Word: spenser
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...most of the other Spenser novels, however, he gets a break just when you're convinced he's never going to get anywhere. In this story, Chief Rogers is suddenly murdered, blowing the case wide open for Spenser in two ways...
First, the chief's wife Caroline, cool to Spenser's presence before her husband's murder, is willing to be less reticent. Second, a friendly state police trooper named Lundquist appears on the scene, giving Spencer state police support in his battle with the local police...
...target of the investigation is a reputed drug kingpin named Felipe Esteva. He supposedly deals in produce, but Spenser knows him for what he really is, observing that a true grocer would not need a tough guy in a Celtics jacket for a bodyguard...
However, as in most Spenser novels, there is also an emotional denouement. In Pale Kings it involves how Caroline Rogers, the wife of the police chief, handles both the loss of her husband and her son Brett, who just happened to be under Esteva's employ...
...Spenser-Hawk combination is not used as much in Pale Kings as in previous novels. Instead, Hawk winds up an extra gun when Spenser needs him near the end. But their time together is quality time, with Hawk using his best Kingfisher accent and trading quips with Spenser. What little interplay there is in the novel still works well...