Spenser earned his degree in the school of hard knocks, so he's ready when a Boston university hires him to recover a stolen rare manuscript. 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 has to tackle some very heavy homework to avoid ending up marked "D" - for dead.

Investigating the blackmailing of star Red Sox pitcher Marty Rabb's career and marriage, Bostonian private eye Spenser shags it from Boston to Illinois and Manhattan and bases in between.

Private eye Spenser returns to take on the terrorists who killed his client's wife and daughters in a London bombing, chasing them across Europe to the Montreal Olympics and a devastating climax.

When private investigator Spenser is hired by a woman to rescue her fifteen-year-old son from her ex-husband, Spenser ends up protecting the boy and investigating both parents.

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.

In the detective business, Spenser sometimes has to bend the law, sometimes break it. His best friend, Hawk, faces a life sentence, and Susan is in even bigger trouble. Now Spencer has to free them both.

Spenser is called in to investigate the murder of a reporter working on a story about the cocaine trade. Threats by the local police and a Columbian produce dealer lead Spenser to dig deeper.

Paul Giacomin enlists Spenser's help in localing his mother who has vanished. As they follow her trail, they are faced with a confrontation that may threaten their lives.

Boston aristocrat Loudon Tripp hires Spenser to investigate his wife's murder, and Spenser soon uncovers high-class scandals and a corpse that might not be dead after all.