History Literature / Spenser

* ProfessionalSexEducation: Goes horribly wrong in ''Crimson Joy'', in which the serial killer turns out to be acting out his rage at sex workers because of an incident when his abusive father hired one to "make a man of him", and she humiliated him when he couldn't perform.

** Many of Spenser's hobbies, such as reading poetry and cooking, mirror Parker's own. Both Spenser and Parker were also veterans of the Korean War. This is further illustrated by Parker's author photo, on the back covers of several of his books' paperback editions, being of Parker with a dog that had the same breed and name as Spenser and Susan's dog Pearl.

* {{Expy}}: Spenser is a rehash of PhilipMarlowe.

* {{Badass}}:
** CulturedBadass: Spenser is a gourmet cook, has read (and can quote) all of the classics, enjoys poetry and ballet, and is absolutely capable of ending you in a dozen ways should the need arise.
** While Hawk spends a lot of time amusing himself by pretending to be an ignorant thug, he speaks at least three languages, listens to classical music, travels widely, is always impeccably dressed for the time period (sometimes he's dressed like a tasteful pimp, but it's impeccable), and has a taste for fine wines. He's also a former member of the French Foreign Legion and is, among other things, a hitman; Hawk sits out the action in ''Painted Ladies'' because he's been hired to do some freelance work for the CIA. Whatever he's doing when he's not hanging out with Spenser, it pays ''very'' well.
*** BadassLongcoat: In the later novels, Hawk often wears a black leather trenchcoat or duster.
** Spenser has gradually developed a crew of badasses who will often come running when he asks, most of whom are professional criminals. This includes Hawk; Chollo and Bobby Horse, two mob enforcers and gunmen for an LA-based crimelord; local mafioso gunslinger Vinnie Morris; local Boston cop Lee Farrell; and the ex-Airborne bouncer Tedy Sapp.
** In the early novels, two Boston detectives (Sergeant Frank Belson and Lieutenant Martin Quirk) were regular background characters. Both Spenser and Hawk considered Belson to be their equal in the {{Badass}} department. Quirk, on the other hand, they acknowledged as their utter and complete superior, to the point that Hawk once said that if he had to take out Quirk he'd do it using firebombs and a platoon of snipers.

* BoringInvincibleHero: Spenser hasn't been so much as seriously injured in a book since he was nearly killed in ''Small Vices'', which was published in 1997. It's a rare opponent that can so much as slow him down, and you can count the fights he's actually lost over the course of the series on the fingers of one hand. If Hawk is also involved in the fight, it is generally indicated that you would need an armored division to stop them.

* CatchPhrase: Whenever a villain [[PetTheDog pets a dog]] and someone wonders why, Spenser will remark "Hitler liked dogs" to point out that even evil people can have good points to them.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: The three primary characters, Spenser, Susan, and Hawk, all evolve gradually over the course of the series. Hawk in particular is notable, as he comes off as [[AngryBlackMan much angrier]] in the earlier novels. Spenser is far more world-weary in early books, particularly in ''Promised Land'', where his irritation at the prospect of tracking down yet ''another'' runaway wife due to her sudden discovery of [[StrawFeminist 1970s-style radical feminism]] gets him in a fight with Susan. He also inexplicably loses his interest in fine cigars and woodworking after the first few books, although the former habit occasionally appeared in Robert Urich's depiction of the character.
** Susan's complete inability to cook is a relatively late addition.

-->"I have none. I'm not even sure I have an equal."

* DownerEnding: ''A Savage Place'' is the only Spenser novel where he completely and unequivocally [[spoiler:fails at what he was hired to do - protect Candy Sloan's life. He ''does'' find who did it and bring them to justice, but technically speaking, that wasn't what he was hired for.]]

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:April Kyle]]

* HighClassCallGirl: Frequent supporting character Patricia Utley runs a high-end escort service in New York City. April Kyle later tries to set up a similar branch in Boston's Back Bay (an ''extremely'' ritzy area).

* ItsPersonal: In ''Cold Service'' Hawk is nearly killed protecting a family (all of whom save one child die), and once he recovers he and Spenser set out to take down the ones responsible.
** Spenser himself has an overdeveloped sense of personal responsibility, and will frequently pursue a case to its conclusion based entirely upon that. It's rarely actually personal for him, but Spenser tends to act as though it is.

* LadyDrunk: [=SueSue=] Clive from ''Hugger Mugger''. Her husband is a straight up [[TheAlcoholic alcoholic]] who is stated to always be drunk any time after noon.
** There are several of these throughout the series, like KC Roth or Ronni Alexander.

* TheMagnificentSevenSamurai: ''Potshot''

* OutDamnedSpot: In ''Mortal Stakes'', Spenser quotes Shakespeare when washing his hands of the blood of two mob men he was forced to kill. Earlier, he threw up right after he killed them.
** He also threw up after being forced to kill a pimp in cold blood in ''A Catskill Eagle''.
* PsychoSidekick: Hawk is the TropeCodifier. Especially when he [[spoiler: kills the physically powerless villain in ''Early Autumn'']].
** He mellows ''considerably'' as the books go on, although most of it is expressed via a good-humored willingness to play things Spenser's way. ''Cold Service'', on the other hand, is a stark reminder of how ruthless he actually is.

* ShoutOut: Characters from the Spenser series often show up in Parker's other novels. Both Literature/JesseStone and Literature/SunnyRandall have appeared in Spenser's stories, while most of Spenser's supporting cast have shown up in those books. Spenser himself has yet to do more than get referred to outside of his own series, perhaps owing to the issue concerning his name.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Parker was dedicated to averting this trope, since Susan was not only a professional therapist who offered Spenser advice, but was the therapist to Literature/SunnyRandall as well.
** There are no therapists, because they're all in this series. Constantly. To the point of parody.

* AuthorAvatar: Many of Spenser's hobbies, such as reading poetry and cooking, mirror Parker's own. Both Spenser and Parker were also veterans of the Korean War. This is further illustrated by Parker's author photo, on the back covers of several of his books' paperback editions, being of Parker with a dog that had the same breed and name as Spenser and Susan's dog Pearl.

* TakeThat: Parker, who had a doctorate in English literature from Boston University, apparently had a low opinion of teachers and professors. In the novels where Spenser must investigate a case on or near a college or high school campus (''Playmates'', ''School Daze'', ''Hush Money''), almost every teacher or administrator he encounters is completely out of touch with reality. There are exceptions, but they're rare, and usually clock in at one per book. Relatedly, Susan initially started as a school guidance counselor, but eventually left to pursue private practice, citing administrative drama as one reason.

* ComicBookTime: Spenser is 37 in the first novel in the series and a Korean War veteran, but has not quite been allowed to age in real time. Otherwise, he'd be pushing 70, and thus unable to win the fistfights he tends to get into. In the modern books, he has a computer in his office and a cell phone, but few concessions are made to the passage of time.

* ThereAreNoTherapists: Parker was dedicated to averting this trope, since Susan was not only a professional therapist who offered Spenser advice, but was the therapist to SunnyRandall as well.

* TheTriadsAndTheTongs: Featured in ''Walking Shadow'', based out of Port City. They employee young immigrant men from Vietnam as EliteMooks.

* {{Author Existence Failure}}: Parker died at age 77 in 2010. He had a sudden heart attack while seated at his desk, writing a novel, and many of his colleagues and fans have agreed it was the best possible way for him to go out.

* FountainOfExpies: Hawk has started a low-profile trend in crime fiction. Take a look at any ongoing series that started in the eighties or later, and take note of how many of the protagonists happen to have a [[PsychoSidekick borderline-sociopath best friend]], ally, and/or partner. The most obvious examples are Mouse, from Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins novels; Joe Pike from Literature/ElvisCole; and Ranger from the Literature/StephaniePlum series (though Ranger isn't really sociopathic, he's still pretty much a carbon copy of Hawk in terms of his mysteriousness and overall badassery). It's even snuck into other ''genres'': witness [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Thomas Raith]]'s cool car, friendly banter, and habit of whistling odd songs to himself during a fight, or the general relationship between Literature/AnitaBlake and the assassin Edward.

* ''Wonderland'' (2013): Spenser's old friend Henry Cimoli hires him to chase off some thugs who are trying to intimidate Henry into selling his condo.[[/folder]]

** Two of the villains in ''Mortal Stakes'' are an AffablyEvil FatBastard and his {{Dragon}}, a little asshole whose BerserkButton is being made fun of, much like in ''The Maltese Falcon''.

* DistressedDamsel: Susan spends a number of the later novels as a potential target for whoever Spenser's managed to annoy that week. Spenser's typical reaction is to bury her office in trusted gunmen. This, naturally, irritates her to no end.
** BadassDamsel: Most of Spenser's adversaries have enough honor of their own that they try to avoid hitting him through Susan, but the one time somebody tried going after him while she was around, Susan waited until their backs were turned and knocked a guy out with a rock she pried out of a nearby garden arrangement.

* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: The play "Handy Dandy" [[InvokedTrope featured in]] ''Walking Shadow'' is apparently extremely confusing and obtuse, and when interviewing the playwright Leonard O (who proves to be an enormous snob) about the case, Spenser lampshades it to hell and back and manages to catch O off guard when he points out that he stole the Tiresias stuff from Creator/TSEliot. O insists it was a "homage" but Spenser isn't fooled.

* WorthyOpponent: After Spenser manages to arrest Rugar, the Gray Man, in ''Small Vices'', he appears twice more, in ''Cold Service'' and ''Rough Weather''. In both subsequent books, he and Spenser treat one another like old rivals whenever they meet, in scenes that read a bit like they were lifted wholesale from a James Bond novel.

* AuthorTract: In many ways, the series deals heavily with Parker's ideas of how people ought to live and how a man ought to act, as indicated via Spenser's actions and narration. This is about half an author tract and half Parker trying very deliberately to echo Raymond Chandler's ideas about how the private-eye genre should work; Spenser is very deliberately the "man of honor" from Chandler's "The Simple Art of Murder."

* AuthorAppeal: Both of Parker's sons, Daniel and David, are openly gay. This is widely thought to have had an influence on Parker's novels, as they often deal with a wide variety of gay characters, ranging from the heroic to the pathetic. There is actually room for an interpretation of the series where Parker is using his writing as a method to slowly come to terms with his sons' homosexuality.

** In the early novels, two Boston detectives (Sergeant Frank Belson and Lieutenant Martin Quirk) were regular background characters. Both Spenser and Hawk considered Belson to be their equal in the {{Badass}} department. Quirk, on the other hand, they acknowledged as their utter and complete superior, to the point that Hawk once said that if he had to take out Quirk he'd doing it using firebombs and a platoon of snipers.

* ''Looking for Rachel Wallace'' (1980): Spenser is hired as a bodyguard for the controversial lesbian author Rachel Wallace.

* ''The Widening Gyre'' (1983): Meade Alexander, a congressman and Presidential candidate, hires Spenser to protect his wife Ronni.

* ''Crimson Joy'' (1988): Quirk asks Spenser for his help investigating a serial killer, who might have ties to the Boston PD.

* GroinAttack: In ''Promised Land'' a female martial artist lands one on him, but he's been on the receiving end enough times to shake it off and knock her on her ass, where he then tells her not to rely solely on that trick.

* LadyDrunk: [=SueSue=] Clive from ''Hugger Mugger'', and her husband is a straight up [[TheAlcoholic alcoholic]] who is stated to always be drunk any time after noon.

** Also, Spenser will occasionally run into Boston-area celebrities, although they never have a speaking role.

* ShowDontTell: Spenser ''never'' says how he feels emotionally, even in his internal monologue. He only describes how he feels physically, and what he is doing. Despite this, the reader never has any doubt about how he feels - he throws up after being forced to kill people, and when Susan leaves him he drinks a lot and even has trouble hitting the heavy bag at the gym - no rhythm, just sledgehammering it.

* TheVerse: All Parker's books are in the same 'verse and, while neither Sunny Randall nor Jesse Stone actually work with Spenser, they see him at a distance and meet many of the supporting cast.
* UnreliableNarrator: Possibly Spenser when referring to his looks; While he describes himself as looking like Cary Grant (and in later novels Tom Cruise), most other characters seem to view him as the Irish ex-boxer tough he is. He also refers to his irresistible smile, but mostly in the context that he can't understand why it's not working on whichever woman he's trying to sweet talk.

* CanonDiscontinuity: In a series that mostly concerns itself with a private eye doing private eye things, ''A Catskill Eagle'' reads vaguely like a [[Literature/TheExecutioner Mack Bolan]] novel. Its events are sometimes referred to in passing in subsequent books, but its denouement has left a bad taste in many fans' mouths.
** There's one mention in ''Hugger Mugger'' that may count as a DiscontinuityNod, when Susan says that she treats it like something that never happened.