The Professional (Spenser)

Parker, Robert B.

ISBN 10: 0739343890 ISBN 13: 9780739343890

Publisher: Random House, 2009

Synopsis

A knock on Spenser's office door can mean only one thing: a new case. This time the visitor is a local lawyer with an interesting story. Elizabeth Shaw specializes in wills and trusts at the Boston law firm of Shaw & Cartwright, and over the years she's developed a friendship with wives of very wealthy men. These rich wives have a shared secret: they've all had an affair with a man named Gary Eisenhower—and now he's blackmailing them for money. Shaw hires Spenser to make Eisenhower "cease and desist," so to speak, but when women start turning up dead, Spenser's case goes from blackmail to murder.

As matters become more complicated, Spenser's longtime love, Susan, begins offering input on the case, analyzing Gary's behavior patterns in hopes of opening a new avenue of investigation. It turns out that not all of Gary's women are rich. So if he's not using them for blackmail, then what is his purpose? Spenser switches tactics to focus on the husbands, only to find that innocence and guilt may be two sides of the same coin.

About this title

Review

'If you are in the mood for a gumshoe thriller, you cannot do better than read The Professional ... the denouement is both unexpected and logical' The Lady. (The Lady)

From the Back Cover

Spenser has never had any difficulty handling women, but when four stunningly beautiful trophy wives hire him to protect them against a blackmailer threatening to expose their infidelities, even he must admit they look like trouble.
Tracking down the blackmailer poses few problems for a private eye of Spenser's abilities - and almost in spite of himself Spenser finds that he quite likes the guy. Certainly the women, with their loose purse-strings and looser morals, and their loveless marriages to powerful, corrupt men, are hard to feel sorry for.
But a killing soon changes the complexion of the case, and draws Spenser into the world of Boston's monied aristocracy: a world of corruption, vice and murder. As the bodies start to pile up, Spenser must decide which of his friends he can trust.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0739343890
• ISBN 13: 9780739343890
• Binding: Audio CD