Pun Salad

The indefatigable Spenser returns once again, and this indefatigable fanboy lines up to read about it once again. In this series entry, our hero is hired by a no-nonsense older woman to clear her grandson of a mass shooting at a snooty suburban private school. The only problem is that the kid seems undeniably guilty. So Spenser concentrates on trying to figure out what really happened, which nobody really wants him to do.

If you follow the series, this one is notable by the minimal presence of Susan Silverman, who's out of town for nearly the entire book. And Hawk is entirely absent. Lacking these two usual conversational foils, Spenser starts talking to Pearl, Susan's dog, quite a bit. Also himself. I appreciated this, because as much as I love Hawk and Susan, the conversations between them and Spenser have long since gone utterly predictable.

In a disturbing development, however, Spenser wears a Pittsburgh Pirates ballcap at the beginning of chapter 22. What's up with that?