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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780440157588
ISBN number: 0440157587
Label: Dell
Manufacturer: Dell
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 336
Printing Date: May 01, 1987
Publishing house: Dell
Release Date: May 01, 1987
Sale Popularity Level: 65626
Studio: Dell
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Product Description:
Everybody loves a winner, and the Rabbs are major league. Marty is the Red Sox star pitcher, Linda the loving wife. She loves everyone except the blackmailer out to wreck her life.
Is Marty throwing fast balls or throwing games? It doesn't take long for Spenser to link Marty's performance with Linda's past...or to find himself trapped between a crazed racketeer and an enforcer toting an M-16.
America's favorite pastime has suddenly become a very dangerous sport, and one wrong move means strike three, with Spenser out for good!
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Rated by buyers 
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Spenser is summoned by the general manager of the Boston Red Sox and asked to investigate their start pitcher, Marty Rabb. There are some whispers that Rabb may be throwing games and Spenser is asked to provide a definitive answer one way or another. Spenser starts poking around and is soon on a trail that leads him to Illinois, New York, and back to Boston. What he learns only creates new problems and it's up to Spenser to figure out how to help Rabb and the Sox while keeping himself alive and healthy.
Spenser is a smart mouth P.I. who does his best to do the right thing. This may not make him the most original creation in modern fiction, but he's an enjoyable character. The banter is pretty solid and Spenser gets some pretty good lines. Most of the supporting characters were solid and had distinct personalities. The story moved along at a good clip and definitely held my interest.
Mortal Stakes is the third in the Spenser series with thirty-five published to date. This was my very first experience with Robert B Parker as an author, let alone this character. It didn't immediately launch itself onto my list of all-time favorites, but I'm interested enough to try another Spenser book. Having said that, I would obviously recommend this novel to either very first time readers or established Parker fans.
Rated by buyers 
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MORTAL STAKES is the third Spenser novel, and is one of the best ones. The plot involves Spenser being hired by the Boston Red Sox to determine whether one of their pitchers is throwing games. Spenser's investigation leads him to look deep into the personal history of the pitcher's wife, which reveals quite a few skeletons.
I really enjoy reading Parker's prose. The writing in MORTAL STAKES is lean, funny, and always entertaining. His early Spenser books are the best, because the character is still young, fresh and unsure of himself. In the later books, he becomes a bit too much of a self-satisfied superhero for my tastes. My advice is to read the very first ten Spenser novels very first -- they are some of the best private eye fiction you will ever read.
In short, MORTAL STAKES is a classic novel by one of the most important American crime writers working today. If you've never read Parker, this novel is certainly worth your time, although you might want to read GOD SAVE THE CHILD very first to get a bit more background on who Spenser is.
Rated by buyers 
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In the 3rd Spenser outing, he is hired to investigate the Boston Red Sox to see if one of the team is being paid to throw some of the games. His investigations take him to some strange places and he digs up some dirt he wasn't expecting - as well as some serious trouble for himself.
Oddly enough, this book left me a bit cold - I can't quite place my finger on why I didn't find this book as enjoyable as the very first two. Perhaps it is due to the many places where Spenser waxes philosophical for no particular reason. Perhaps it is the way that clues seem to just fall into his lap. Maybe it is just because I'm reading it at work and work leaves me in a foul mood. Whatever the reason, don't let me cause you to pass up this book; Spenser fans will want to read it so they don't miss out on a minute of this series.
Rated by buyers -
Loved the reality/fiction twist of Spenser going undercover as a writer to get into baseball back rooms and detect from inside the game. The poem introducing this heavenly concept of work overlapping play was a perfect preface. Of course the meaning in those lines from Robert Frost descend into deadly seriousness, beyond a person's job taking him into his most passionate pastime.
It appears that, for Robert B. Parker, the heart of Boston's commerce and culture is baseball at Fenway Park. That is where this author appears to live. And where Spenser opens gateways for Parker's dreams... and nightmares.
To me, Parker seemed happy to be writing this book within this setting with mirrors reflecting mirrors of "plays" within plays that Spenser's opening interviews didn't feature suspects/clients offering delicatessen varieties of The Limburger Reek. The beauty of the baseball scene was captured perfectly, from the spectators in the stands, to the clean locker room banter, to the management organizational structure and press picture, to the sharks feeding among the sacred roots of the game. Even though I'm not into baseball, by page 4 Parker had me hooked into his ambiance. I felt the realism in the levels of the game, felt Spenser's joy (at the outset) to be doing this case.
It seemed to me as if, by this third Spenser novel, copyright 1975, Parker was feeling his oats as an author, had established his commercial appeal, and was really stepping out to write what and how he'd always wanted: Baseball, within the classic framework of detective fiction.
Loved the joked-up titles for his fictional book, off-colored ditties which lead to an appropriate one. I was curious what Spenser would come up with, contrasted to his hokey (as he meant them to be) jokes, and he dropped the head-liner at the precise time and place for effect.
It was nice, as a change of pace, to see Spenser as slightly less of a wise guy and more of a vulnerably happy man eating up the perks of his profession (though his artfully acerbic wit, which I relish, certainly wasn't lacking).
I'm happy to report that this third novel was written in the meaty narrative style of the prior two novels, rather than in the pared down dialogue dance of his later works, though I do not mean to disparage the honed beauty of his later work. Just wanted to enjoy his early, classic P.I. style (with its sensual gourmet touches), wanted to stretch out for a while prior to the sophisticated-dialogue-rap condensing narrative complexity into Parker's signature syntax dance.
I wonder how many novels Parker wrote with the setting and location detail riding equal to or above the dialogue and interview process. I'm going to enjoy the heck out of finding out where/how his style evolved. Would like to also unearth the whys, but I'd have to interview the man to get to that groundwork.
Though writing fictional works is my favorite outlet for my talent (making work into play), when I've despaired of being published right in that venue, I've sometimes toyed with the idea of writing a novel based on facts featuring the development and expression of a talent like Parker's, a full, meaty story showing how his talent was guided and manipulated by whatever factors. Sidney Sheldon's memoirs, THE OTHER SIDE OF ME (See my review posted 1/14/06), does a great job of exposing how his expression was hammered by those jealous of ability expressed well, developed by ungodly hard work with good luck mixed into the bad, endured torture to arrive at a sucess few could fully comprehend, though his memoirs explain a lot.
Another amazing example of how life's events mold talent is Stephen King's ON WRITING (my review dated 10/13/06). Apparently King is frightening enough that many people seem to pause at least twice before tarnishing his talent in public venues which King might read.
But King and Sheldon's books (those mentioned above) are nonfiction. If I wanted to (or even could) take time away from writing pure fiction (I'm ambivalent about alternate routes for expression, because I'm better with fiction than with fact), I'd like to write factual information into novel form, with a focus on what manipulated an auspicious author's talent into the types of books published under his name, an author like Robert B. Parker.
And, I've wondered if the stalking incidents in HUSH MONEY and WALKING SHADOW (my reviews dated 4/11 & 13/06) were based on actual incidents in Parker's life. I've also wondered if his wife, Joan, is as feisty as Susan was in HUSH MONEY. In the real world, Joan probably wouldn't (for understandable reasons) act out the drama quite as Susan did. But, I'll bet RB and Joan enjoyed the heck out of Susan's scenes taking care of the "lady" stalker. Readers aren't the only ones who live vicariously in novels.
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Rated by buyers -
Mortal Stakes, the third in the Spenser series, is wonderful on many levels. It is more than just about baseball and blackmail and a lone wolf PI taking on underworld thugs. It is also about relationships: between couples, between business partners, between a sports idol and his fans and also his teammates. Parker handles all of these relationships well, with the plot twisting down to a somewhat surprising end: the hero is not who you think! Excellent read - I highly recommend.
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