"PAPER DOLL" by Robert B. Parker (A)

You will have to go a long way to find a better read than by picking up a copy of "Paper Doll," Robert B. Parker's 1993 novel starring Spenser as the bull dog of Boston detectives. I thoroughly enjoyed this book with its tale of a Boston Brahmin family on the brink of ruin after the society wife and mother has been found bludgeoned to death in a case that has remained unsolved.

Her husband, Loudon Tripp, refuses to accept that the murder right outside the family's Beacon Hill home was random, so he hires Spenser to make some sense of it all. Like all detectives who have integrity, Spenser warns him that even though he will be working for him, he will be going wherever the evidence takes him. He hopes that Tripp will be prepared for the consequences. We are also forewarned, so we settle in and get ready for a fascinating literary ride.

This is the 20th Parker novel starring Spenser as a detective in a series that began in 1973 and has continued on for some 30 novels. Parker's Spenser has a colorful past as an ex-cop, an ex-prizefighter, an ex-football player, a former Korean vet, and, last but not least, a Harvard dropout. I don't think that there are too many Harvard men who are out there busting chops for a living. Spenser's professional association with crimson is more of the dried blood type.

Parker is nothing if not prolific. Spenser is only one of his three literary creations along with Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall. Somewhere during all of this Parker also found the time to collaborate with author Raymond Chandler in the writing of two additional Philip Marlowe novels. My admiration knows no bounds, as he is certainly one author for whom the term "writers block" does not apply.

To be a prolific author is one thing, but to be a great author is another matter altogether. After all, a dictionary is also composed of words great and small, but it is the author who takes them and organizes them into a story that comes to life with lively characters and an entertaining plot. This story fires on all cylinders in a case that takes Spenser down to the deep South in search of clues about the background of the wife and mother of the "perfect family."

The Tripps are not a Midwestern family where everyone is only "above average." This is a family that is perfect in all respects. After all, we are talking about Boston blue bloods here. The son and the daughter both excel at Williams College. Loudon, their father, loves them dearly and he adores the memory of his departed wife, who herself was apparently an exemplar of womanhood. The cops can't find anyone to say a bad word about any of them.

Maybe they really are the personification of the American Dream, but Spenser doubts it. Nobody can be this perfect. Not one person, and especially not an entire family. Even the rooms in their Beacon Hill mansion are too perfect. Everything is decorated with that look that tells Spenser that no one really lives there. Everything is just too neat with nothing that shows any mess, disorganization, or even any personality.

Loudon hires Spenser partly on the basis of his being a fellow Harvard man, but also because Lieutenant Quirk, the head investigative officer in charge of the homicide, had recommended him. The case has remained in the hands of Detective Lee Farrell, a junior officer who seems to be unable to make any progress in finding the perpetrator.

Loudon's wife, Olivia Nelson, had retained her maiden name even though she had been married to him for decades and they had two college-aged children. This drove me nuts, but Spenser never asks him the obvious question, which would be why Olivia had retained her maiden name. To me, that says something, but he never ascertained what.

She had been beaten to death with a hammer by an unknown assailant in Louisburg Square right outside the family home, but to date the cops have written it off as an act of random violence. The fact that the Tripps are apparently a "perfect" family without any enemies has slowed the investigation for a lack of suspects.

While checking out the Tripp mansion, Spenser is surprised by the sudden appearance of Loudon, Junior, and Meredith, his sister, both of whom have returned from Williams. Loudon goes by the nickname of "Chip," and he quickly evidences to Spenser that he is carrying a large one on his shoulder. A bulky young man who is on the Williams wrestling team, Chip is used to throwing his weight around. Spenser refuses to be goaded into a fight, but the facade of the perfect family begins to crumble from that moment on.

The facade will fade further with a visit to Tripp's office where he monitors the family investments. It is a serene office where little or nothing happens, and Tripp's secretary, Ann Summers, jealously guards the interests of her boss. A later lunch with Loudon at the Harvard Club offers the spectacle of a powerful US Senator with a nasty reputation who comes over to promise Spenser his support in a manner that seems to be unduly officious.

The Boston homicide cops have already tilled the local ground, so Spenser figures that the only area that offers possibilities will be to conduct research into Olivia Nelson's background and childhood down in Alton, South Carolina. He will be very surprised by what he finds as the facade of this perfect family is crushed into oblivion. 1993, G. Putnam's Sons, 223 pages.