (2021)

Jesse Stone Books In Publication Order

  1. Night Passage (1997)
  2. Trouble in Paradise (1998)
  3. Death in Paradise (2001)
  4. Stone Cold (2003)
  5. Sea Change (2005)
  6. High Profile (2007)
  7. Stranger in Paradise (2008)
  8. Night and Day (2009)
  9. Split Image (2010)
  10. Killing The Blues (By:Michael Brandman) (2011)
  11. Fool Me Twice (By:Michael Brandman) (2012)
  12. Damned If You Do (By:Michael Brandman) (2013)
  13. Blind Spot (By:Reed Farrel Coleman) (2014)
  14. The Devil Wins (By:Reed Farrel Coleman) (2015)
  15. Debt to Pay (By:Reed Farrel Coleman) (2016)
  16. The Hangman’s Sonnet (By:Reed Farrel Coleman) (2018)
  17. Colorblind (By:Reed Farrel Coleman) (2018)
  18. The Bitterest Pill (By:Reed Farrel Coleman) (2019)
  19. Fool’s Paradise (By:Mike Lupica) (2020)
  20. Stone’s Throw (By:Mike Lupica) (2021)

Sunny Randall Books In Publication Order

  1. Family Honor (1999)
  2. Perish Twice (2000)
  3. Shrink Rap (2002)
  4. Melancholy Baby (2004)
  5. Blue Screen (2006)
  6. Spare Change (2007)
  7. Blood Feud (By:Mike Lupica) (2018)
  8. Grudge Match (By:Mike Lupica) (2020)
  9. Payback (By:Mike Lupica) (2021)

Virgil Cole & Everett Hitch Books In Publication Order

  1. Appaloosa (2005)
  2. Resolution (2008)
  3. Brimstone (2009)
  4. Blue-Eyed Devil (2010)
  5. Ironhorse (By:Robert Knott) (2013)
  6. Bull River (By:Robert Knott) (2014)
  7. The Bridge (By:Robert Knott) (2014)
  8. Blackjack (By:Robert Knott) (2016)
  9. Revelation (By:Robert Knott) (2017)
  10. Buckskin (By:Robert Knott) (2019)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. Wilderness (1979)
  2. Surrogate (1982)
  3. Love and Glory (1983)
  4. All Our Yesterdays (1994)
  5. Gunman’s Rhapsody (2001)
  6. Double Play (2004)
  7. Edenville Owls (2007)
  8. The Boxer and the Spy (2008)

Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. Training with Weights (With: John R. Marsh) (1974)
  2. Three Weeks In Spring (With: Joan H. Parker) (1978)
  3. A Year at the Races (With: Joan H. Parker) (1991)
  4. Spenser’s Boston (1994)

Philip Marlowe Books In Publication Order

  1. The Big Sleep (By:Raymond Chandler) (1939)
  2. Farewell, My Lovely (By:Raymond Chandler) (1940)
  3. The High Window (By:Raymond Chandler) (1942)
  4. The Lady in the Lake (By:Raymond Chandler) (1943)
  5. The Little Sister (By:Raymond Chandler) (1949)
  6. The Long Goodbye (By:Raymond Chandler) (1953)
  7. Playback (By:Raymond Chandler) (1958)
  8. Poodle Springs (With: Raymond Chandler) (1989)
  9. Perchance to Dream (1991)
  10. The Black-Eyed Blonde (By:Benjamin Black) (2014)
  11. Only to Sleep (By:Lawrence Osborne) (2018)
  12. The Goodbye Coast (By:Joe Ide) (2022)

Young Spenser Books In Publication Order

  1. Chasing the Bear (2009)

Anthologies In Publication Order

  1. The Best American Mystery Stories 1997 (1997)
  2. Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe (2011)
  3. Boston Noir 2 (2012)

Spenser Book Covers

Jesse Stone Book Covers

Sunny Randall Book Covers

Virgil Cole & Everett Hitch Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Non-Fiction Book Covers

Philip Marlowe Book Covers

Young Spenser Book Covers

Anthologies Book Covers

Robert B. Parker Books Overview

The Godwulf Manuscript

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 student with four bullets in his chest. The cops are ready to throw the book at the pretty blond coed whose prints are all over the murder weapon but Spenser knows there are no easy answers. He tackles some very heavy homework and knows that if he doesn’t finish his assignment soon, he could end up marked ‘D’ for dead. ‘Spenser is Boston’s answer to James Bond irreverent, witty, worldy. His first person recital of his detective work makes for fast, amusing reading.’ The Pittsburgh Press

God Save the Child

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 like Vic Harroway, body builder. Mr. Muscle is Spenser’s only lead and he isn’t talking…
except with his fists. But when push comes to shove, when a boy’s life is on the line, Spenser can speak that language too.

‘Spenser is everyman’s fantasy: social critic, gourmet cook, physically fit, sculptor, and of course, unabashed participant in a non destructive sexual relationship. Parker has taken his place beside Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald.’ The Boston Globe

Mortal Stakes

Everybody loves a winner, and the Rabbs are major league. Marty is the Red Sox star pitcher, Linda the loving wife. She loves everyone except the blackmailer out to wreck her life. 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 a very dangerous sport, and one wrong move means strike three, with Spenser out for good!

Promised Land

Spenser is good at finding things. But this time he has a client out on Cape Cod who is in over his head. Harvey Shepard has lost his pretty wife and a very pretty quarter million bucks in real estate. Now a loan shark is putting on the bite. Spenser finds himself doing a slow burn in the Cape Cod sun. The wife has turned up as a hot suspect in a case of murder one…
the in hock hubby has 24 hours before the mob makes him dead…
and suddenly Spenser is in so deep that the only way out is so risky it makes dying look like a sure thing. ‘Spenser is the sassiest, funniest, most enjoyable to read private eye around today.’ The Cincinnati Post

The Judas Goat

Spenser has gone to London and not to see the Queen. He’s gone to track down a bunch of bombers who’ve blown away his client’s wife and kids. His job is to catch them. Or kill them. His client isn’t choosy. 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 on her being very blond, very beautiful and very dangerous. ‘Spenser is Boston’s answer to James Bond…
with a little Sam Spade and Nero Wolfe thrown in…
Irreverent, witty, worldly…
makes for fast, amusing reading.’ Pittsburgh Press

Looking for Rachel Wallace

Spenser is…
‘The sassiest, funniest, most enjoyable to read about private eye around today…
the legitimate heir to the Hammett Chandler Macdonald tradition.’ The Cincinnati Post Spenser is…
‘Tougher, stronger, better educated, and far more amusing than Sam Spade, Phil Marlowe, or Lewis Archer…
Spenser gives the connoisseur of that rare combination of good detective fiction and good literature a chance to indulge himself.’ The Boston Globe

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 to give a puny 15 year old a crash course in survival and to beat his dangerous opponents at their own brutal game.

A Savage Place

TV reporter Candy Sloan has eyes the color of cornflowers and legs that stretch all the way to heaven. She also has somebody threatening to rearrange her lovely face if she keeps on snooping into charges of Hollywood racketeering. 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 with his fists, and Candy is about to use her own sweet body as live bait in a deadly romantic game a game that may cost Spenser his life. ‘Crackling dialogue, plenty of action, and expert writing.’ The New York Times

Ceremony

From the bestselling author of Crimson Joy. Spenser’s out to make war, not love, as he goes after Boston’s entire X rated industry. Pretty teenager April Kyle has disappeared into the city’s darkest underworld, and to rescue her, Spencer pits muscle and wit against bullets and bullies. Part of Dell’s ongoing Robert B. Parker reissue program.

The Widening Gyre

The adoring wife of a senatorial candidate has a smile as sweet as candy and dots her ‘i’s’ with little hearts. A blond beauty, she is the perfect mate for an ambitious politician, but she has a little problem with sex and drugs a problem someone has managed to put on videotape. The big boys figure a little blackmail will put her husband out of the race. Until Spenser hops on the candidate’s bandwagon. But getting back the tape of the lady’s X rated indiscretion is a nonstop express ride to trouble trouble that is deep, wide and deadly. ‘A thriller all the way.’ Seattle Times

Valediction

The most dangerous man to cross is one who isn’t afraid to die. But the most deadly is one who doesn’t want to live. And Spenser has just lost the woman who made life his 1 priority. 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. ‘Tough, wisecracking, unafraid and unexpectedly literate in many respects the very exemplar of the species.’ The New York Times

A Catskill Eagle

Spenser’s girlfriend Susan runs away with another man, Jerry Costigan, the son of a very rich and dangerous criminal. Spenser and his friend Hawk go in search of Susan, but are soon caught up in the world of the CIA, guns and murder. ‘Penguin Readers’ is a series of simplified novels, film novelizations and original titles that introduce students at all levels to the pleasures of reading in English. Originally designed for teaching English as a foreign language, the series’ combination of high interest level and low reading age makes it suitable for both English speaking teenagers with limited reading skills and students of English as a second language. Many titles in the series also provide access to the pre 20th century literature strands of the National Curriculum English Orders. ‘Penguin Readers’ are graded at seven levels of difficulty, from ‘Easystarts’ with a 200 word vocabulary, to Level 6 Advanced with a 3000 word vocabulary. In addition, titles fall into one of three sub categories: ‘Contemporary’, ‘Classics’ or ‘Originals’. At the end of each book there is a section of enjoyable exercises focusing on vocabulary building, comprehension, discussion and writing. Some titles in the series are available with an accompanying audio cassette, or in a book and cassette pack. Additionally, selected titles have free accompanying ‘Penguin Readers Factsheets’ which provide stimulating exercise material for students, as well as suggestions for teachers on how to exploit the Readers in class.

Taming a Sea-Horse

In his latest highly acclaimed Spenser novel, Robert B. Parker takes readers into the murky big city underground where Spenser undertakes an intense search for a beautiful, missing prostitute, and finds himself traveling amidst the sleaze of Times Square where sex is a commodity, and young girls are the currency. This phenomenal bestseller, with a million copy paperback first printing is supported by national TV advertising and a 6 month backlist reissue program. HC:Delacorte.

Pale Kings and Princes

Wheaton is a typical New England small college town, not the sort of place for drugs and murder. But when a reporter gets too inquisitive, he finds both the latter on his own. Spenser’s call comes when the local cops work a cover. He needs help to solve this one Hawk for back up and Susan for insight on the basics of jealousy, passion and hate! What the trio finds is a cutthroat cocaine ring, where drugs have value supreme and human life has none at all.

Crimson Joy

They call him the ‘Red Rose Killer’ because he leaves one on the body of each woman he kills. But then the madman’s eyes turn to Susan Silverman, and Spenser is on the case. For when Susan’s life is in danger, Spenser becomes a hard fisted, unstoppable locomotive determined to bring the criminal to justice no matter what the odds!Dell Fiction

Playmates

Spenser, America’s favorite iron pumping, gourmet cooking private eye, smells corruption in college town. Taft University’s hottest basketball star is shaving points for quick cash, and if Spenser doesn’t watch his own footwork, the guilty parties will shave a few years off his life. HC: Putnam.

Stardust

Spencer is assigned to protect a TV star in a mission that takes him to murder and beyond. 2 cassettes.

Pastime

Certain that his mother’s shady boyfriend is behind her disappearance, Paul Giacomin calls upon the skills of Spencer to help him find his missing mother. AB. PW.

Double Deuce

When a teenage girl and her baby are gunned down by feuding street gangs, tenants of a Boston housing project hire Hawk and Spenser to protect them and bring the killers to justice.Mystery Guild Main. Doubleday & Lit Guild Alt.

Paper Doll

Boston aristocrat Loudon Tripp hires Spenser to investigate his wife’s murder, and Spenser soon uncovers high class scandals and a corpse who might not be dead after all.Mystery Guild Main. Lit Guild & Doubleday Alt.

Walking Shadow

When a theatrical company director hires Spenser and his sidekick Hawk to investigate strange doings at the theater, the Boston sleuth suddenly finds himself deep in a case of murder, corruption, and shifting identities. BOMC Main.

Thin Air

When Lisa St. Claire, the beautiful young bride of a Boston police detective vanishes mysteriously, Spenser joins the search for the missing woman, following a dangerous trail that leads him to a sociopathic Latino ex lover and into a deadly confrontation with Lisa’s dark past.

Chance

The search for a Mafia princess’s errant spouse lands Spenser on the firing line in a gangland turf war in this latest novel by the bestselling author of Paper Doll and Double Deuce. Set against the bright lights and seamy side streets of Las Vegas, Chance takes listeners on an odyssey into the netherworld of disorganized crime. 4 cassettes.

Small Vices

The bad kid from the ‘hood has a long record, but did he really murder the white coed? Spenser and Hawk plumb the depths of the seamy side of life. In an ethical no man’s land of twisted cops and spoiled rich kids with peculiar private proclivities, an assassin’s bullets take Spenser down. Dead to the world, he plots to pursue justice in this suspenseful story that is also a meditation on morality and mortality. Simultaneous hardcover release from Putnam. 4 cassettes.

Sudden Mischief

‘Parker’s finest in years…
one can’t put it down story. Again…
‘ proclaimed San Francisco Chronicle of Robert B. Parker’s most recent New York Times bestseller, Small Vices . And The Washington Post Book World agreed, ‘Small Vices deserves instant inclusion in the Spenser canon.’ In Sudden Mischief, Parker’s stouthearted hero unwillingly takes a case that tests his sleuthing skills and his commitment to the woman he loves. Brad Sterling former Harvard football player, ne’er do well, and Susan Silverman’s long out of touch ex husband is, by all appearances, a successful businessman. But when, in the course of running a vast fundraiser called Galapalooza, he is charged with sexual harassment, he turns to Susan for help. Though Brad denies the charge, he’s desperate, behind in alimony and child support payments to other exes, and on the verge of dissolution. When Spenser reluctantly agrees to take the case, however, Sterling claims everything is fine he’s free of debt and free of problems. While the harassment charge begins to look more and more specious, Spenser senses there is something wrong with Galapalooza, as leads to charities turn into dead ends. Susan, meanwhile, becomes steadily more problematic as she wrestles with demons reinvigorated by the resurrection of her ex husband. As the questions mount, Brad disappears, a body is found, and clues to a shadowy mob connection begin to coalesce. Spenser finds himself fighting a two front war: against some very bad men, on the one hand, and against an increasingly difficult Susan, on the other. Dark, contemplative, and morally complex, Sudden Mischief is a brilliant meditation on the meaning of justice, love, and passion.

Hush Money

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. ‘One of the great series in the history of the American detective story!’ The New York Times’Spenser can still punch, sleuth, and wisecrack with the best of them.’ Publishers Weekly

Hugger Mugger

6 Cassettes, 10 hoursPerformace by Joe MantegnaSpenser is back and embroiled in a deceptively dangerous and multi layered case: someone has been killing racehorses at stables across the south, and the Boston P.I. travels to Georgia to protect the two year old destined to become the next Secretariat. When Spenser is approached by Walter Clive, president of the Three Fillies Stables, to find out who is threatening his horse Hugger Mugger, he can hardly say no: he’s been doing pro bono work for so long his cupboards are just about bare. Disregarding the resentment of the local Georgia law enforcement, Spenser takes the case. Though Clive has hired a separate security firm, he wants someone with Spenser’s experience to supervise the operation. Despite the veneer of civility, Spenser encounters tensions beneath the surface southern gentility. The case takes an even more deadly turn when the attacker claims a human victim, and Spenser must revise his impressions of the Three Fillies organization and watch his own back as well.

Potshot

Boston P.I. Spenser returns heading west to the rich man’s haven of Potshot, Arizona, a former mining town reborn as a paradise for Los Angeles millionaires looking for a place to escape the pressures of their high flying lifestyles. Potshot overcame its rough reputation as a rendezvous for old time mountain men who lived off the land, thanks to a healthy infusion of new blood and even newer money. But when this western idyll is threatened by a local gang a twenty first century posse of desert rats, misfits, drunks, and scavengers the local police seem powerless. Led by a charismatic individual known only as The Preacher, this motley band of thieves selectively exploits the town, nurturing it as a source of wealth while systematically robbing the residents blind. Enter Spenser, called in to put the group out of business and establish a police force who can protect the town. Calling on his own cadre of cohorts, including Vinnie Morris, Bobby Horse, Chollo Bernard J. Fortunato, as well as the redoubtable Hawk, Spenser must find a way to beat the gang at their own dangerous game.

Widow’s Walk

‘Sometimes you have to wonder how Robert B. Parker keeps his mojo working…
. There is a trick to keeping the faith with an old hero. In an age of shifty heroes with shaky values, he has created a hero who can still stand up for himself and us.’ The New York Times Book Review 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. 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.

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. 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. 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.

Bad Business

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. 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. 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.

Cold Service

A New York Times Bestseller

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. 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 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.

Robert B. Parker, the author of more than forty novels, has long been acknowledged as the dean of American crime fiction and has recently been named Grand Master of the 2002 Edgar awards by the Mystery Writers of America, an honor shared with earlier masters such as Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen. Parker’s fictional Spenser inspired the ABC TV series ‘Spenser: For Hire.’ More recently, the Spenser novels Small Vices and Thin Air have been made into television films for the A&E network. Robert B. Parker lives in Boston.

School Days

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. Robert B. Parker, the author of more than forty novels, has long been acknowledged as the dean of American crime fiction and has been named Grand Master of the 2002 Edgar awards by the Mystery Writers of America, an honor shared with earlier masters such as Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen. Parker’s fictional Spenser inspired the ABC TV series ‘Spenser: For Hire.’ More recently, the Spenser novels Small Vices and Thin Air have been made into television films for the A&E network. Robert B. Parker lives in Boston.

Hundred-Dollar Baby / Dream Girl

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.

Rough Weather

A hurricane hinders a kidnapping and Spenser goes on a search for the man responsible the infamous Gray Man, who has both helped and hunted Spenser in the past. Heidi Bradshaw is wealthy, beautiful, and well connected and she needs Spenser’s help. In a most unlikely request, Heidi, a notorious gold digger recently separated from her latest husband, recruits the Boston P.I. to accompany her to her private island, Tashtego. The reason? To attend her daughter s wedding as a sort of stand in husband and protector. Spenser consents, but only after it is established that his beloved Susan Silverman will also be in attendance. It should be a straightforward job for Spenser: show up for appearances, have some drinks, and spend some quality time with Susan. But when Spenser s old nemesis Rugar the Gray Man arrives, Spenser realizes that something is amiss. A storm, a kidnapping, and murder tear apart what should be a joyous occasion, and Rugar is seemingly at the center of it all. The only thing is that the sloppy kidnapping is not Rugar s style as Spenser knows from past encounters. With six dead bodies and more questions than he can process, Spenser begins a search for answers and the Gray Man. With its razor sharp dialogue, crisply etched characters, and high wire narrative tension, Rough Weather once again proves that Robert B. Parker is a force of nature The Boston Globe.

The Professional

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. However, these rich wives have a mutual secret: they’ve all had an affair with a man named Gary Eisenhower and now he’s blackmailing them for money. Shaw hires Spenser to make Eisenhower ‘cease and desist,’ so to speak, but when women start turning up dead, Spenser’s assignment goes from blackmail to murder.

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.

With its eloquently spare prose and some of the best supporting characters to grace the printed page, The Professional is further proof that ‘ t here’s hardly an author in the crime novel business like Parker’ Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

Painted Ladies

The brilliant new Spenser novel from the beloved New York Times-bestselling author Robert B. Parker.

Called upon by The Hammond Museum and renowned art scholar Dr. Ashton Prince, Spenser accepts his latest case: to provide protection during a ransom exchange-money for a stolen painting.

The case becomes personal when Spenser fails to protect his client and the valuable painting remains stolen. Convinced that Ashton Prince played a bigger role than just ransom delivery boy, Spenser enters into a daring game of cat-and-mouse with the thieves. But this is a game he might not come out of alive…

Completed the year before he passed away, Painted Ladies is Spenser and Robert B. Parker at their electrifying best.

Sixkill

An extraordinary new Spenser novel from the beloved New York Times bestselling author. 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.

Night Passage

The author of two dozen Spenser novels as well as numerous other works of fiction, Robert B. Parker is no stranger to either critical or popular acclaim. With his hallmark sharp wit and taut action, Parker has created in the Spenser series the standard against which all contemporary detective novels are measured, and a character considered the paragon of private eyes. In Night Passage, Parker sets the bar even higher, with the introduction of Jesse Stone, a hero cut from different cloth. After a busted marriage kicks his drinking problem into overdrive and the LAPD unceremoniously dumps him, the thirty five year old Stone’s future looks bleak. So he’s shocked when a small Massachusetts town called Paradise recruits him as police chief. He can’t help wondering if this job is a genuine chance to start over, the kind of offer he can’t refuse. Once on board, Jesse doesn’t have to look for trouble in Paradise: it comes to him. For what is on the surface a quiet New England community quickly proves to be a crucible of political and moral corruption replete with triple homicide, tight Boston mob ties, flamboyantly errant spouses, maddened militiamen and a psychopath about town who has fixed his violent sights on the new lawman. Against all this, Jesse stands utterly alone, with no one to trust; even he and the woman he’s seeing are like ships that pass in the night. He finds he must test his mettle and powers of command to emerge a local hero or the deadest of dupes. As the flagship volume in a new series featuring a complex and engaging sleuth, Night Passage is cause for celebration.

Trouble in Paradise

Robert B. Parker and his legendary Spenser series have long been considered the ne plus ultra of detective fiction. But the critics’ praise for Jesse Stone’s debut in Night Passage proved there was room for addition to the Parker literary canon. ‘A novel as fresh as it is bold…
Parker’s sentences flow with as much wit, grace and assurance as ever, and Stone is a complex and consistently interesting new protagonist. His speedy return will be welcome.’ NewsdayStiles Island is a wealthy and exclusive enclave separated by a bridge from the Massachusetts coast town of Paradise. James Macklin sees Stiles Island as the ultimate investment opportunity: all he needs to do is invade the island, blow the bridge, and loot the island. To realize his investment, Macklin, along with his devoted girlfriend, Faye, assembles a crew of fellow ex cons all experts in their fields including Wilson Cromartie, a fearsome Apache. James Macklin is a bad man a very bad man. And Wilson Cromartie, known as Crow, is even worse. As Macklin plans his crime, Paradise Police Chief Jesse Stone has his hands full. He faces romantic entanglements in triplicate: his ex wife, Jenn, is in the Paradise jail for assault, he’s begun a new relationship with a Stiles Island realtor named Marcy Campbell, and he’s still sorting out his feelings for attorney Abby Taylor. When Macklin’s attack on Stiles Island is set in motion, both Marcy and Abby are put in jeopardy. As the casualties mount, it’s up to Jesse to keep both women from harm. A distinguished and talented actor, Richard Masur has been performing in movies and on television for over 20 years. His many feature film credits include Multiplicity, Forget Paris, Six Degrees of Separation, My Girl and Risky Business. He can be heard on the audio presentation of Robert Parker’s Night Passage, also available from BDD Audio.

Death in Paradise

‘With all the authority of a bone crunching fist, Robert B. Parker is back with another breezy detective novel that mystery fans will find as satisfying as a juicy prime rib at Peter Luger.’ New York Post The Paradise Men’s Softball League has wrapped up another game, and Jesse Stone is lingering in the parking lot with his teammates, drinking beer, swapping stories of double plays and beautiful women in the late summer twilight. But then a frightened voice calls out to him from the edge of a nearby lake. There, two men squat at the water’s edge. In front of them, facedown, was something that used to be a girl. The local cops haven’t seen anything like this, but Jesse’s L.A. past has made him all too familiar with floaters. This girl hadn’t committed suicide; she hadn’t been drowned: she’d been shot and dumped, discarded like trash. Before long it becomes clear that she had a taste for the wild life; and her own parents can’t be bothered to report her missing, or even admit that she once was a child of theirs. All Jesse has to go on is a young man’s school ring on a gold chain, and a hunch or two. Filled with magnetic characters and the muscular writing that are Parker’s trademarks, Death in Paradise is a storytelling masterpiece.

Stone Cold

Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone returns, tracking the path of a pair of thrill killers.

Investigating a serial killer in an affluent suburban town is difficult, and dangerous, and with the added pressures from the town selectmen and the media, the heat is turned up on Jesse. He’s spending too much time with the bottle and with his ex wife neither of which helps him, or the case. And the harder these outside forces push against him, the more Jesse retreats into himself, convinced despite all the odds that it’s up to him alone to stop the killing.

As tough, clear eyed, and sardonic as Jesse Stone himself, this is the Grand Master working at the peak of his powers.

Sea Change

Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone faces the case of his career in the newest novel in the bestselling series.

When a woman’s partially decomposed body washes ashore in Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone is forced into a case far more difficult than it initially appears. Identifying the woman is just the first step in what proves to be an emotionally charged investigation. Florence Horvath was an attractive, recently divorced heiress from Florida; she also had a penchant for steamy sex and was an enthusiastic participant in a video depicting the same. Somehow the combination of her past and present got her killed, but no one is talking not the crew of the Lady Jane, the Fort Lauderdale yacht moored in Paradise Harbor; not her very blond, very tan twin sisters, Corliss and Claudia; and not her curiously affectless parents, living out a sterile retirement in a Miami high rise. But someone Jesse has to speak for the dead, even if it puts him in harm’s way.

High Profile

The murder of a notorious public figure places Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone in the harsh glare of 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.

Stranger in Paradise

Police Chief Jesse Stone faces his most fearsome adversary in the latest addition to the celebrated series. The last time Jesse Stone, chief of police of Paradise, Massachusetts, saw Wilson ‘Crow’ Cromartie, the Apache Indian hit man was racing away in a speedboat after executing one of the most lucrative and deadly heists in the town’s history. Crow was part of a team of ex cons who plotted to capture Stiles Island, the wealthy enclave off the Paradise coast, by blowing up the connecting bridge. Residents were kidnapped, some were killed, and Crow managed to escape with a boatload of cash, never to be seen again. Until now. So when Crow shows up in Jesse’s office some ten years after the crime, it’s not to turn himself in. Crow is on another job, and this time he’s asking for Jesse’s help by asking him to stay out of his way. Crow’s mission is simple: find young Amber Francisco and bring her back to her father, Louis, in Florida. It should be an easy payday for a pro like Crow, but there are complications. Amber, now living in squalor with her mother, Fiona, is mixed up with members of a Latino gang. And when Louis orders Crow to kill Fiona before heading back with Amber, he can’t follow through. Crow may be a bad guy, but he doesn’t kill women. It’s up to Jesse to provide protection. Meanwhile, Jesse’s on again, off again relationship with ex wife Jenn picks up steam as Jenn investigates the gang problem for her TV station. As they dig deeper, the danger escalates. The life of a young girl hangs in the balance, and saving Amber could be the miracle Jesse and Jenn need for themselves, too.

Night and Day

Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone confronts a town’s darkest secrets in the shocking new novel from the New York Times bestselling author and America s greatest mystery writer The New York Sun.

Things are getting strange in Paradise, Massachusetts. Police Chief Jesse Stone is called to the junior high school when reports of lewd conduct by the school s principal, Betsy Ingersoll, filter into the station. Ingersoll claims she was protecting the propriety of her students when she inspected each girl s undergarments in the locker room. Jesse would like nothing more than to see Ingersoll punished, but her high powered attorney husband stands in the way. At the same time, the women of Paradise are faced with a threat to their sense of security with the emergence of a tormented voyeur, dubbed The Night Hawk. Initially, he s content to peer through windows, but as times goes on, he becomes more reckless, forcing his victims to strip at gunpoint, then photographing them at their most vulnerable. And according to the notes he s sending to Jesse, he s not satisfied to stop there. It s up to Jesse to catch the Night Hawk, before it s too late.

Split Image

Family ties prove deadly in the brilliant new Jesse Stone novel from New York Times bestselling author Robert B. Parker. 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 beauti ful 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.

Killing The Blues (By:Michael Brandman)

The Jesse Stone stories continue even after Robert B. Parker’s passing with Killing the Blues. In this novel, Jesse Stone is faced with what begins as a rash of stolen cars and escalates into arson and murder as Stone uncovers how deep this crime wave really goes. All the while, Paradise, Massachusetts is preparing for summer tourism with the help of event planner Alexis Richardson, and she and Stone become involved in a steamy affair.

Family Honor

A blazingly original new novel from the undisputed dean of American crime fiction, featuring a sharp, tough, sexy new P.I., Sunny Randall.’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.

Perish Twice

Spenser creator Robert B. Parker returns with his newest hero*ine, Boston P.I. Sunny Randall, coming to the aid of three very different women in three very dangerous situations. One is for business. One is for a friend. One is for family. And all could be fatal…

Shrink Rap

Melanie Joan Hall is a bestselling author in a bind. Her publisher needs her to tour on behalf of her newest blockbuster, and Melanie Joan needs a bodyguard escort to protect her from an overbearing ex husband whose presence unnerves her to the point of hysteria. Sunny’s cool demeanor, cop background, and P.I. smarts are an instant balm for the older woman. She begins to sense that Melanie Joan’s ex a psychotherapist is not your basic stalker, and when an incident at a book signing leaves the ex bloodied and the author unconscious, it’s clear the stakes are high. Deciding that the only way to crack the case is from the inside, Sunny enters therapy herself, only to discover some disturbing truths about herself…
while putting her life on the line. Gripping, nuanced, and filled with Parker’s signature dialogue and psychological insight, Shrink Rap is a winner.

Melancholy Baby

A New York Times BestsellerBoston P.I. Sunny Randall is facing the unthinkable: the marriage of her ex husband, Richie, to someone else. Despite the formality of divorce, Sunny and Richie’s relationship had continued, in its own headstrong way, until Richie’s desire for marriage overtook Sunny’s need for freedom. So when college student Sarah Markham comes asking for help in finding her birth parents, Sunny realizes she must take the case, if only to distract her from her personal life. But life and work have a curious and dangerous way of intersecting. Before the investigation has a chance to take off, two key players are dead and Sunny is back on a psychiatrist’s couch, probing her own past for clues. Robert B. Parker lives in Boston Robert B. Parker, the author of more than forty novels, has long been acknowledged as the dean of American crime fiction and has recently been named Grand Master of the 2002 Edgar awards by the Mystery Writers of America, an honor shared with earlier masters such as Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen His novels featuring the wise cracking, street smart Boston private eye Spenser have earned him a devoted following and reams of critical acclaim, typified by R.W.B. Lewis’ comment, ‘We are witnessing one of the great series in the history of the American detective story’ The New York Times Book Review Parker’s fictional Spenser inspired the ABC TV series Spenser: For Hire. More recently, the Spenser novels Small Vices and Thin Air have been made into television films for the A&E network

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 fa ade. 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.

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 reestablish our relationship. Give us both something to do in our later years. Stay tuned. Spare Change 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 catch 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 nab 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.

Appaloosa

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.

Resolution

The New York Times bestselling author’s richly imagined work of historical fiction: a powerful tale of the Old West from the acknowledged master of crime fiction. I had an eight gauge shotgun that I d taken with me when I left Wells Fargo. It didn t take too long for things to develop. I sat in the tall lookout chair in the back of the saloon with the shotgun in my lap for two peaceful nights. On my third night it was different. I could almost smell trouble beginning to cook…
. After the bloody confrontation in Appaloosa, Everett Hitch heads into the afternoon sun and ends up in Resolution, an Old West town so new the dust has yet to settle. It s the kind of town that doesn t have much in the way of commerce, except for a handful of saloons and some houses of ill repute. Hitch takes a job as lookout at Amos Wolfson s Blackfoot Saloon and quickly establishes his position as protector of the ladies who work the backrooms as well as a man unafraid to stand up to the enforcer sent down from the O Malley copper mine. Though Hitch makes short work of hired gun Koy Wickman, tensions continue to mount, so that even the self assured Hitch is relieved by the arrival in town of his friend Virgil Cole. When greedy mine owner Eamon O Malley threatens the loose coalition of local ranchers and starts buying up Resolution s few businesses, Hitch and Cole find themselves in the middle of a makeshift war between O Malley s men and the ranchers. In a place where law and order don t exist, Hitch and Cole must make their own, guided by their sense of duty, honor, and friendship.

Brimstone

New York Times bestselling author Robert B. Parker takes aim at the Old West with this brilliantly crafted follow up to Resolution and Appaloosa, again featuring guns for hire Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch.

W hen we last saw Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, they had just put things to right in the rough and tumble Old West town of Resolution. It’s now a year later, and Virgil has only one thing on his mind: Allie French, the woman who stole his heart from their days in Appaloosa. Even though Allie ran off with another man, Virgil is determined to find her, his deputy and partner Everett Hitch at his side. Making their way across New Mexico and Texas, the pair finally discover Allie in a small town brothel. Her spirit crushed, Allie joins Everett and Virgil as they head north to start over in Brimstone. But things are not the same between Virgil and Allie; too much has happened, and Virgil can’t face what Allie did to survive the year they were apart. Vowing to change, Allie thinks she has found redemption through the local church and its sanctimonious leader, Brother Percival. Given their reputations as guns for hire, Everett and Virgil are able to secure positions as the town’s deputies. But Brother Percival stirs up trouble at the local saloons, and as the violence escalates into murder, the two struggle to keep the peace.

As sharp and clear as the air over the high desert, Brimstone proves once again that Robert B. Parker is ‘a force of nature’ The Boston Globe.

Blue-Eyed Devil

The extraordinary new Western from the New York Times bestselling author, featuring itinerant lawmen Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. 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?

Love and Glory

‘A straightforward, unrelenting, shamelessly romantic novel that’s about a two year obsession…
It works…
and love stories that work are almost an extinct breed . Almost.’ Santa Cruz

All Our Yesterdays

They were the Sheridan men, ruled by passion, betrayed by love, heirs to a legacy of violence and forbidden desire. Gus, Boston’s top homicide cop: he knew equally well the backroom politics of City Hall and the private passions of the very rich, a man haunted by the wanton courage and perilous obsessions he inherited from his father…
Conn, the patriarch, a lawless cop who spawned a circle of vengeance and betrayal that would span half a century…
and Chris, Gus’s beloved son, a Harvard lawyer and criminologist, fated to risk everything to break the chain of obsession and rage…
Three generations linked by crime and punishment cops and heroes, fathers, sons, and lovers united at last by revelations that could bring a family to its knees…

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.

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.

Edenville Owls

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Spenser mysteries.

There is something evil in the air. Fourteen year old Bobby senses it. Who is that man he saw arguing with his pretty, new English teacher? And what was the real reason she missed school for days afterward? Bobby knows he should mind his own business, but times are confusing. World War II has just ended and the world is changing. Bobby’s world, especially. There’s his relationship with Joanie, for one why does being her friend feel awkward all of a sudden? And then there are his buddies, the junior varsity Edenville Owls a group of basketball players in need of a leader. Can they help each other off the court as well as they can on it? They will need to. Something evil is in the air

The Boxer and the Spy

Another teen thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of the Spenser mysteries.

When a shy high school student’s body is found washed up on the shore of a quiet New England beach town an apparent suicide fifteen year old Terry Novak doesn t know what to think. Something just doesn t add up, so he decides to do some investigating of his own with the help of his best friend, Abby. It doesn t take long before they learn that asking questions puts them in grave danger, and surviving is going to be a fight. Fortunately, Terry has been learning a thing or two about fighting, thanks to a retired boxer named George, who teaches the boy to use his head and always keep his feet set beneath him lessons Terry takes to heart in more ways than one. He will need to.

Robert B. Parker, New York Times bestselling author of the Spenser novels, delivers a taut, empowering mystery for young readers.

Spenser’s Boston

Documenting historic Boston, a lovely gift book shows the city through the eyes of one of its most famous citizens Spenser, the tough guy who is sensitive and intelligent with stunning photographs and excerpts from the best selling mystery novels.

The Big Sleep (By:Raymond Chandler)

Raymond Chandler’s first three novels, published here in one volume, established his reputation as an unsurpassed master of hard boiled detective fiction. THE BIG SLEEP, Chandler’s first novel, introduces Philip Marlowe, a private detective inhabiting the seamy side of Los Angeles in the 1930s, as he takes on a case involving a paralyzed California millionaire, two psychotic daughters, blackmail, and murder. In FAREWELL, MY LOVELY, Marlowe deals with the gambling circuit, a murder he stumbles upon, and three very beautiful but potentially deadly women. In THE HIGH WINDOW, Marlowe searches the California underworld for a priceless gold coin and finds himself deep in the tangled affairs of a dead coin collector. In all three novels, Chandler s hard edged prose, colorful characters, vivid vernacular, and above all his enigmatic loner of a hero, enduringly establish his claim not only to the heights of his chosen genre but to the pantheon of literary art.

Farewell, My Lovely (By:Raymond Chandler)

A brand new BBC Radio full cast dramatization of a classic Raymond Chandler mystery featuring private eye Philip Marlowe. It’s a warm day on Central Avenue, and Marlowe’s hunch about the man beside him is as vague as the heat waves that dance above the sidewalk. The way business is looking, even a hunch is enough. Moose Malloy stands six five and a half and weighs two hundred and sixty four pounds, without his necktie. After eight years in the pen, he wants little Velma back, and no cops or mobsters are ready to stand in his way. Marlowe’s tough enough for the ride, but he can’t help thinking there’s never been a happy ending to the story of beauty and the beast.

The High Window (By:Raymond Chandler)

Ed Bishop stars as Philip Marlowe in this powerfully atmospheric BBC Radio dramatization of Raymond Chandler’s novel about the cynical, world weary, wise cracking shamus whose honesty in a dishonest world sent him down the mean streets again and again in search of some kind of justice. Linda Conquest was very tough, very kissable, and very missing, along with one very valuable old coin. But for some reason the interested parties didn’t seem too interested in finding either of them. Especially when the trail led to the underworld and beyond. And by then Marlowe was knee deep in dead men…

The Lady in the Lake (By:Raymond Chandler)

Creator of the famous Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler elevated the American hard boiled detective genre to an art form. Chandler’s last four novels, published here in one volume, offer ample opportunity to savor the unique and utterly compelling fictional world that made his works modern classics. THE LADY IN THE LAKE moves Marlowe out of his usual habitat of city streets and into the mountains outside of Los Angeles in his strange search for a missing woman. THE LITTLE SISTER takes Marlowe to Hollywood, where he tries to find a sweet young thing’s missing brother, uncovering on the way a little blackmail, a lot of drugs, and more than enough murder. In THE LONG GOODBYE, a case involving a war scarred drunk and his nymphomaniac wife has Marlowe constantly on the move: a psychotic gangster’s on his trail, he’s in trouble with the cops, and more and more corpses keep turning up. PLAYBACK features a well endowed redhead who leads Marlowe to the California coast to solve a tale of big money and, of course, murder. Throughout these masterpieces, Marlowe’s wry humor and existential sense of his job prove yet again why he has become one of the most recognized and imitated characters in fiction.

The Little Sister (By:Raymond Chandler)

This BBC Radio full cast dramatization of a classic Raymond Chandler mystery features private eye Philip Marlowe. Her name is Orfamay Quest and she’s come all the way from Manhattan, Kansas, to find her missing brother Orrin. Or least ways that’s what she tells PI Philip Marlowe, offering him a measly twenty bucks for the privilege. But Marlowe’s feeling charitable though it’s not long before he wishes he wasn’t so sweet. You see, Orrin’s trail leads Marlowe to luscious movie starlets, uppity gangsters, suspicious cops, and corpses with ice picks jammed in their necks. When trouble comes calling, sometimes it’s best to pretend to be out…

The Long Goodbye (By:Raymond Chandler)

Ed Bishop stars as Philip Marlowe in a powerful and atmospheric full cast dramatisation of Raymond Chandler’s classic noir novel. The first time Marlowe sets eyes on Terry Lennox, he is lying drunk in the passenger seat of a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith. The next time, he’s on Skid Row. After they share a few Gimlets, Marlowe thinks he seems like a nice guy, but he’s had a hard life his white hair and scarred face testify to that. Or could it be marriage to Sylvia Lennox that has turned him prematurely grey? Although beautiful and rich, she plays the field in a big way. Lennox says he has the promise of a job in Las Vegas, and Marlowe helps him out with the cost of the ticket. Two weeks later, he gets the money back, with a note from Lennox saying he is starting a second honeymoon with Sylvia. But the honeymoon turns sour, the dame ends up dead and Lennox turns up on Marlowe’s doorstep in big trouble. He needs to get away in a hurry, and against his better judgement Marlowe agrees to take him to Tijuana. Soon after, the cops arrive, and Marlowe finds himself cooling his heels in the can, suspected of helping Sylvia’s killer escape. And that’s not the end of his problems, not by a long shot…

Playback (By:Raymond Chandler)

Stalking the tawdry neon wilderness of forties and fifties Los Angeles, Raymond Chandler’s hard drinking, wise cracking Phillip Marlowe is one of the world’s most famous fictional detectives. ‘Playback’ finds Marlowe mixing business with pleasure getting paid to follow a mysterious and lovely red head named Eleanor King. And wherever Miss King goes, trouble seems to follow. But she’s easy on the eye and Marlowe’s happy to do as he’s told, all in the name of chivalry, of course. But one dead body later and what started out as a lazy afternoon’s snooping soon becomes a deadly cocktail of blackmail, lies, mistaken identity and murder…

Poodle Springs (With: Raymond Chandler)

Marlowe is back…
and he’s married to a rich, beautiful society lady who want him to settle down in the posh desert community of Poodle Springs. Marlowe may have married rich, but old habits die hard: he’s hired to recover a gambling debt and soon finds himself in a case involving bigamy, po*rnography and murder. The first four chapters of this final Marlowe mystery were written by noir master Raymond Chandler at the end of his life. Robert B. Parker was chosen by Chandler’s estate to complete his last work, and the result is a true classic for Chandler aficionados and mystery fans alike.

Perchance to Dream

The Sternwood Family, immortalized in’ The Big Sleep,’ is in trouble again…
Vivian’s psychotic sister Carmen had disappeared from the sanitarium, and Vivian herslelf has once again fallen into the clutches of Eddie Mars, the shady underworld character. Enter Philip Marolwe, the original tough but tender private eye. He saved the Sternwoods once before, and the butler believes he can do it again.

Chasing the Bear

For almost forty years, Robert B. Parker’s inimitable private investigator Spenser has been solving cases and selling millions of books worldwide. Now, for the first time, see how it all began as the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master sheds light on Spenser’s formative years spent with his father and two uncles out West. This is an event book for every fan of Spenser, and a revelation for teens about to discover an American icon.

Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe

Authorized by the estate of the late Raymond Chandler, this volume reveals the missing life history and detective adventures of Philip Marlowe, one of the 20th century’s most enduring and beloved characters. Marlowe is the quintessential American detective: cynical yet idealistic; romantic yet full of despair; a gentleman capable of rough violence. The final story in the volume is Raymond Chandler’s last Marlowe adventure:The Pencil. The stories run chronologically through the career of Marlowe, from 1935 through 1960. These are classic Marlowe tales of betrayal, mistrust, and double dealing on the seamy side of Los Angeles.

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