Having grown up in New York City, Mike Lupica was always my favorite sportswriter. I followed his progress from newspaper columnist to television personality providing expert analysis on cable sports shows, but I had no idea how much he loved crime fiction.

Lupica was a close friend of Robert B. Parker, who passed away in 2010. He received the blessing of the Parker estate to continue his classic Spenser series, which he did with ROBERT B. PARKER'S BROKEN TRUST in 2023. ROBERT B. PARKER'S HOT PROPERTY is the latest installment; set in a snowy Boston, the book also features an appearance by another Parker character, Jesse Stone.

"The writing is like a house on fire, and ROBERT B. PARKER'S HOT PROPERTY becomes a fast read full of infectious language and banter.... In the hands of Mike Lupica, [Spenser] continues to live and breathe in a way that would make Robert B. Parker proud."

One of Spenser’s closest friends, attorney Rita Fiore, lies near death in the hospital after being shot by an unknown adversary. He is determined to find answers not only for Rita’s firm but also for himself as no one touches any of his loved ones and gets away with it. Spenser is truly old school and a throwback to private detectives of yore, operating from a solo office and still using a rotary phone. His language is infectious and part of legendary crime noir dialogue, which Lupica handles with aplomb.

Once Spenser learns of Rita’s shooting from Lt. Martin Quirk, the gloves are completely off. Rita has quite a reputation as a woman who gets what she wants and is practically irresistible to the opposite sex. She still carries a torch for Spenser, even though he has not been one of her many sexual conquests. This makes Spenser believe that the shooter could have been a spurned lover. His thought process is almost on target as it seems that the incident could have resulted from her affair with Nicholas Drummond, a former senator who perished in a questionable swimming accident.

As Spenser and his regular set of notorious friends begin to dig deeper, they find that Drummond may have been heavily involved in some property and development dealings in the greater Boston area that included local mob bosses Kevin McManus and Thomas Mauro. Spenser travels to Florida for his first face-off with Mauro, which includes some classic give and take but gets him no closer to the answers he seeks. The same goes for his confrontations with McManus in Boston, who remains elusive about his interactions with Drummond.

No one seems to be telling Spenser the entire truth, which brings out a side in him that we have never seen before. The now-unbridled Spenser moves through the rest of the novel like a bull in a china shop, taking no prisoners and putting himself in danger on more than one occasion. When individuals he meets regarding Rita’s case turn up dead or missing, he realizes that he must be pushing the right buttons and getting that much closer to the truth.

The writing is like a house on fire, and ROBERT B. PARKER'S HOT PROPERTY becomes a fast read full of infectious language and banter. I trust that this is not the last we will see of the great Spenser. In the hands of Mike Lupica, he continues to live and breathe in a way that would make Robert B. Parker proud.