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Robert Parker's delicious new novel can almost be summed up in three words: Spenser is back!
The longtime hero of Parker's original crime series has returned with wit and wisdom intact. Despite how enjoyable the new Jesse Stone series has proven to be, I freely admit to having missed Spenser. As with a favorite chair, it's a true pleasure to settle back into the comfortable repartee and down-and-dirty action that only Spenser, Hawk, and Susan can provide.
In HUSH MONEY, Spenser takes on two new cases simultaneously as favors to the most important people in his life. Hawk approaches Spenser with a problem that at first glance seems distinctly out of their usual line of fire. The well-published son of a good friend of Hawk's has been denied tenure at the university where he teaches American Literature. However, once Spenser and Hawk sink their teeth into the raunchy backside of academia, the hallowed halls will never be the same.
Robinson Nevins, a black conservative and therefore "something of an anomaly" at the University, is convinced that his predicament is the result of a smear campaign. Accused of contributing to the recent suicide of graduate student Prentice Lamont by virtue of an alleged sexual relationship, Nevins insists that the tenure committee's process was wrong...regardless of his sexual orientation.
As Spenser and Hawk attempt to uncover the motives of the committee members who voted to deny Nevins tenure, they find a veritable hornet's nest. Prentice Lamont was responsible for a publication used as a means of "outing" prominent community members who preferred to remain in the closet. As our dynamic duo investigates, they come up against an idiosyncratic cast of characters that is one of Parker's trademarks. The tenure committee members include a politically correct white liberal feminist with hidden sexual appetites and a hypocritical professor at the African-American Center who triggers an interesting reaction in Hawk.
As the search into the connection between Prentice Lamont and the committee members intensifies, so does Spenser's other case. Susan asks Spenser to help her friend, K.C. Roth get rid of a stalker, but she hasn't counted on K. C. acting out the predatory female role with her man --- or on her own reactions to the attention Spenser is attracting.
Spenser's search for K.C.'s stalker leads him to an ex-husband and a married stockbroker boyfriend whose firm has ties to Prentice Lamont. Just as more intertwining threads begin to appear, K. C. is raped and Spenser revs up the investigation to find a way to protect Susan's friend, even as she heats up her advances toward Spenser.
HUSH MONEY has all the essential ingredients of the perfect Spenser mystery: convoluted crimes, interesting characters, personal investment in the cases, intelligent dialogue, rock-'em-sock-'em action, romance, food, and those wonderful little wisecracking winks that showcase Spenser as the most erudite --- and fun ---private eye in detective fiction today. Throw in academic politics, homophobia, a few white supremacists, and the stakes rise. But when Hawk reveals something of his past and Susan loses her cool, HUSH MONEY soars to even more laudable heights.
Yep, Spenser is back! And Parker serves up a humdinger of a good time as the white hats clobber the bad guys and take us along for the rambunctious ride.
--- Reviewed by Jami Edwards
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