Pun Salad

The official title of this book is Robert B. Parker's Hot Property. With those first three words being the largest font on the cover. This is a convention the books have followed ever since other authors took over writing duties after Mr. Parker died fifteen years ago.

So to clarify the title: the property in question was not owned by Mr. Parker. (It is, in fact, not a house either, let alone one on fire.)

So this convention is confusing and lame. But (sigh) I assume it's been focus grouped as an optimal way to squeeze the maximum amount of cash from people (like me) who remember Mr. Parker fondly, designed to take cold advantage of our weird psychological urge to find out what's up with our favorite fictional characters. Like Spenser, Mr. Parker's ageless wisecracking private investigator.

So I e-plunked down $14.99 for the Kindle version.

An opening act has Spenser and (the equally ageless) Hawk visiting a cad who's been hassling Rita Fiore, a beautiful, libidinous defense attorney who's also one of Spenser's longtime friends. But then Rita is near-fatally shot. The cops (Quirk, Belson) are on the case. But Spenser and Hawk are too. And others from the Parker universe soon join in: Susan, Henry Cimoli, Vinnie Morris, even Jesse Stone. It takes a village.

(Which is something Spenser says on page 283.)

Eventually, it becomes evident that there's a tie between Rita's shooting and the drowning, allegedly accidental, of a charismatic politician, one of Rita's (many) ex-lovers. And (finally) there's a connection to the titular Hot Property, down in Southie, on which some shady folks want to build a casino. (Widett Circle, which turns out to be an actual place.)

Plenty of suspects. And more bodies pile up. The bad guys seem to think the easiest way to get what they want is to shoot people who might be problematic.

It's pretty formulaic. Doesn't matter, I've been hooked.

Stylistic note: the largest Boston paper is referred to throughout as "The Globe". "The" italicized with an uppercase T. That looks weird to me! I would have thought it more conventional to say "the Globe": lowercase t, "the" unitialicized. Any editorial mavens want to weigh in on this?