Spenser
Robert B. Parker · Ace Atkins · Helen Brann · Mike Lupica
Latest release: November 28, 2023
headphones
Series
41
Audiobooks
About this audiobook series
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)
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)
The Godwulf Manuscript
Book 1 · Jul 2009 ·
4.1star
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)
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
Book 2 · Jul 2009 ·
5.0star
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)
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
Book 3 · Jul 2009 ·
5.0star
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!
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
Book 4 · Jul 2009 ·
4.5star
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)
"Spenser is the sassiest, funniest, most-enjoyable-to-read private eye around today." (The Cincinnati Post)
The Judas Goat
Book 5 · Jul 2009 ·
4.5star
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)
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
Book 6 · Jul 2009 ·
4.7star
“Crackling dialogue, plenty of action, and expert writing.”—The New York Times
Rachel Wallace is a tough young woman with a lot of enemies.
Spenser is a tough guy with a macho code of honor, hired to protect a woman who thinks that kind of code is obsolete. Privately, they will never see eye to eye.
But when Rachel vanishes. Spenser is ready to lay his life on the line—to find Rachel Wallace.
“A rare kind of book.”—Chicago Sun-Times
Rachel Wallace is a tough young woman with a lot of enemies.
Spenser is a tough guy with a macho code of honor, hired to protect a woman who thinks that kind of code is obsolete. Privately, they will never see eye to eye.
But when Rachel vanishes. Spenser is ready to lay his life on the line—to find Rachel Wallace.
“A rare kind of book.”—Chicago Sun-Times
Early Autumn
Book 7 · Jul 2009 ·
4.6star
“[Robert B.] Parker's brilliance is in his simple dialogue, and in Spenser.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
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 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
Book 8 · Jul 2009 ·
5.0star
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.
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.
Ceremony
Book 9 · Jul 2009 ·
5.0star
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.
The Widening Gyre
Book 10 · Jul 2009 ·
5.0star
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)
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
Book 11 · Jul 2009 ·
5.0star
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)
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
Book 12 · Jul 2009 ·
4.7star
Spenser's girlfriend Susan goes away with another man, Jerry Costigan, the son of a very rich and dangerous criminal. Spenser and his friend, Hawk, go to find Susan. Soon they are in the world of the CIA, guns and murder.
Taming a Sea-Horse
Book 13 · Jul 2009 ·
5.0star
Nice girls don't. But blond, beautiful April Kyle does. She's a hooker hooked on the wrong guy -- and she's on her way to trouble. So is Spenser.
Looking out for April has landed him in the crud of Times Square. It's not a long way to big-business boardrooms where blood money get laundered into long green, sex is a commodity, and young girls are the currency.
"Spenser's back and New York's got him...proficient with his gun and fists, not to mention his quick verbal shots." (Daily News)
Looking out for April has landed him in the crud of Times Square. It's not a long way to big-business boardrooms where blood money get laundered into long green, sex is a commodity, and young girls are the currency.
"Spenser's back and New York's got him...proficient with his gun and fists, not to mention his quick verbal shots." (Daily News)
Pale Kings and Princes
Book 14 · Jul 2009 ·
5.0star
“Ebullient entertainment.”—Time
A hotshot reporter is dead. He'd gone to take a look-see at “Miami North”—little Wheaton, Massachusetts—the biggest cocaine distribution center above the Mason-Dixon line.
Did the kid die for getting too close to the truth . . . or to a sweet lady with a jealous husband?
Spenser will stop at nothing to find out.
Praise for Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels
“Like Philip Marlowe, Spenser is a man of honor in a dishonorable world. When he says he will do something, it is done. The dialogues zings, and there is plenty of action . . . but it is the moral element that sets them above most detective fiction.”—Newsweek
“Crackling dialogue, plenty of action and expert writing . . . Unexpectedly literate—[Spenser is] in many respects the very exemplar of the species.”—The New York Times
“They just don’t make private eyes tougher or funnier.”—People
“Parker has a recorder’s ear for dialogue, an agile wit . . . and, strangely enough, a soupçon of compassion hidden under that sardonic, flip exterior.”—Los Angeles Times
“A deft storyteller, a master of pace.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Spenser probably had more to do with changing the private eye from a coffin-chaser to a full-bodied human being than any other detective hero.”—The Chicago Sun-Times
“[Spenser is] tough, intelligent, wisecracking, principled, and brave.”—The New Yorker
A hotshot reporter is dead. He'd gone to take a look-see at “Miami North”—little Wheaton, Massachusetts—the biggest cocaine distribution center above the Mason-Dixon line.
Did the kid die for getting too close to the truth . . . or to a sweet lady with a jealous husband?
Spenser will stop at nothing to find out.
Praise for Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels
“Like Philip Marlowe, Spenser is a man of honor in a dishonorable world. When he says he will do something, it is done. The dialogues zings, and there is plenty of action . . . but it is the moral element that sets them above most detective fiction.”—Newsweek
“Crackling dialogue, plenty of action and expert writing . . . Unexpectedly literate—[Spenser is] in many respects the very exemplar of the species.”—The New York Times
“They just don’t make private eyes tougher or funnier.”—People
“Parker has a recorder’s ear for dialogue, an agile wit . . . and, strangely enough, a soupçon of compassion hidden under that sardonic, flip exterior.”—Los Angeles Times
“A deft storyteller, a master of pace.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Spenser probably had more to do with changing the private eye from a coffin-chaser to a full-bodied human being than any other detective hero.”—The Chicago Sun-Times
“[Spenser is] tough, intelligent, wisecracking, principled, and brave.”—The New Yorker
Crimson Joy
Book 15 · Jul 2009 ·
5.0star
A serial killer is on the loose in Beantown and the cops can't catch him. But when the killer leaves his red rose calling card for Spenser's own Susan Silverman, he gets all the attention that Spenser and Hawk can give.
Spenser plays against time while he tracks the Red Rose killer from Boston's Combat Zone to the suburbs. His trap is both daring and brave, and gives the story a satisfying climax.
"Like Philip Marlowe, Spenser is a man of honor in a dishonorable world. When he says he will do something, it is done. The dialogue zings, and there is plenty of action...but it is the moral element that sets this series above most defective fiction." (Newsweek)
Spenser plays against time while he tracks the Red Rose killer from Boston's Combat Zone to the suburbs. His trap is both daring and brave, and gives the story a satisfying climax.
"Like Philip Marlowe, Spenser is a man of honor in a dishonorable world. When he says he will do something, it is done. The dialogue zings, and there is plenty of action...but it is the moral element that sets this series above most defective fiction." (Newsweek)
Playmates
Book 16 · Jul 2009 ·
5.0star
Spenser smells corruption in a college town. Taft University's hottest basketball star is shaving points for quick cash. All manner of sleaze -- from corrupt academics to hoods with graduate degrees -- have their fingers in the pot.
Spenser's search takes him from lecture halls to blue collar bars and finally into a bloody confrontation with almost certain death. But Spenser saves an arrogant young athlete -- even though it nearly kills him to do it.
"Spenser is a tough as they come and spiked with a touch of real class." (Kirkus Reviews)
Spenser's search takes him from lecture halls to blue collar bars and finally into a bloody confrontation with almost certain death. But Spenser saves an arrogant young athlete -- even though it nearly kills him to do it.
"Spenser is a tough as they come and spiked with a touch of real class." (Kirkus Reviews)
Stardust
Book 17 · Jul 2009 ·
5.0star
When a Hollywood-based TV series schedules filming in Boston, Spenser smells trouble. When he signs up to protect the show's star, Jill Joyce, he knows it's on its way.
First, there's Jill herself. She's spoiled, arrogant, drugged out -- made worse by fear. Someone is out to get her -- does she imagine it, or is it real?
Spenser monitors her neurosis, but finds evidence of harassment. It escalates to murder. Now begins the dangerous part -- while the act may have ended, the murderer lingers on.
"STARDUST is a four-star noir suspense that no Spenser fan will be able to resist." (Publisher's Source)
First, there's Jill herself. She's spoiled, arrogant, drugged out -- made worse by fear. Someone is out to get her -- does she imagine it, or is it real?
Spenser monitors her neurosis, but finds evidence of harassment. It escalates to murder. Now begins the dangerous part -- while the act may have ended, the murderer lingers on.
"STARDUST is a four-star noir suspense that no Spenser fan will be able to resist." (Publisher's Source)
Hugger Mugger
Book 27 · Jul 2000 ·
5.0star
Spenser is back and embroiled in a dangerous and multi-layered case. Someone has been killing racehorses at stables across the south, and Walter Clive, president of Three Fillies Stables, hires him to find out who. Spenser goes to Georgia to protect Hugger Mugger, a two-year-old destined to become the next Secretariat. Disregarding the resentment of the local Georgia law enforcement, he takes the case. Despite the veneer of civility, Spenser encounters tensions beneath the surface old boy bonhomie. 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.
"One of the great series in the history of the American detective story." (New York Times Book Review)
"One of the great series in the history of the American detective story." (New York Times Book Review)
Widow's Walk
Book 29 · Jan 2002 ·
4.5star
The indefatigable, poetry-dishing Spenser finds himself in the middle of yet another whopper of a case. A seemingly dim blonde with a supermodel-class body is accused of murdering her blue-blooded, Mayflower-descended banker of a husband. Her alibi: she was watching Survivor in another room. Mary Fiore, Spenser’s seductive lawyer friend, a former prosecutor, realizes that her client needs some help, and commissions Spenser to dig up the truth. This is easier said than done, but a few gunsels, thugs, and murders later, Spenser makes the connection between the dead banker and a real-estate scam gone sour. There’s a resolution to the case, but the fun is in seeing the green and sexual intrigue play out.
“Boston’s favorite private eye slides into his 30th case as easily as a knife sinking into warm butter.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Boston’s favorite private eye slides into his 30th case as easily as a knife sinking into warm butter.”—Kirkus Reviews
Back Story
Book 30 · Mar 2003 ·
0.0star
Renaissance man Spenser - he of the acerbic social commentary, the gourmet cookery, and the steely abs - turns his considerable talents to the unraveling of a thirty-year-old murder mystery. During a 1974 holdup in a Boston bank by a revolutionary group calling itself the Dread Scott Brigade, Emily Gordon, a visitor cashing traveler's checks, is shot and killed. Despite security-camera photos and a letter from the group claiming responsibility, nobody saw who shot her, and the perpetrators have remained at large for three decades. Enter Paul Giacomin, the closest thing to Spenser's son. When Paul's friend Daryl Gordon, Emily's daughter, decides she needs closure regarding her mother's death, she turns to Spenser, who must reach past the lack of clues and missing FBI report to seek the truth.