"Spencer remains fresh and great"

Boston private investigator Spenser isn't an easy touch, but Paul Giacomin is like a son to him so he is willing to go the extra mile to do the man a favor. Paul, a playwright, wants Spenser to help his friend actress Daryl Silver who is starring in his play, to find out who killed her mother Emily in a Boston bank robbery in 1974. Daryl wants closure and Paul pays Spenser's fee, a box of Krispy Crème donuts.

The Dread Scott Brigade took credit for the killing and the robbery but nobody was ever caught even though the bank cameras caught their picture. Spenser gets the police file from the Boston Police Department and notices right away that the FBI intelligence report is missing. A little deeper into the investigation Spenser is warned of the case by government agents and is on the hit list of a crime kingpin. Even though it has become very dangerous, Spenser is determined to find out who killed Daryl's mother, if only to satisfy his curiosity.

It has been thirty years since the first Spencer book THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT was published and the series is still fresh, innovative and very entertaining. The hero might be a little older but he still has the same quirky sense of humor and the ability not to flinch when bullets are coming in his direction. BACK STORY is a fascinating who-done-it that is both believable and somewhat nostalgic. Robert B. Parker shows why his hero has become an American icon.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted February 15, 2003

Summary

In 1974, a revolutionary group calling itself The Dread Scott Brigade held up the Old Shawmut Bank in Boston's Audubon Circle. Money was stolen. And a woman named Emily Gordon, a visitor in town cashing traveler's checks, was shot and killed. No one saw who shot her. Despite security- camera photos and a letter from the group claiming responsibility, the perpetrators have remained at large for nearly three decades. Enter Paul Giacomin, the closest thing to a son Spenser has. Twice before, Spenser's come to the young man's assistance; and now Paul is thirty-seven, his troubled past behind him. When Paul's friend Daryl Gordon-daughter of the long-gone Emily-decides she needs closure regarding her mother's death, it's Spenser she turns to. The lack of clues and a missing FBI intelligence report force Spenser to reach out in every direction-to Daryl's estranged, hippie father, to Vinnie Morris and the mob, to the mysterious Ives-testing his resourcefulness and his courage.