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Spenser #24

Small Vices

robert b. parker

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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...

338 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1,1997
Series
Spenser

This edition

Format
338 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published
March 1, 1998 by G.P. Putnam's Sons
ISBN
9780425162484
ASIN
0425162486
Language
English
Characters More characters
  • Spenser

    Spenser

    Spenser—his first name is never officially revealed—is a fictional private detective in Boston in a series of detective novels initially written by the American mystery writer Robert B. Parker and later by Ace Atkins. He lives in Beacon Hill. He is also f...

  • Susan Silverman

    Susan Silverman

    ...

  • Patricia Utley

    Patricia Utley

    ...

  • Frank Belson

    Frank Belson

    ...

  • Gino Fish

    Gino Fish

    An old-time crime lord in Boston, Massachusetts. Tall and thin with grey hair. Gay?...

  • Ellis Alves

    Ellis Alves

    ...

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About the author

Profile Image for robert b. parker

robert b. parker

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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database named Robert B. Parker.
Robert Brown Parker was an American writer, primarily of fiction within the mystery/detective genre. His most famous works were the 40 novels written about the fictional private detective Spenser. ABC television network developed the television series Spenser: For Hire based on the character in the mid-1980s; a series of TV movies was also produced based on the character. His works incorporate encyclopedic knowledge of the Boston metropolitan area. The Spenser novels have been cited as reviving and changing the detective genre by critics and bestselling authors including Robert Crais, Harlan Coben, and Dennis Lehane.
Parker also wrote nine novels featuring the fictional character Jesse Stone, a Los Angeles police officer who moves to a small New England town; six novels with the fictional character Sunny Randall, a female private investigator; and four Westerns starring the duo Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. The first was Appaloosa, made into a film starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen.

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Community Reviews

Rating(3.9 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
25(25%)
4 stars
42(42%)
3 stars
33(33%)
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100 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
apc243
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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A solid entry in the Spenser series. It provides good insights into Spenser's inner motivations. When he's nearly killed and badly disabled, the story of his incredible pursuit of recovery--aided by Hawk, Susan, and Pearl (Susan's dog)--will strike anyone who's gone through a long rehabilitation process as accurate. Yes, the bad characters are really bad.
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
Gattz
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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I liked this book pretty well but there wasn't much happening as there usually is in Spenser books. I did think the book was well crafted and was quite different from the norm with Spenser's rehab in Santa Barbara (a wonderful city where I lived for quite a few years) but I guess I expected a little more action. Definitely a different feel to this book.
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Sull
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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Much like Mr. Parker's other Spenser novels this book revolves around a baby boomer's idea of romance and mystery with a decent plot. Overall not a terrible book and if you haven't read any of Mr. Parker's books it is worth a shot but you won't be missing out if you don't.
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
silvertongued
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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Only an establishment as woke as the NYT could rate this a bestseller and then only on woke credentials. Elder confirms most personal violent crime in the US is by black Americans on black Americans, Riley will add it is mostly males and of the males, those in the teenager to late 20s early 30s range and Clarke will state that corruption among US policemen is low and anyways not bent towards whites. Numerous daily reports will suggest a hired killer is more likely to come out of the US military than the Israeli forces because Israel look after their retirees, and it seems the US don't. I'm not sure a Harvard PhD counsellor would speak as awful as Susan.
The story is hardly original and while it has its own twist, cutting 150 pages would have made it a page turner rather than a skipper. Along the way Hawk and others are given a good build but come page 326 the most they've done is to help our hero get fit enough too again run up a hill unaided.
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
LinnHJo
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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Spenser is hired by a former prosecutor that now works for large legal firm because she thinks a black defendant, Ellis, was falsely accused of murdering a white college coed. As Spenser investigates there are too many coincidences in the case and he suspects the coed's tennis star boyfriend from a wealthy family is involved in the cover up. The tenacious Spenser is warned to back off the case and hunted by the Grey Man, an assassin, that puts three near fatal bullets in Spenser after killing a corrupt state police officer. Half the story is Spenser's rehab and recovery with Susan and Hawk in California, a slow filler. After 10 months, Spenser returns to Boston to continue putting together the pieces to exonerate Ellis. With some clever maneuvering the Grey Man is captured and a deal is struck that indicts the tennis star in an exchange that the Grey Man is not charged with attempted murder and an ungrateful Ellis walks free. That was a bothersome aspect to the ending as the Grey Man could have been charged with the state police officer's murder. Wonder if the Grey Man reappears in another episode of Spenser's investigations.
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Profile Image for Kimberly .
Megan140
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
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Spenser is always best when his back's against the wall. The thing that makes the Spenser novels so good is not the mystery, because we pretty much know the solution at the outset, it's watching how Spenser shakes it out like a hound snapping a rat's neck and seeing how the other characters react to Spenser bulldogging his way through their secret lives.

Does Parker not get the credit he deserves as a prose stylist because he wrote genre?
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