BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
(Print: 1/1/1976; 978-0816163397; G.K. Hall - Large Print edition; 332 pp.)
(Digital: Yes.)
Audio: 7/14/2009; 978-0307705129; Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group; Duration 5:21:01 (5 parts); Unabridged.
(Film: There was a Spenser for Hire tv series).

SERIES:
Spenser Series (Book 3)

CHARACTERS: (Not comprehensive)
Spenser – Private Investigator
Susan Silverman – High School Counselor & love interest
Linda Rabb – Red Sox pitcher’s wife
Marty Rabb – Red Sox pitcher
Harold Erskine – Red Sox team manager
Bucky Maynard – Sports announcer

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
Spenser is hired to determine if a ball player is intentionally losing games, a more dangerous task than one might think.
I was confused in this one about Spenser’s relationships. Apparently, monogamy isn’t going to be his thing. I was hearing that wall paintings and a bathrobe were gifts from Susan Silverman, but then he was suddenly dating someone named Brenda. Susan does show up in this episode about three quarters of the way through finally. I like that these novels are pretty short, and even though serious events occur they are kind of light hearted.

AUTHOR:
Robert B. Parker (9/17/1932 – 1/8/2010). RobertBParker.net says, “Robert B. Parker's résumé is familiar to most of his readers. Bob was renowned for his Spenser novels, featuring the wise-cracking, street-smart Boston private-eye, which earned him a devoted following and reams of critical acclaim. He also launched two other bestselling series featuring, respectively, Massachusetts police chief Jesse Stone and Boston private detective Sunny Randall.”
I do enjoy the wit. It’s not always funny, but it’s sometimes surprising what he comes up with.

NARRATOR(S):
Michael Prichard. Penguin Random House Audio Publishing says: “Michael Prichard has played several thousand characters during his career. While he has been seen performing over a hundred of them in theater and film, SmartMoney magazine named him one of the Top Ten Golden Voices.”
His voice sounds a bit mature for the age of the character, but my husband and I love that he articulates clearly, and his characterizations are good.

GENRE:
Fiction, Hardboiled Mystery

LOCATIONS:
Boston, MA; Illinois; New York

TIME FRAME:
1970’s

SUBJECTS:
Body building, baseball, gambling, celebrity reputations, shylocks

NARRATIVE STYLE:
First person

DEDICATION:
“This too is for Joan, David, and Daniel”

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From Chapter 1
“Out on Jersey Street I turned right. Next door to the park is an office building with an advance sale ticket office behind plate glass and a small door that says Boston American League Baseball Club. I went in. There was a flight of stairs, dark wood, the walls a pale green latex. At the top another door. Inside a foyer in the same green latex with a dark green carpet and a receptionist with stiff blue hair. I said to the receptionist, ‘My name is Spenser. To see Harold Erskine.’ I tried to look like a short-relief prospect just in from Pawtucket. I don’t think I fooled her.
She said, ‘Do you have an appointment?’
I said, ‘Yes.’
She spoke into the intercom, listened to the answer, and said, ‘Go in.’
Harold Erskine’s office was small and plain. There were two green file cabinets side by side in a corner, a yellow deal desk opposite the door, a small conference table, two straight chairs, and a window that looked out on Brookline Ave. Erskine was as unpretentious as his office. He was a small plump man, bald on top. The gray that remained was cut close to his head. His face was round and red-cheeked, his hands pudgy. I’d read somewhere that he’d been a minor-league shortstop and hit .327 one year at Pueblo. That had been a while ago; now he looked like a defrocked Santa.
‘Come in, Mr. Spenser, enjoy the game?’
‘Yeah, thanks for the pass.’ I sat in one of the straight chairs.
‘My pleasure, Marty’s something else, isn’t he?’
I nodded. Erskine leaned back in his chair and cleaned the corners of his mouth with the thumb and forefinger of his left hand, drawing them together along his lower lip. ‘My attorney says I can trust you.’
I nodded again. I didn’t know his attorney.
Erskine rubbed his lip again. ‘Can I?’
‘Depends on what you want to trust me to do.’
‘Can you guarantee that what we say will be confidential, no matter what you decide?’
‘Yes.’ Erskine kept working on his lower lip. It looked clean enough to me.
‘What did my lawyer tell you when he called?’
‘He said you’d like to see me after today’s game and there’d be a pass waiting for me at the press entrance on Jersey Street if I wanted to watch the game first.’
‘What do you charge?’
‘A hundred a day and expenses. But I’m running a special this week; at no charge I teach you how to wave a blackjack.’
Erskine said, ‘I heard you were a wit.’ I wasn’t sure he believed it.
‘Your lawyer tell you that too?’ I asked.
‘Yes. He discussed you with a state police detective named Healy. I think Healy’s sister married my lawyer’s wife’s brother.’
‘Well, hell, Erskine. You know all you really can know about me. The only way you can find out if you can trust me is tor try it. I’m a licensed private detective. I’ve never been to jail. And I have an open, honest face. I’m willing to sit here and let you look at me for a while, I owe you for the free ball game, but eventually you’ll have to tell me what you want or ask me to leave.”

RATING:
4 stars. I think I’m rating this one higher than the last one in this series. It’s growing on me.

STARTED-FINISHED
6/26/2021-7/20/2021
( )

First edition signed fine

Another irresistible Spenser story where the bad guys are really bad and Spenser behaves in a noble manner. Spenser also cooks some interesting sounding dishes and drinks a lot of beer. ( )

This mystery revolves around baseball. It wasn’t as interesting to me as others in the series. ( )

I'm getting into the characters more than the previous books, but that may only be a function of familiarity. I didn't care for the whole baseball thing, but I did enjoy how Spenser started to really break some rules. (So to speak)
I think I'm getting into the books more, now, and since they're all quick reads, it won't take long to get through the whole stack. I do enjoy the intellectual jabs throughout them. ( )