Book 1

The Godwulf Manuscript

by Robert B. Parker

Published 1 February 1974
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.

Book 2

God Save the Child

by Robert B. Parker

Published 11 September 1975
New York Times bestselling author of the Spenser series of crime thrillers - Book 2 in the series -

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.

"A brillant, and cynical, comic tragedy or tragic comedy of manners. Long may Parker wave." -- Los Angeles Times

Book 3

Mortal Stakes

by Robert B. Parker

Published 23 September 1976
A New York Times Bestselling Author -- 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 suddenly becomes a very dangerous sport.

Book 4

Promised Land

by Robert B. Parker

Published 1 January 1977
Acclaimed mystery author Robert B. Parker continues to win an even greater audience with each new Spenser novel. For all crime fiction lovers who discovered Parker through his latest bestsellers "Pastime" and "Double Deuce", his entire Dell backlist is now available in attractively repackaged editions.

Book 5

The Judas Goat

by Robert B. Parker

Published 1 January 1978
“There is no halt to the breathless action!”—The New York Times Book Review

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.

Book 6

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

Book 7

Early Autumn

by Robert B. Parker

Published 25 July 1985
“[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.

Book 8

A Savage Place

by Robert B. Parker

Published 1 February 1981
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.

Book 9

Ceremony

by Robert B. Parker

Published June 1983
The house looked right. And the neighborhood was perfect. And everything else was wrong. So Spenser took the parents' money and went after a runaway girl. Unfortunately, April Kyle had already traveled two lifetimes from her suburban home. Now she was caught up in a web of pinps, criminals, and exploiters—the kinf of people who won't listen to anything but money, or a gun. . . . 

Praise for Ceremony

“Sizzling.”The Pittsburgh Press

“Pick of the crop, this one. Genuinely involving.”The Cleveland Plain Dealer

Book 10

The Widening Gyre

by Robert B. Parker

Published 1 March 1983
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.

Book 11

Valediction

by Robert B. Parker

Published 1 April 1984
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.

Book 12

A Catskill Eagle

by Robert B. Parker

Published 1 May 1985
“His best mystery novel”—Time

Susan's letter came from California: Hawk was in jail, and she was on the run. Twenty-four hours later Hawk is free, because Spenser has sprung him loose—for a brutal cross-country journey back to the East Coast. Now the two men are on a violent ride to find the woman Spenser loves, the man who took her, and the shocking reason so many people had to die. . . .

Book 13

Taming a Sea-horse

by Robert B. Parker

Published 1 May 1986
A high-class New York madam hires Spenser to find a missing hooker, But when Spenser tracks down April Kyle, he uncovers the murder of yet another prostitute. Now Spenser is searching through a world of sex for sale. Because somewhere between Boston and a kinky Caribbean club, someone has a taste for young women, big money, and murder. . . .

Praise for Taming a Seahorse

“Irresistible!”The Bergen Record

“A winner.”The Chicago Tribune

Book 15

Crimson Joy

by Robert B. Parker

Published 1 June 1988
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.

Book 16

Playmates

by Robert B. Parker

Published 1 April 1989
Spenser goes back to school--to investigate 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...

Book 17

Stardust

by Robert B. Parker

Published 1 June 1990
Spenser's never had a client like Jill Joyce, the star of TV's Fifty Minutes. She's beautiful, bitchy, sexy--and someone is stalking her. Spenser can hardly blame the would-be assassin...until he means the true meaning of "stage fright."

Book 18

Pastime

by Robert B. Parker

Published 1 July 1991
The most personal and revealing Spenser thriller of all, Pastime is Robert B. Parker's electrifying masterpeice of crime fiction--a startling game of memory, desire, and danger that forces Spenser to face his own past. Ten years ago, he saved a teenage boy from a father's rage. Now, on the brink of manhood, the boy seeks answers to his mother's sudden disapearance. Spenser is the only man he can turn to.

This time, it's more than a routine search for a missing person--Spenser must search his own soul...


Book 19

Double Deuce

by Robert B. Parker

Published 8 June 1992
Hawk wants Spenser to wage war on a street gang. Susan wants Spenser to move in with her. Either way, Spenser's out of his element. So why not risk both?

Book 20

Paper Doll

by Robert B. Parker

Published 31 May 1993
Boston PI Spenser investigates the perfect murder in this New York Times bestselling mystery in Robert B. Parker’s acclaimed series.

She was a model wife and mother, bludgeoned with a hammer on the streets of Beacon Hill. Spenser's searching for a motive and a murderer—and finding more secrets than meet the eye...

“Among the best Spensers...Parker's at the top of his game!”—Boston Globe

Book 21

Walking Shadow

by Robert B. Parker

Published 12 May 1994
A murder draws Boston PI Spenser into the dramatic world of theater in this New York Times bestseller in Robert B. Parker’s long-running series.

In a shabby waterfront town, an actor is shot dead onstage. Granted, the script left much to be desired. But there's more behind the scenes than an overzealous critic—and Spenser and Hawk are combing Port City’s underworld to find it...

“Great fun...[Spenser] is still the cockiest and wittiest P.I. on the block.”—The New York Times