''Mortal Stakes'' is the third
Spenser novel by
Robert B. Parker, first published in
1975
It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe.
Events
January
* January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...
. The story centers on the
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
private eye being hired by the
Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...
to find out if their lead pitcher, Marty Rabb, is on the take. The investigation quickly takes him into a deeper, and more dangerous, blackmail plot involving pimps, a high class madam, and a vicious shylock.
Marty Rabb's wife, Linda Rabb, lived a secret life as a prostitute and made a pornographic film that is the backbone of the blackmail issue. Spenser must deal with the shylock, Frank Doerr, and his huge bodyguard before he can deal with the actual blackmailer (which turns out to be the Red Sox broadcaster, Bucky Maynard).
This book explains why Susan Silverman became his primary love interest instead of Brenda Loring. Spenser explains that he can talk to Susan about hard problems in a way that he can't with Brenda.
Literary significance and criticism
"Despite appearances at the beginning, this tense and well-plotted story is not about baseball. Spenser ... finds two couples -- a blackmailer and his parasite and a man and wife (the ballplayer ménage) with whom he becomes friendly. These four principals are admirably done; the slut's transgression is not treated in the routine manner that might have been expected; and the final, violent settlement of accounts by Spenser is first-rate."
[Barzun, Jacques and Taylor, Wendell Hertig. ''A Catalogue of Crime''. New York: Harper & Row. 1971, revised and enlarged edition 1989. ]
References
1975 American novels
Spenser (novel series)
Houghton Mifflin books
Baseball novels
American detective novels
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