Paper Doll- -Robert B. Parker

Paper Doll

by Robert B. Parker

New York: G.P. Putman’s Sons, 1993.

ISBN:  0-399-13818-8

Summary: The legendary tough-edged private investigator, Spencer, is hired by Loudon Tripp to find the person who caused his wife’s, Olivia Nelson’s, brutal death; but in his search, Spencer finds Tripp’s business falling apart and the Boston aristocrat’s marriage not so picture perfect while discovering the truth of the wife’s adultery and South Carolinian past.

Series Information:  This is the 20th book of the Spenser Novel series. The first book of the series is The Godwulf Manuscript. There are 41 books in the series.

Genre:  Mystery

Characteristics: 

Meticulous Spencer solves the crime as well as discovers why this murder took place. The descriptions of unusual characters are more entertaining than the pacing of the story.  Olivia Nelson’s background in South Carolina plays an important role concerning society’s stereotypes. The novel has a conversational tone and is narrated in first-person by the private eye which also makes this book a Mystery.

Appeals

• Northeast Private Investigator
• The 1980s TV show Spenser for Hire was developed from the series
• Character-driven plot

Read-a-Likes:

Novelist:

• Teckla by Steven Brust
• The Tin Collections by Stephen J. Cannell
• The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
• The Forgotten Man by Robert Crais
• The Chicago Way by Michael T. Harvey