Robert B. Parker's Old Black Magic
Iconic, tough-but-tender Boston PI Spenser delves into the black-market art scene to investigate a decades-long unsolved crime of dangerous proportions
The heist was legendary, still talked about twenty years after the priceless paintings disappeared from one of Boston's premier art museums. Most thought the art was lost forever, buried deep, sold off overseas, or, worse, destroyed as incriminating evidence. But when paint chips from the most valuable piece stolen, Gentlemen in Black, by a Spanish master, arrives at the desk of a Boston journalist, the museum finds hope and enlists Spenser's help.
Soon the cold art case thrusts Spenser into the shady world of black market art dealers, aged Mafia bosses, and old vendettas. A five-million-dollar-reward by the museum's top benefactor, an aged, unlikable Boston socialite, sets Spenser and pals Vinnie Morris and Hawk onto a trail of hidden secrets, jailhouse confessions, murder, and double crosses.
Set against the high-society art scene and the lowlife back alleys of Boston, this is classic Spenser doing what he does best.
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Ace Atkins
Ace Atkins is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty novels and numerous short stories. A former college football player and newspaper reporter, he’s a recipient of the Richard Wright Literary Excellence Award, the Harper Lee Award, and a member of the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame. He lives with his wife Angela and two children in Oxford, Mississippi.
Spenser
In the layered streets of Boston, where power shifts like the tides and loyalty is the rarest currency, one man has built a career on standing firm when others bend. The Spenser series carves out a world that feels startlingly real—gritty yet sharply human, laced with danger but grounded by heart. At the center of it all is a private investigator whose code of honor is as unshakable as the city’s granite foundations.
Spenser consists of fifty-two primary books, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads and series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
