Discussions of Hush Money probably should assume some familiarity with the characters of Spenser, Hawk, and Susan Silverman, either as a result of discussants having read earlier novels in the series or as a consequence of casual acquaintance with the television series, or at least one or more film versions for television. If readers lack this familiarity, however, a brief summary of the characters of these three principals and some of the subsidiary characters in the series may be helpful.

It is less likely that readers of Hush Money will be knowledgeable about the tenure system used by university faculties and administrations, which system takes a variety of forms in different institutions, but which is presented in a fairly standard form in the novel.

Perhaps readers need to be informed that tenure decisions are made after a faculty member serves a certain probationary period (usually five...