History Literature / Spenser

2020 sees a new ''Spenser'' movie for the first time in 19 years, Peter Berg's ''Spenser Confidential'', starring Mark Wahlberg as Spenser and Winston Duke as Hawk. A Netflix original, it's ''extremely'' loosely based on both the Spenser universe (Spenser is an ex-con, Hawk is a much younger ex-fighter, Susan is wholly absent) and Atkins's book ''Wonderland''.

Later TV movies on A&E have replaced Urich with Joe Montegna, and Brooks with Shiek Mahmoud-Bey and Creator/ErnieHudson, with Creator/MarciaGayHarden as Spenser's LoveInterest Susan Silverman. The movies, unlike most episodes of the show, are each based directly upon one of the novels.

A short series based upon the characters, "Spenser: For Hire," aired on prime time television in the [[TheEighties 1980s]], starring Robert Urich as Spenser, with [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Avery Brooks]] as Hawk. Urich and Brooks reprised the roles for a series of TV movies on Lifetime (''The Judas Goat'', ''Ceremony'', and ''Pale Kings and Princes'', among others) later on.

* RealMenWhoCook: Spenser cooks at home, to an almost restaurant-level quality; contrast to [[CharacterizationMarchesOn Susan]] who is implied in later books to be capable of burning water.

* 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, rather than embittered enemies.

Later TV movies on A&E have replaced Urich with Joe Montegna, and Brooks with Shiek Mahmoud-Bey and Ernie Hudson, with Creator/MarciaGayHarden as Spenser's LoveInterest Susan Silverman. The movies, unlike most episodes of the show, are each based directly upon one of the novels.

* ''The Judas Goat'' (1978): The millionaire Hugh Dixon hires Spenser to track down the terrorists who blew up his family in London, which leads Spenser and eventually Hawk across Europe and [[UsefulNotes/TheOlympics North America]] in pursuit of the killers. This is the first novel where Spenser and Hawk work together on a case, and serves as the "travel episode" for the rest of the series; after ''Judas Goat'', Spenser doesn't get any further from Boston than California.

The Spenser novels are a long-running series of detective stories by Robert B. Parker, starring the eponymous private eye. Based in Boston with frequent excursions to other areas, the novels were much more experimental early on before settling into a comfortable niche (or, as [[BrokenBase some might say]], rut). The series is one of the most popular and influential modern works both inside and outside its genre (it is, most notably for this particular wiki, a large influence on both Creator/PeterDavid and ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''), and Parker has been called the modern successor to Creator/RaymondChandler.

* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: 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.

* CondescendingCompassion: Clive Stapleton from ''Small Vices'' is black but was adopted by a wealthy white couple. While it's evident his parents do care about him there's clearly a level of this at play, especially when his mother is explaining to Spenser why they adopted him and she specifically cites saving him from "a life of depravity."

Later TV movies on A&E have replaced Urich with Joe Montegna, and Brooks with Shiek Mahmoud-Bey and Ernie Hudson, with Marcia Gay Harden as Spenser's LoveInterest Susan Silverman. The movies, unlike most episodes of the show, are each based directly upon one of the novels.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: In ''Hugger Mugger'', [[spoiler:Penny gets away with murder. However, she freely admits in front of a police officer that she had her sisters held against their will in the family house, ostensibly to help them "dry out" and get away from their bad husbands]]. This is ''kidnapping'', no matter how you spin it, but no one seems to notice that [[spoiler:she]] just admitted being guilty of a crime that carries almost as severe a penalty as murder.

* ''The Judas Goat'' (1978): The millionaire Hugh Dixon hires Spenser to track down the terrorists who blew up his family in London, which leads Spenser and eventually Hawk across Europe and North America in pursuit of the killers. This is the first novel where Spenser and Hawk work together on a case, and serves as the "travel episode" for the rest of the series; after ''Judas Goat'', Spenser doesn't get any further from Boston than California.

** Ring Lardner's line "Shut up, he explained" appears very frequently, almost [[OnceAnEpisode once a book]], usually changed to the first person.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: In ''Hugger Mugger'', [[spoiler:Penny gets away with murder. However, she freely admits in front of a police officer that she had her sisters held against their will in the family house, ostensibly to help them "dry out" and get away from their bad husbands]]. This is ''kidnapping'', no matter how you spin it, but no one seems to notice that she admitted being guilty of a crime that carries almost as severe a penalty as murder.

* SaidBookism: Averted, almost too much. Parker rarely uses anything other than "said" during conversations, and while it's fine to read, listening to one of the books on tape/cd/mp3/whatever will have you feeling that you hear the word "said" ''too'' often.

* ''Sixkill'' (2011): Jumbo Nelson is one of the most profitable movie stars on the planet, and when a dead girl is found in his bed, his lawyer brings Spenser aboard to help the investigation.

* ''Paper Doll'' (1993): An upper-class lady is suddenly murdered in downtown Boston, and Spenser is hired to find out who did it. The problem soon becomes that finding the murderer will involve learning a lot of powerful people's dirty secrets, including a senator.

* ''Back Story'' (2003): In exchange for six Krispy Kreme donuts, Spenser agrees to help a friend of Paul's look into the death of her mother, thirty years prior.
* ''Bad Business'' (2004): A routine job to follow a possibly unfaithful husband turns into a murder investigation.

* ''School Days'' (2005): Following a school shooting, one of the perpetrators' grandmother hires Spenser to prove her grandson didn't do it.
* ''Hundred-Dollar Baby'' (2006): April Kyle hires Spenser to deal with the people shaking down her bordello.

* ''Lullaby'' (2012): Mattie Franklin, a kid from South Boston, saw her mother murdered when she was ten years old. Now she's fourteen, and hires Spenser to find out who the real killer was.

* 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 80, 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.