MORTAL STAKES (Spenser #3) by Robert B. Parker


Originally Published in 1975

If you have not read a Spenser detective novel and you love the detective genre, pick one up and start reading. There are 40 original novels and they all follow a basic premise: Spenser gets a case. Spenser noses around, makes a lot of wisecracks, irritates people who certainly deserve to be irritated, and then he sees if there is a reaction to his nosing around. Usually, that is someone trying to warn him off or, perhaps, trying to kill him outright. From there, Spenser knows who is after him and can figure out why and he knows where to proceed and solve the case.

 Sounds simple, doesn't it?

 Of course, it is. And, the finest of wines are really just grape squeezings. Simple - but yet there is something else there.

 The Spenser series is one of the few series that I am willing to re-read. In this case, I undoubtedly read Mortal Stakes nearly 20 years ago and I mis-remembered it more than I remembered it, so it made for a good re-read. 

 In Spenser's third outing he is hired by the Boston Red Sox manager to check out their star pitcher. He is the best in the league but there is some reason to believe that he may have thrown a couple of games, or at least shaved some points (made the score closer than it would have to help out gamblers who bet it would be a close game).

So, Spenser pretends he is an author of an upcoming book about baseball so he can freely nose about the ballpark and talk to everyone who will talk to him. Soon enough, he roots out the truth but now he has another problem - does he really want the truth to come out?

 I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

 This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Mortal Stakes

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