Book cover of The Professional

Book description

The wives of Boston's wealthiest men have a mutual secret: they all had an affair with the same cad who's blackmailing them, and Spenser's been hired to stop him. But when the wives start dying one by one, Spenser's new case becomes murder.

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Professional as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is one of a series of Spenser novels. It is set in modern-day Boston, and this novel follows the protagonist, Spenser, as he tries to find out who shot his associate Hawk. Parker takes the reader into a murky netherworld where all is grey, even justice.

The novel's pacing is slick, the characterization believable, and the dialog takes one back to Raymond Chandler. I read it in two sittings. 

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Barracuda Bay by Carmen Amato,

With plot elements inspired by presidential elections in both the US and Mexico, Barracuda Bay follows Acapulco’s first female police detective, Emilia Cruz, as she investigates the murder of the mayor’s sister—only to become a fugitive hunted by killers disguised as cops in Washington, DC. The stakes couldn’t be higher…

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