Few detectives could drag Chrétien de Troyes and courtly love into a case without sounding pretentious, but Spenser pulls it off. Perfect, undemanding summer reading
- Joan Smith, Sunday Times
Spenser is one of the best private detectives in fiction
Sunday Telegraph
another combination of wry satire and sly action in his thirty-first mystery starring Spenser, the Boston private eye
- Connie Fletcher, Booklist
A cheating husband and a wayward wife provide Spenser with an unconventional and dangerous surveillance job
When Marlene Cowley hires Spenser to see if her husband, Trent, is cheating on her, he encounters more than he bargained for: Not only does he find a two-timing husband, but a second investigator as well, hired by the husband to look after his wife. As a result of their joint efforts, Spenser soon finds himself investigating both individual depravity and corporate corruption.
It seems the folks in the Cowley's circle have become enamoured of radio talk-show host Darrin O'Mara, whose views on Courtly Love are clouding some already fuzzy minds with the notion of cross-connubial relationships. O'Mara's brand of sex therapy is unconventional at best, unlawful-and deadly-at worst. Then a murder at Kinergy, where Trent Cowley is CFO, sends Spenser in yet another direction.
Apparently, the unfettered pursuit of profit has a price.