Robert B Parker

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...

Pretty teenager April Kyle is in grown-up-trouble, involved with people who'd beat her up for a dollar and kill her for five. Now she's disappeared, last seen in the Combat Zone, that side of Boston where nothing's proper, especially the sex for sale.
With Hawk, his sidekick, Spenser takes on the whole X-rated industry. From a specialty whorehouse in Providence to stylish Back Bay bordellos, he pits muscle and wit against bullets and brawn until...

Young Spenser is tough. No doubt about it. After all, he’s being raised by his father and uncles—three of the toughest men in town. He knows how to fight, and he’s had to prove it. But his father taught him something far more valuable: sometimes the toughest thing a guy can do is walk away from a fight.
 
So when Spenser sees his friend Jeannie being taken in a boat downriver by her abusive father, he knows he has a...

In Boston, a female student is murdered and police arrest a black man who has a history of sexual assault. The prosecution has no problem obtaining a conviction, even though the man is not guilty. PI Spenser is hired to find the man who is.

Investigating allegations of lewd conduct on the part of the local junior high principal, police chief Jesse Stone finds efforts to bring the woman to justice thwarted by a high-powered attorney.

When the local university hired Spenser to recover a stolen manuscript, his only clue was a radical student with four bullets in his chest.

Investigating a thrill-seeking pair of serial killers who are targeting the residents of an affluent suburban town, police chief Jesse Stone finds his job complicated by local politicians, the media, his drinking problem, and his ex-wife.

When a serial murderer dubbed "The Spare Change Killer" by the Boston press surfaces after three decades in hiding, the police immediately seek out the cop, now retired, who headed the original task force: Phil Randall. As a sharp-eyed investigator and a doting parent ("You're smart. You're tough. You, too, are a paradigm of law enforcement perfection, and you're my kid"), Phil calls on his daughter, Sunny, to help catch the criminal who eluded him...

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...

PI Spenser investigates charges of discrimination made by a black professor who was denied tenure at a New England university. The professor claims there was a conspiracy to brand him as a homosexual.