When Spenser accepts a job as a "bodyguard" for a beautiful young woman, he gets in way over his head.

"Apple Knoll is the kind of suburb where kids grow up right. But something is very wrong. When fourteen-year-old Kevin Bartlett disappears, everyone thinks he's run away--until the comic strip ransom note arrives. It doesn't take Boston PI Spenser long to get the picture: an affluent family seething with rage, a desperate boy making strange friends like bodybuilder Vic Harroway. Mr. Muscle is Spenser's only lead and he isn't talking--except with his...

When infamous actor Jumbo Nelson is accused of rape and murder, the Boston PD calls on Spenser to make heads or tails of the case. Although the evidence is mounting against Jumbo, Spenser makes a break when he teams up with Jumbo's bodyguard, Zebulon Sixkill, and uncovers some secrets involving the murder victim.

Paradise, Massachusetts, Police Chief Jesse Stone must deal in his own laconic way with the town's rights and wrongs, including a Peeping Town, the Paradise Free Swingers, and a firestorm of protests at the junior high school.

Ellis Alves is no angel. But his lawyer says he was framed for the murder of college student Melissa Henderson...and asks Spenser for help.
From Boston's back streets to Manhattan's elite, Spenser and Hawk search for suspects, including Melissa's rich-kid, tennis-star boyfriend. But when a man with a .22 puts Spenser in a coma, the hope for justice may die with him...

"It's December in Boston, and Spenser is busy planning the menu for Christmas dinner when he's confronted in his office by a young boy named Slide. Homeless and alone, Slide has found refuge with an organization named Street Business, which gives shelter and seeks job opportunities for the homeless and lost. Slide's mentor, Jackie Alvarez, is being threatened, and Street Business is in danger of losing its tenuous foothold in the community, turning...

Spenser's never had a client like Jill Joyce, the star of TV's Fifty Minutes. She's beautiful, bitchy, sexy—and someone is stalking her. Spenser can hardly blame the would-be assassin...until he means the true meaning of "stage fright."

One of Boston’s elite has been murdered. The accused is his new wife. She’s blonde, beautiful, and young. The jury’s going to hate her. With next-to-no alibi, and multi-million reasons to kill her husband, she needs the best defense money can buy. His name is Spenser, and he’d give anything to believe her.

When his closest ally, Hawk, is beaten and left for dead while protecting a bookie, Spenser embarks on an epic journey to rehabilitate his best pal, body and soul. But that means infiltrating a ruthless mob—and redefining his friendship with Hawk in the name of vengeance...

“Cold Service moves with the speed of light.”—Orlando Sentinel

Spenser earned his degree in the school of hard knocks, so he's ready when a Boston university hires him to recover a stolen rare manuscript. His only clue is a radical student with four bullets in his chest. The cops are ready to throw the book at the pretty blond coed whose prints are all over the murder weapon, but Spenser knows there are no easy answers. He has to tackle some very heavy homework to avoid ending up marked "D"--For dead.