ROBERT B. PARKER'S HOT PROPERTY by Mike Lupica

Lupica's second Spenser sees our hero investigate when high-powered attorney Rita Fiore is shot. Evoking Parker's Small Vices (1997) and Cold Service (2005), which saw Spenser and Hawk gunned down respectively, Lupica imperils Rita to shock readers, but also to honor and increase her standing in the Parker canon.

Book design by Katy Riegel

An interviewer once asked Parker's widow Joan how she felt Ace Atkins would fare writing Spenser. She answered that Atkins' voice would become part of Spenser's. She and Putnam didn't wish Atkins leave himself out and strictly mimic Parker. In the same way, Lupica's voice blends better with Spenser's in Hot Property than in 2023's Broken Trust. Hot Property benefits, too, from Lupica's time writing Rita's old flame Jesse Stone, as Spenser and Stone call on each other.

Thanks again to Putnam Books for the NetGalley. Robert B. Parker's Hot Property goes on sale November 26.

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