Most Popular Books by Robert B Parker

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...

In Robert B. Parker''s most popular series, an unsolved thirty-year-old-murder draws the victim''s daughter out of the shadows for overdue justice-and lures Spenser into his own past, old crimes, and dangerous lives.

Family ties prove deadly in this brilliant 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 beautiu00adful 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.

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

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

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...

Spenser may have uncovered an explosive secret that threatens the career of a controversial figure, in this latest installment of Robert B. Parker''s beloved series. Vic Hale isn''t anyone''s idea of a father figure. He is one of the biggest – and loudest – podcasters in the nation and got there by spewing overheated rhetoric that''s reviled by some but loved by even more. His particular brand of ''entertainment'' is so successful, he''s about to sign the biggest contract in the history of online broadcasting. Vic''s riding high... until he gets a visit from Spenser, who specialises in bringing guys like Hale back down to Earth. Spenser is there on behalf of Daniel Lopez, a young man who believes Hale may be his father. It''s a potentially explosive revelation for a man in the podcaster''s position and it might even be enough to blow up his massive new deal. That could explain the bodies that start popping up – bodies connected in one way or another with the mystery surrounding Daniel''s birth. There are a lot of questions remaining, and Spenser''s going to have to find the answers before someone shuts Hale or Daniel up for good.

“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 high society wedding ends unhappily ever after in this mystery starring Boston PI Spenser—“the timeless hero of American detective fiction” (The New York Times Book Review). Hired as a bodyguard at an exclusive wedding, Spenser witnesses an unexpected crime: the kidnapping of the young bride, which opens the door for murder, family secrets, and the reappearance of an old nemesis.

An experienced detective finds himself entangled in a dangerous web of deceit and danger. Hired by a jilted bride to track her cheating husband, Spenser’s investigation takes an unexpected turn when he crosses paths with another detective assigned to follow the unfaithful wife. They aren''t the most trusting couple in town, but as it turns out, they are the most dangerous. As they dig deeper into the case, they uncover shocking secrets that threaten to unravel everything.

Jesse Stone returns in this New York Times bestselling novel of death and deception from Robert B. Parker. Stiles Island is a wealthy and exclusive enclave separated by a bridge from the Massachusetts coast town of Paradise. James Macklin sees the Island as the ultimate investment opportunity: all he needs to do is invade it, blow the bridge, and loot the island. To realize his scheme, 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.

One of Boston’s elite has been murdered. The accused is his new wife. She’s blonde, beautiful, and young. The jury’s going to hate her. With next-to-no alibi, and multi-million reasons to kill her husband, she needs the best defense money can buy. His name is Spenser, and he’d give anything to believe her.

Robert B. Parker introduces readers to police chief Jesse Stone in the first novel in the beloved mystery series—a New York Times bestseller. After a busted marriage kicks his drinking problem into overdrive and the LAPD unceremoniously dumps him, thirty-five-year-old Jesse 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 passing in the night. He finds he must test his mettle and powers of command to emerge a local hero—or the deadest of dupes.

“[Parker''s found] the pitch-perfect voice for a guy who is straining every muscle to cut down on the booze, hang on to his new job as police chief, and not get rattled by the body of a teenage girl”(The New York Times) in this bestselling mystery in the Jesse Stone series. Robert B. Parker takes readers back in Paradise, where Detective Jesse Stone is looking for two things: the killer of a teenage girl—and someone, anyone, who is willing to claim the body... 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.

A horrifying school shooting draws Boston PI Spenser into a harrowing investigation in this thriller by New York Times bestselling author Robert B. Parker. When a Massachusetts boy is accused of mass murder, his socially prominent grandmother is convinced of his innocence and is willing to fight for him. But based on the boy’s resigned attitude and the evidence stacked against him, Spenser isn’t convinced of anything—except that there’s trouble ahead...

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...

Spenser is forced by loyalty into an alien world where violence is a way of lie and outsiders enter at a lethal risk. When Spenser''s cohort, Hawk, is hired by the tenants of a gang-plagued Boston housing project known as "Double Deuce", he enlists his friend''s aid. A friend''s girl and her infant daughter have been gunned down. Though the act at first appears to be an accidental drive-by shooting, it soon becomes clear that it was premeditated murder. Before they can solve the crime, Spenser and Hawk must take on an adolescent band of hardened urban warriors. As bullets fly and the brutality escalates, Spenser learns more than he ever dreamed about a generation imprisoned in a hell of poverty and hopelessness where muscle is the ticket to survival, and the surest way out is in a body bag. Pulsing with moral complexity, Double Deuce is the kind of no-holds-barred action thriller only Robert B. Parker can create.

When a shy high school student''s body is found washed up on the shore of a quiet beach town - an apparent suicide - Terry Novak doesn''t know what to think. He decides to do some investigating with the help of his best friend, Abby. Before long, they learn that asking questions puts them in grave danger. Fortunately, Terry has been learning about fighting, thanks to a retired boxer, who teaches him to use his head and keep his feet set beneath him - lessons Terry takes to heart in more ways than one. Robert B. Parker delivers a taut, empowering mystery for teen readers.

"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.