Spenser

Spenser is a Boston-based private detective with a solid reputation among both police officers and mafia kingpins. He is physically powerful, a former boxer who maintains his strength and agility with frequent jogs and long sessions at the Harbor Health Club. More important, however, are Spenser's strength of reasoning and clarity of thought. While he does psychological battle on a daily basis, he participates in only two physical confrontations throughout the novel. He prefers to use his wit, jokes, and knowledge to disarm his opponents.

When Spenser first takes the case of Meade Alexander, he is drinking heavily and often and contemplating the nature of love. Ultimately, it is revealed that Spenser is terribly lonely without his longtime girlfriend, Susan, who has taken a job in Washington, DC. Spenser must come to resolution with this relationship, and in doing so he must either accept or reject his own...