Now & Then

Unabridged
Author: Robert B. Parker
Narrator: Joe Mantegna
Genres: Fiction, iPod Audiobooks
Publisher: Random House (Audio)
Date: October 2007
Length: 5 hours, 30 minutes
Ratings:
Formats:
  • iPod

Overview

Spenser knows something’s amiss the moment Dennis Doherty walks into his office. The guy’s aggressive yet wary, in the way men frightened for their marriages always are. So when Doherty asks Spenser to investigate his wife Jordan’s abnormal behavior, Spenser agrees. A job’s a job, after all.

Not surprisingly, Spenser catches Jordan with another man, tells Dennis what he’s found out, and considers the case closed. But a couple of days later, all hell breaks loose, and three people are dead. This isn’t just a marital affair gone bad. Spenser is in the middle of hornet’s nest of trouble, and he has to get out of it without getting stung.

With Hawk watching his back and gun-for-hire Vinnie Morris providing extra cover, Spenser delves into a complicated and far-reaching operation: Jordan’s former lover Perry Alderson is the leader of a group that helps sponsor terrorists. The Boston P.I. will use all his connections–both above and below the law–to uncover the truth behind Alderson’s antigovernment organization. Alderson doesn’t like Spenser poking around his business, so he decides to get to him through Susan. But what Alderson doesn’t realize is that Spenser will do anything to keep Susan out of harm’s way; nothing will keep him from the woman he loves.

Author Details

Author Details

Parker, Robert B.

Robert B. Parker has long been acknowledged as the dean of American crime fiction. His novel featuring the wise-cracking, street-smart Boston private-eye Spenser have earned him a devoted following and reams of critical acclaim, typified by R.W.B. Lewis’ comment, “We are witnessing one of the great series in the history of the American detective story” (The New York Times Book Review). In June and October of 2005, Parker had national bestsellers with Appaloosa and School Days, and continued his winning streak in February of 2006 with his latest Jesse Stone novel, Sea Change.

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Parker attended Colby College in Maine, served with the Army in Korea, and then completed a Ph.D. in English at Boston University. He married his wife Joan in 1956; they raised two sons, David and Daniel. Together the Parkers founded Pearl Productions, a Boston-based independent film company named after their short-haired pointer, Pearl, who has also been featured in many of Parker’s novels. He and Joan live in the Boston area.

Parker began writing his Spenser novels in 1971 while teaching at Boston’s Northeastern University. Little did he suspect then that his witty, literate prose and psychological insights would make him keeper-of-the-flame of America’s rich tradition of detective fiction. Parker’s fictional Spenser inspired the ABC-TV series Spenser: For Hire. In February 2005, CBS-TV broadcast its highly-rated adaptation of the Jesse Stone novel Stone Cold, which featured Tom Selleck in the lead role as Parker’s small-town police chief. The second CBS movie, Night Passage, also scored high ratings, and the third, Death in Paradise, aired on April 30, 2006.

Parker was named Grand Master of the 2002 Edgar Awards by the Mystery Writers of America, an honor shared with earlier masters such as Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen.