A prison inmate with a grudge against Hawk hires outside muscle to rub him out. 

Rita and her old college friends are reunited when a fictional person they created 20 years ago is found dead in his apartment.

Gunfire greets an author and self-proclaimed vigilante at a promotion stop in a Boston bookstore.

Spenser is wounded during an assassination attempt on a state senate candidate and may lose the use of his right arm. 

Vietnamese expatriates hire Spenser to find a recluse who wrote a manuscript about the war.

Spenser and Hawk protect a man who owes money to men of dubious ethics.

Rita has a solid case against a pimp suspected of murdering a teen-age hooker, but Spenser thinks the man is being framed.

Spenser helps a young woman search for her father, but has to convince Rita and the police that she is innocent of two attempts on her father's life.

A woman involved in the fight against hunger in Africa hires Spenser to prove that an administrator is stealing millions in contributions. 

Spenser investigates the apparent suicide of a philandering financier about to turn state's evidence to bring down insider trading.

A man who witnessed the murder of a bank officer is now confessing to the crime.

Hawk is the main suspect when Lt. Quirk is shot, due to a recent fracas between the two.

A 13-year-old boy and a pregnant woman glimpse the face of the leader of a masked gang robbing Spenser's neighborhood at Christmas time.

Spenser tries to find the connection between a 12-year-old's nightmares and the real-life murders they foretell.

A friend of Spenser's is shot and killed while portraying Paul Revere during a Revolutionary War re-enactment.

Rita hires Spenser to investigate a troubled teenager.

Spenser travels to Maine to help hunt down an escaped murderer, but the tables are turned when the man's father stalks Spenser. 

Spenser runs interference for a young amnesiac with a talent for stand-up comedy and a killer on his trail.

Spenser helps a woman who wants to keep her newborn son rather than lose the child to its mobster father.

After accepting a boxer's managerial contract as payment of a debt, Hawk finds himself at odds with a major politician.

Spenser tries to forget about Susan, who has left him and Boston, and tries to protect a widow whose fishing fleet has been plagued by "accidents."

Spenser loses his home and his livelihood when Boston reclaims its firehouse and the new assistant district attorney takes away his license on blackmailing charges.