Her name is Lisa St. Claire. Her husband's a cop. Her whereabouts are unknown. Spenser thought he could help a friend find his missing wife. Until he learned the nasty truth about -- Lisa St. Claire. For starters, it's not her real name. Lisa St. Claire, the pretty young wife of a middle-aged cop, Frank Belson, has disappeared. When somebody takes a shot at Frank a few days later, he asks Spenser to find her. Spenser quickly discovers that she had...

After his baby brother eats his school art project, Spencer has only a few hours to create a winning masterpiece.

Spenser is back and embroiled in a dangerous and multi-layered case. Someone has been killing racehorses at stables across the south, and Walter Clive, president of Three Fillies Stables, hires him to find out who. Spenser goes to Georgia to protect Hugger Mugger, a two-year-old destined to become the next Secretariat. Disregarding the resentment of the local Georgia law enforcement, he takes the case. Despite the veneer of civility, Spenser encounters...

When Marlene Rowley hires Spenser to follow her cheating husband, Spenser finds not only a two-timing spouse, but another detective hired to shadow the wayward Marlene. Not the most trusting couple in town--but, as in Spenser's about to learn, certainly one of the most dangerous.

Spenser, a Boston PI, is once again hired by April Kyle who was a teenage runaway that turned to prostitution. Now she is a madam of an up-scale, all-female operation that some men are trying to take away from her. April claims she doesn't know who is after her business, but Spenser finds ties to organized crime. Spenser without much surprise also finds that April, the thugs and everyone else involved is lying to him.

Called upon by The Hammond Museum and renowned art scholar Dr. Ashton Prince, Boston PI Spenser accepts his latest case: to provide protection during a ransom exchange-money for a stolen painting. The case becomes personal when Spenser fails to protect his client and the valuable painting remains stolen.