Mortal Stakes

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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After stumbling onto Spenser: For Hire—I think during season 2 summer re-runs, I headed to my local library and grabbed the earliest in the series they had—Mortal Stakes. This wasn't the first “adult” novel or mystery that I'd tried, but it was the best. Between Parker's voice, Spenser's wit, and the kind of story it told, I was sold and spent the next few months getting my hands on every one of the series I could. Re-reading this one is always like coming home.

Spenser is hired by a Boston Red Sox executive to investigate their best pitcher, Marty Rabb. There's a hint of a suggestion of a rumor that he's shaving points on behalf of gamblers, and the executive wants to know if it's true. If so, he wants to address it quitely, If Rabb's clean, he wants to know that quietly.

It takes no time at all for Spenser to determine that he is—and why. The bulk of the novel is Spenser's attempt to learn who is blackmailing Rabb to do this and then to extricate him from their grip before it ruins his career and/or marriage. This is a significant challenge.

Spenser sees a lot of himself in Rabb—they share the same values, sense of honor, sense of play. Spenser will later look into a similar case in Playmates, and he'll meet a similar athlete—only his sport is College Basketball. Parker will often use clients to shine a light on an aspect of Spenser's character, usually by way of contrast—but with athletes, it's because of similarity.

On the expanding Spenser-verse front, we meet New York Madam, Patricia Utley. She's no “hooker with a heart of gold,” by any means. She's a businesswoman first and foremost. She does remember where she came from, and can occasionally be counted on to display a bit of sentimentality. She will reappear several times in this series (and will make appearances in related series)—a reliable source of information as well as a resource.

In The Godwulf Manuscript we saw Spenser physically rough up a couple of college kids and verbally push around an older man. Each incident is followed by Spenser berating himself. In a fit of pique following a botched stakeout for the ransom delivery in God Save the Child, Spenser breaks the handle of the rake he was using as a prop and feels so bad that he leaves money to pay for it. Parker goes out of his way to show Spenser's conscience. Yet in this book, Spenser arranges to outright kill two people. Yes, he's wracked with guilt—physically ill—but he's able to justify it to himself. Which mostly works, but he has to go to Susan Silverman to talk things out and convince himself he did the right thing.

This book shows that Spenser is changing. He doesn't like being alone—he needs to talk some of the difficult things through with Susan. He's had a couple of dates with Brenda Loring earlier in the book—but he notes she's good for having fun with, but for serious talk, it has to be Susan. I appreciate the slow growth in the character here.

This isn't the best Spenser volume—but it's a very good one. This is the first (of many) extended look at Spenser's code. We see Spenser wade in deep ethical waters (and doesn't necessarily come out clean). But most importantly, we see Spenser doing all he can—whether his employer wants him to or not—to dig a couple of people out form a tight spot. Mortal Stakes is Parker at his best and is just a pleasure to read.

As long as I remember the early books in this series were written in the '70s, there's actually interesting discussions going on, rather than just antiquated views on sex work, masculinity. Spenser has some moments of vulnerability and more of snappy wit and self-deprecation, and that also helps balance out when things get a little, well, sexist. Apparently illegal gambling and blackmail, facilitating mystery solving, are what I need to make a story grounded in the sport of baseball compelling (sorry sports fans!). Overall the series continues to deliver quick entertaining reads, a nostalgia vibe similar to rewatching somewhat problematic 80s and 90s action movies. ⚠️ Fatphobia