Robert B. Parker has 63 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 21 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.3★ across 91 ratings. The most-rated is Early Autumn.
School Days
Summary
Lily Ellsworth, erect, firm, white-haired, and stylish, is the grand dame of Dowling, Massachusetts, and possesses an iron will and a bottomless purse. When she hires Spenser to investigate her grandson Jared Clark's alleged involvement in a school shooting, Spenser is led into an inquiry that grows more harrowing at every turn. Though seven people were killed in cold blood, and despite Jared's being named as a co-conspirator by the other shooter, Mrs. Ellsworth is convinced of her grandson's innocence. Jared's parents are resigned to his fate, and the boy himself doesn't seem to care whether he goes to prison for a crime he might not have committed.
©2005 Robert B. Parker (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.
Paper Doll
Summary
Hired by Loudon Tripp, an aggrieved Boston aristocrat who believes his late wife Olivia's brutal street slaying to be something other than random violence, Spencer immediately senses that his client's picture-perfect portrayal of his family life is false. For starters, the victim's reputation is too saintly, her house is as lived-in as a stage set, and her troubled children don't appear to be the product of a happy home. Spencer plunges into a world of grand illusion, peopled by cardboard cutouts, including a distinguished public servant with plenty to hide, a wealthy executive whose checks bounce, a sleepy southern town seething with scandal and the ambiguous Olivia herself, who may or may not really be dead.
©1994 Robert B. Parker (P)2009 Phoenix
Widow's Walk
Summary
Boston's premier P.I. investigates the murder of a prominent local banker, with family ties to the Mayflower - and perhaps the mob. When 51-year-old Nathan Smith, a once-confirmed bachelor, is found dead in his bed with a hole in his head made by a .38 caliber slug, it's hard not to imagine Nathan's young bride as the one with her finger on the trigger. Even her lawyer thinks she's guilty. But given that Mary Smith is entitled to the best defense she can afford - and thanks to Nathan's millions, she can afford plenty - Spenser hires on to investigate Mary's bona fides. Mary's alibi is a bit on the flimsy side: she claims she was watching television in another room when the murder occurred. But the couple was seen fighting at a high-profile cocktail party earlier that evening and the prosecution has a witness who says Mary once tried to hire him to kill Nathan. What's more, she's too pretty, too made-up, too blonde, and sleeps around - just the kind of person a jury loves to hate. Spenser's up against the wall; leads go nowhere, no one knows a thing. Then a young woman, recently fired from her position at Smith's bank, turns up dead. Mary's vacant past suddenly starts looking meaner and darker - and Spenser's suddenly got to watch his back. With its lean, crackling dialogue, crisp action and razor-sharp characters, Widow's Walk is another triumph.
©2002 Robert B. Parker (P)2002 Random House Inc., Random House Audio, a Division of Random House Inc.
Night Passage
Summary
After a busted marriage kicks his drinking problem into overdrive and the LAPD unceremoniously dumps him, 35-year-old Jesse Stone's future looks bleak. So he's shocked when a small Massachusetts town called Paradise recruits him as police chief. He can't help wondering if this job is a genuine chance to start over, the kind of offer he can't refuse. Once on board, Jesse doesn't have to look for trouble in Paradise: It comes to him. For what is on the surface a quiet New England community quickly proves to be a crucible of political and moral corruption - replete with triple homicide, tight Boston mob ties, flamboyantly errant spouses, maddened militiamen, and a psychopath-about-town who has fixed his violent sights on the new lawman. Against all this, Jesse stands utterly alone, with no one to trust; even he and the woman he's seeing are like ships that pass in the night. He finds he must test his mettle and powers of command to emerge a local hero - or the deadest of dupes.
©1998 Robert B. Parker (P)1998 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.
Double Deuce
Summary
Spenser is forced by loyalty into an alien world where violence is a way of lie and outsiders enter at a lethal risk. When Spenser's cohort, Hawk, is hired by the tenants of a gang-plagued Boston housing project known as "Double Deuce", he enlists his friend's aid. A friend's girl and her infant daughter have been gunned down. Though the act at first appears to be an accidental drive-by shooting, it soon becomes clear that it was premeditated murder. Before they can solve the crime, Spenser and Hawk must take on an adolescent band of hardened urban warriors. As bullets fly and the brutality escalates, Spenser learns more than he ever dreamed about a generation imprisoned in a hell of poverty and hopelessness where muscle is the ticket to survival, and the surest way out is in a body bag. Pulsing with moral complexity, Double Deuce is the kind of no-holds-barred action thriller only Robert B. Parker can create.
©2009 Robert B. Parker (P)2009 Phoenix
Resolution
Summary
The New York Times best-selling author's richly imagined work of historical fiction: a powerful tale of the Old West from the acknowledged master of crime fiction. "I had an eight-gauge shotgun that I'd taken with me when I left Wells Fargo. It didn't take too long for things to develop. I sat in the tall lookout chair in the back of the saloon with the shotgun in my lap for two peaceful nights. On my third night it was different. I could almost smell trouble beginning to cook." After the bloody confrontation in Appaloosa, Everett Hitch heads into the afternoon sun and ends up in Resolution, an Old West town so new the dust has yet to settle. It's the kind of town that doesn't have much in the way of commerce, except for a handful of saloons and some houses of ill repute. Hitch takes a job as a lookout at Amos Wolfson's Blackfoot Saloon and quickly establishes his position as protector of the ladies who work the back rooms - as well as a man unafraid to stand up to the enforcer sent down from the O'Malley copper mine. Though Hitch makes short work of hired gun Koy Wickman, tensions continue to mount, so that even the self-assured Hitch is relieved by the arrival in town of his friend, Virgil Cole. When greedy mine owner Eamon O'Malley threatens the loose coalition of local ranchers and starts buying up Resolution's few businesses, Hitch and Cole find themselves in the middle of a makeshift war between O'Malley's men and the ranchers. In a place where law and order don't exist, Hitch and Cole must make their own, guided by their sense of duty, honor, and friendship.
©2008 Robert B. Parker (P)2008 Random House, Inc.
Brimstone
Summary
When we last saw Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, they had just put things to right in the rough-and-tumble Old West town of Resolution. It's now a year later, and Virgil has only one thing on his mind: Allie French, the woman who stole his heart from their days in Appaloosa. Even though Allie ran off with another man, Virgil is determined to find her, his deputy and partner Everett Hitch at his side. Making their way across New Mexico and Texas, the pair finally discover Allie in a small-town brothel. Her spirit crushed, Allie joins Everett and Virgil as they head north to start over in Brimstone. But things are not the same between Virgil and Allie; too much has happened, and Virgil can't face what Allie did to survive the year they were apart. Vowing to change, Allie thinks she has found redemption through the local church and its sanctimonious leader, Brother Percival. Given their reputations as guns for hire, Everett and Virgil are able to secure positions as the town's deputies. But Brother Percival stirs up trouble at the local saloons, and as the violence escalates into murder, the two struggle to keep the peace.
©2009 Robert B. Parker (P)2009 Random House
Chasing the Bear
Summary
For almost 40 years, Robert B. Parker's inimitable private investigator Spenser has been solving cases and selling millions of books worldwide. Now, for the first time, see how it all began as the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master sheds light on Spenser's formative years spent with is father and two uncles out West. This is an event book for every fan of Spenser, and a revelation for teens about to discover an American icon.
©2009 Robert B. Parker (P)2009 Listening Library
Burt Reynolds Reads Robert B. Parker
Summary
Burt Reynolds reads three of Robert B. Parker's finest Spenser novels. Includes: Chance - Big-time Boston hoodlum Julius Ventura wants to find his only daughter's missing husband - at least that's how he puts it to Spenser and Hawk, even though it's pretty clear Julius isn't telling the whole truth. Or maybe not any part of the truth. Something about the case appeals to Spenser's passion for justice, and he launches an odyssey into the netherworld of organized crime. Hush Money - When Robin Nevins is denied acceptance at an exclusive university, Spenser is eager to investigate. It seems the denial is tied to the suicide of a young gay activist, and as Spenser digs deeper, he is nearly drowned in a multicultural swamp of politics: black, gay, academic, and feminist. Meanwhile, Spenser's inamorata, Susan, asks him to come to the aid of an old college friend, K.C. Roth, the victim of a stalker. Spenser solves the problem a bit too effectively when K.C. turns the tables and begins to stalk him. Small Vices - Ellis Alves is no angel. But when his lawyer says he was framed for the murder of college student Melissa Henderson, Alves looks to Spenser for help. From Boston's back streets to Manhattan's elite, Spenser and Hawk search for suspects, including Melissa's rich-kid tennis-star boyfriend. But when a man with a .22 puts Spenser in a coma, is the chance for justice dead?
©1997, 1999 Robert B. Parker (P)2018 Phoenix Books
Shrink Rap
Summary
Boston P.I. Sunny Randall goes on the road to protect a best-selling author - and uncovers a world of dark secrets - in the new novel by the grand master. Sunny Randall, the beautiful blond P.I. with a yen for dogs, painting, and her ex-husband, Richie, has won over even the most hard-core of Robert B. Parker's many fans.
©2003 Robert B. Parker (P)2009 Phoenix
Murderers' Row: Original Baseball Mysteries, Volume 2
Summary
Seven original baseball short stories in the mystery and murder genres, written by an all star lineup of writers, each of whom understand the game's lore and tactical nuances as well as its deep roots in American life. Compiled by Otto Penzler, the proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City and regarded as the world's foremost authority on crime, mystery and suspense fiction. Stories include: "Ropa Vieja" by Laura Lippman - A rich and reputedly respectable eye doctor goes to criminal lengths to promote his success in rotisserie baseball. "The Shot" by Mike Lupica - Even after nine years, a pitcher is unable to escape the crushing burden of his rotten pitch during a crucial game. "The Power" by Michael Malone and read by Lee Horsley - A tough guy contemplates life, women, Plato and baseball in prose. "Harlem Nocturne" by Robert B. Parker and read by Dan Cashman - Parker vividly evokes the character of Jackie Robinson as he breaks the color-barrier. Follow the immortalized Robinson and his pals as they find themselves in a run-in with the mob. "The Closer" by Thomas Perry - Hilarious yarn of a flimflam man who successfully utilizes his talents as owner of a major league club. >"Killing Teddy Ballgame" by Henry Slesar - After the Boston Red Sox receive continued death threats aimed at Ted Williams, an amusing tale becomes horrifying to the player assigned to keep Williams safe. "Pick-Off Play" by Troy Soos - Soos brings to life the dust, sweat and corruption of Texas minor league baseball prior to major league baseball's 1919 White Sox scandal.
©2001 Otto Penzler (P)2001 / 2017 New Millennium Entertainment / Phoenix Books
Spare Change
Summary
Hi Phil, You miss me? I got bored, so I thought I'd reestablish our relationship. Give us both something to do in our later years. Stay tuned. -Spare Change When a serial murderer dubbed "The Spare Change Killer" by the Boston press surfaces after three decades in hiding, the police immediately seek out the cop, now retired, who headed the original task force: Phil Randall. As a sharp-eyed investigator and a doting parent, Phil calls on his daughter, Sunny, to help catch the criminal who eluded him so many years before. When the killer strikes a second and third time, the murders take a macabre turn, as the victims each eerily resemble Sunny. While her father pressures her to drop the case, Sunny's need to create a trap to nab her killer grows. In a compelling game of cat-and-mouse, Sunny uses all her skills to draw out her prey, realizing too late that she's setting herself up to become the next victim.
©2007 Robert B. Parker (P)2007 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.
Blue Screen
Summary
Buddy Bollen is a C-list movie mogul who made his fortune producing films of questionable artistic merit. When Buddy hires Sunny Randall to protect his rising star and girlfriend, Erin Flint, Sunny knows from the start that the prickly, spoiled beauty won't make her job easy. And when Erin's sister, Misty, is found dead in the lavish home they share with sugar daddy Bollen, there doesn't seem to be a single lead worth pursuing. But then Sunny meets Jesse Stone, chief of police in Paradise, Massachusetts, under whose jurisdiction the case falls. It immediately becomes clear that Jesse and Sunny have much in common. While searching for the killer, they learn an awful lot about each other, and themselves. Tracking Misty's murderer reveals a host of seedy complications behind Erin's glamorous lifestyle as well as Buddy Bollen's entertainment empire, made up of shady film deals and mobsters out for revenge. But in a world where there's little difference between the good guys and the bad, exposing the killer could prove to be Sunny's undoing.
©2006 Robert B. Parker (P)2006 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.
Sudden Mischief
Summary
Brad Sterling - former Harvard football player, ne¿er-do-well, and Susan Silverman's long out-of touch ex-husband, is by all appearances a successful businessman. But when, in the course of running a vast fundraiser called Galapalooza, he is charged with sexual harassment, he turns to Susan for help. Though Brad denies the charge, he's desperate, behind in alimony and child support payments to other exes, and on the verge of insolvency. When Spenser, Susan's current love interest, reluctantly agrees to take the case, however, Brad claims everything is fine - he's free of debt and free of problems. While the harassment charge begins to look more and more suspicious, Spenser senses there is something wrong with Galapalooza as leads to charities turn into dead ends. Susan, meanwhile, becomes steadily more agitated as she wrestles former demons reincarnated by her ex-husband's reappearance. As the questions mount, Brad disappears, a body is found, and clues to a shadowy mob connection begin to surface. Spenser finds himself fighting a two-front war against some very bad men, on the one hand, and against an increasingly unpredictable Susan, on the other.
©1999 Robert B. Parker (P)2009 Phoenix
Sea Change
Summary
When a woman's partially decomposed body washes ashore in Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone is forced into a case far more difficult than it initially appears. Identifying the woman is just the first step in what proves to be an emotionally charged investigation. Florence Horvath was an attractive, recently divorced heiress from Florida; she also had a penchant for steamy sex and was an enthusiastic participant in a video depicting the same. Somehow the combination of her past and present got her killed, but no one is talking, not the crew of the Lady Jane, the Fort Lauderdale yacht moored in Paradise Harbor; not her very blond, very tan twin sisters, Corliss and Claudia; and not her curiously affectless parents, living out a sterile retirement in a Miami high rise. But someone, Jesse, has to speak for the dead, even if it puts him in harm's way.
©2006 Robert B. Parker (P)2006 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.
Painted Ladies
Summary
The brilliant new Spenser novel from the beloved New York Times-best-selling author Robert B. Parker. Called upon by The Hammond Museum and renowned art scholar Dr. Ashton Prince, Spenser accepts his latest case: to provide protection during a ransom exchange-money for a stolen painting. The case becomes personal when Spenser fails to protect his client and the valuable painting remains stolen. Convinced that Ashton Prince played a bigger role than just ransom delivery boy, Spenser enters into a daring game of cat-and-mouse with the thieves. But this is a game he might not come out of alive.... Completed the year before he passed away, Painted Ladies is Spenser and Robert B. Parker at their electrifying best.
©2010 Robert B. Parker (P)2010 Random House Audio
Family Honor
Summary
With both the classic Spenser series and the more recent Jesse Stone novels, Robert B. Parker's spare prose and tight storytelling have earned him critical praise and popular success. In Family Honor, he creates an entirely new character - young, smart, and for the first time, female. Her name is Sunny Randall, a former cop turned Boston P.I. Hired by a wealthy family to locate their teenage daughter, Sunny soon finds herself the bodyguard for a difficult teenager who refuses to return to her family. But before long, Sunny is facing greater problems than she ever imagined - including a criminal conspiracy that reaches to the top of the state government.
©2000 Robert B. Parker (P)2009 Phoenix
Hush Money
Summary
When Robin Nevins, the son of Hawk's boyhood mentor, is denied at an exclusive university, Hawk asks Spenser to investigate. It seems the denial is tied to the suicide of a young gay activist, and as Spenser digs deeper, he is nearly drowned in a multicultural swamp of politics: black, gay, academic, and feminist. At the same time, Spenser's inamorata, Susan, asks him to come to the aid of an old college friend, K.C. Roth, the victim of a stalker. Spenser solves the problem a bit too effectively when K.C. turns the tables and begins to stalk him. With Hush Money, Robert B. Parker adds a morally complex tale to this legendary series.
©1999 Robert B. Parker (P)1999, 2016 Dove Audio, Phoenix Books
Stone Cold
Summary
In Stone Cold, Police Chief Jesse Stone has a problem - actually, two problems - dead bodies turning up, and no clues. A man takes his dog out for a run on the beach, only to be discovered hour later with two holes in his chest. A woman drives her Volvo to the mall to do some grocery shopping, never makes it back to her house and is found dead. Investigating a serial killer in an affluent suburban town is difficult, and with the added pressures from the town selectmen and media, the heat is turned up on Jesse. The harder these outside forces push against him, the more Jesse retreats into himself, convinced - despite all the odds - that it's up to him alone to stop the killing.
©2003 Robert B. Parker (P)2003, 2014 New Millennium Entertainment, Phoenix Books
Thin Air
Summary
When the bride of a Boston police detective vanishes, he hires Spenser to find her. His path leads from a New England college campus to glamorous L.A. sports clubs. When the trail turns to a world of prostitution, drug abuse, and self-destruction, Spenser must enter ghetto tenements to continue his search. Ultimately, Spenser must hire a Chicago hitman to help him free the girl from a sociopathic ex lover. Working through gang leaders and corrupt cops, Spenser learns about humanity and justice as he strives to achieve his goal.
©1996 Robert B. Parker (P)2009 Phoenix