As in other Spenser novels, Parker relies almost entirely on Spenser's first-person narrative. It is worth noting that in some more recent Spenser novels, such as Thin Air (1995), Parker has also tried to increase drama by using occasional third-person accounts of certain events, such as the point of view of the victim of an abduction (following a narrative device developed by James Lee Burke and other writers of suspense stories). But Hush Money relies entirely on Spenser's narration, a restriction of pointof-view that is not a defect. Little would be gained, for instance, by describing the rape of K. C. Roth from the victim's point of view.

Other familiar Parker techniques also work well. The laconic and self-deprecating repartee between Spenser and Hawk continues to express their shared world of masculine warrior values, and the dialogue between Spenser and Susan provides serious analysis of the psychological forces which...