Given this semi-displacement from time, however, I think the later books have suffered somewhat, and they've fallen into a sort of comfortable routine. A client will ask Spenser to investigate something, and Spenser will start to do so, only to discover that the client hasn't exactly been forthcoming with him, and then Spenser will proceed despite warnings to "back off." At some point in each book, there will be a conversation about the nature of tough guys and why Spenser and Hawk and their buddies act the way they do. You can almost set your watch by each incident, because they'll be there. But on the flipside, even a comfortably predictable Spenser is still fun.

Take for example the latest foray in the series (number thirty-one, for those counting), Bad Business. The plot is relatively routine: Spenser is hired by Marlene Rowley to find proof that her husband, Trent, is cheating on her. Trent Rowley is the CFO of an energy company called Kinergy, and it doesn't take Spenser long to discover that Kinergy's power players don't believe in the bonds of matrimony, preferring instead the ideal of "courtly love" preached by radio personality Darrin O'Mara. In other words, all the executives at Kinergy seem to enjoy a little spouse-swapping.

Perhaps the unusual interpersonal connections of Kinergy staff explain why Spenser keeps running into other private investigators, but it doesn't necessarily explain why Trent Rowley suddenly shows up dead, shot to death in his posh Kinergy office. Ultimately, however, Spenser starts to unravel a criminal plot to artificially inflate Kinergy's value and siphon off the money through some accounting sleight of hand. The novel features less violence than is common for Spenser. Which basically means he doesn't hit anybody, which has to be a first - perhaps Parker is subtly making allowances for his character's "age" after all. The closing scene, in which all the suspects end up in a room with Spenser, suggests the same thing: this is the first time Parker tried an "Agatha Christie" like ending to one of his stories. Since if Spenser actually acted his age, he'd be about as old as Miss Marple, maybe such an ending is appropriate, but it actually seems oddly out of place in Spenser's tough guy universe.

While some scenes (most notably the obligatory "Why is Spenser the way he is" scene) feel tired, especially to one who has read all the other novels, Parker still manages to produce a fair amount of humor in the banter between Spenser and Hawk. The addition of Hawk's current paramour, a physician named Claire, doesn't hurt either: she banters well with the big boys. And while Spenser sometimes feels like the literary equivalent of the businessman a bit tired of his job, there's still enough sparkle to justify the journey.