Hush Money (Spenser Mystery) [Hardcover]

Robert B. Parker (Author)

Book Description

Series: Spenser Mystery | Publication Date: March 8, 1999

Spenser has his hands full when he takes on two cases at once. In the first, a high-minded university might be hiding a killer within a swamp of political correctness. And in the other, Spenser comes to the aid of a stalking victim, only to find himself the unwilling object of the woman's dangerous affection.

"One of the great series in the history of the American detective story!"--The New York Times

"Spenser can still punch, sleuth, and wisecrack with the best of them."--Publishers Weekly

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Twenty-five years and 26 books into the Spenser series, Hush Money dishes up another solid installment that is sure to fulfill the cravings of Parker fans new and old. This time Spenser and his buddy Hawk are helping a couple of troubled friends (i.e., they're working without a fee). The first case involves the denial of tenure for Professor Robinson Nevins. While tenure meetings are always closed-door affairs, Nevins assumes that the recent suicide of graduate student Prentice Lamont (who some claim was having an affair with Nevins) ruined his chances for a coveted permanent position. Spenser and Hawk cut a brawl-strewn path through the members of the tenure committee on their way to the surprising truth of the Nevins case. The other investigation pits Spenser against the unknown stalker of K.C. Roth. Spenser's girlfriend, Susan, has known K.C. for a while, and while the PI finds Ms. Roth a bit melodramatic, he's always eager to help a damsel in distress. The only problem is that after he's apparently resolved the case, K.C. begins a little stalking of her own--of Spenser.

The book is driven by the controversies surrounding political correctness that Parker always loves to confront, and it's fun to watch Spenser struggle (a little) to resist K.C.'s advances. It's also a (slightly disturbed) pleasure to see Spenser and Hawk address some academic hypocrisy with their own special brand of reasoning. Not a mystery for the cozy-loving palette, Hush Money's literate, tough-guy dialogue shows why Parker is the rightful heir to the throne of Chandler. --Patrick O'Kelley

From Publishers Weekly

Despite his quarter century on Boston's mean streets (he debuted in The Godwulf Manuscript in 1974), Parker's retrograde yet hip PI Spenser can still punch, sleuth and wisecrack with the best of them. This time out, Spenser looks into the case of Robinson Nevins, a conservative African-American professor denied tenure, perhaps for his alleged affair with a male student, Prentice Lamont, who has committed suicide. Spenser's hard-eyed stroll through the cloistered world of academia brings him into contact with Amir Abdullah, a black professor who is theatrically militant about African-American issues despite a long list of sexual conquests that includes the leader of a white supremacist organization. Sexual conquest is also on the mind of K.C. Roth, a pretty woman beset by insecurity and prey to a stalker. When Spenser and his sidekick, Hawk, persuade her sinister admirer to desist, K.C.'s fragile emotions lead her to fall hard for Spenser, and the stalked becomes the stalker. Naturally, Spenser's longtime lover, Susan, is less than amused. Readers who find the Spenser chronicles cute or contrived probably won't change their minds with this entry. Beyond dispute, however, is Parker's reliably gossamer narrative touch and, in this particular instance, his skilled brewing of suspense within the academic setting. Fans will also enjoy unexpected revelations about Hawk's background, Spenser's serving of justice with a vengeance and, as usual, prose that's as clean as a sea breeze.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 309 pages
• Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons (March 8, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739402870
• ISBN-13: 978-0399144585
• ASIN: 0399144587
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,025,895 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert B. Parker (1932-2010) has long been acknowledged as the dean of American crime fiction. His novel featuring the wise-cracking, street-smart Boston private-eye Spenser earned him a devoted following and reams of critical acclaim, typified by R.W.B. Lewis' comment, "We are witnessing one of the great series in the history of the American detective story" (The New York Times Book Review). In June and October of 2005, Parker had national bestsellers with APPALOOSA and SCHOOL DAYS, and continued his winning streak in February of 2006 with his latest Jesse Stone novel, SEA CHANGE.

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Parker attended Colby College in Maine, served with the Army in Korea, and then completed a Ph.D. in English at Boston University. He married his wife Joan in 1956; they raised two sons, David and Daniel. Together the Parkers founded Pearl Productions, a Boston-based independent film company named after their short-haired pointer, Pearl, who has also been featured in many of Parker's novels.

Parker began writing his Spenser novels in 1971 while teaching at Boston's Northeastern University. Little did he suspect then that his witty, literate prose and psychological insights would make him keeper-of-the-flame of America's rich tradition of detective fiction. Parker's fictional Spenser inspired the ABC-TV series Spenser: For Hire. In February 2005, CBS-TV broadcast its highly-rated adaptation of the Jesse Stone novel Stone Cold, which featured Tom Selleck in the lead role as Parker's small-town police chief. The second CBS movie, Night Passage, also scored high ratings, and the third, Death in Paradise, aired on April 30, 2006.

Parker was named Grand Master of the 2002 Edgar Awards by the Mystery Writers of America, an honor shared with earlier masters such as Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen.

Parker died on January 19, 2010, at the age of 77.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly good, January 21, 2000

By 

Ray Salemi (Framingham, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hush Money (Spenser Mystery) (Hardcover)

I had avoided reading Hush Money for many months because I feel that Parker has been coasting for many years. I have been getting tired of the basic plot of the invincible Spenser and his trusty sidekick Hawk bashing their way through mysteries.

Hush Money reminded me of how much I enjoy Parker's writing. His characters are fun to listen to, and his descriptions are very funny -- I laughed out loud many times.

Overall, I'd recommend the paperback version of this book. It's a quick, enjoyable read.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book but could use a little more violence and gun play, May 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Hush Money (Spenser Mystery) (Hardcover)

"Hush Money" is one of the best "Spenser" novels in years. Not THE best only because it probably could use a little more violence and gun play. SPOILER: Spenser and Hawk beat up only four people. And they don't even shoot anyone!

You think maybe they're getting old? Nah!

But seriously, "Hush Money" is Robert Parker at his finest. Spenser is at his wise-cracking, one-liner best and Hawk is; well, he is Hawk. Audacious, inscruptible, redoubtable Hawk. Plus, we get a glimpse into Hawk's early life, before he met Spenser.

And as another bonus, near the end, we get to see another side of Susan. I never liked her more. But don't skip to the final pages, it will spoil the fun.

If you are a "Spenser" fan, you'll enjoy this book. If, however, you are a politically-correct liberal (or from San Francisco, same thing), you'll probably hate it. As a personal side note, I am a fairly conservative African-American - no Buchanan-lover by any means (pun intended for those who've read the book) but defintely neither liberal nor politically correct - and I can testify to the self-righteous hypocrisy and racism of the liberal White academics to Robinson Nevins. It is almost as if Robert Parker was privy to some of the conversations I've had in academia.

"Hush Money" is an excellent book; on many levels.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars SPENSER HOOKS UP WITH HAWK, AND WE HAVE A GOOD TIME, April 6, 1999

By 

ROBERT PURCELL MOYER - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hush Money (Spenser Mystery) (Hardcover)

HUSH MONEY Robert B. Parker Putnam $22.95 309 pp.

In this latest installment, Spenser hooks up with Hawk for the entire novel: he also hooks up with Susan Silverman enough times to turn foreplay into fiveplay, sixplay, even sevenplay. Spenser fans need read no further to know that a lot of fun is in store for them.

However, readers less familiar with this venerable series may need a few more facts. Spenser, the one-named private eye, has beaten up bad guys and bandied about bon mots on the bestseller lists for some twenty-odd years, in some twenty-odd novels. A poetry-spouting ex-pugilist with a gastronomic flair, he and his sidekick Hawk could waltz through the entire WWF stable without soiling their sartorial splendor. Hawk, imperturbable quick-tongued African American, was Spenser's "homey" before there was such a word. In HUSH MONEY, Hawk asks Spenser to help an African American professor at Harvard, denied tenure for spurious reasons; he supposedly spurned a young man who then committed suicide. As Spenser soon discovers, the professor was straight, and the boy was killed. Then, while Spenser carefully skirts the pitfalls of political correctness in the groves of academe, his main squeeze Susan entreats him to take on a stalking case for a friend of hers. Before long, Spenser finds himself treading lightly around the grounds of sexual harrassment, as the beautiful stalkee becomes his stalker. Spenser sets up the boy's murderer for he and Hawk to take out, while he sets up his stalker for Susan to take on.

The plot here is as thin as the "villain." However, the real pleasure, the power actually, lies in Parker's wordplay, a form of homage to Spenser's namesake, the great English poet. When Spenser's stalker demands to know what's so great about Susan, he replies without a beat, "The way she wears her hat,...the way she sips her tea." When his nemesis calls him an "unutterable" unnameable, Spenser admires the epithet rather than be insulted. At his best here, Parker spins a three-page tension-filled stake-out around the word "guileful." And, as always, he has a way with the vernacular: Spenser notes that what they have "...almost sounds like a plan; "'Do,' Hawk said, `don't it.'"

Good writing about people who are good company makes for a good time, and a great read.