Stardust

Parker ( Playmates ) adds another winner to his tried-and-true series with this electrifying story told in the familiar low-voltage style of Spenser, Boston private eye. Spenser's love, psychologist Susan, acting as consultant to a TV film crew shooting locally, persuades Spenser and his loyal sidekick Hawk to guard the show's star, Jill Joyce. Although Joyce's behavior off-camera epitomizes depravity, Susan and Spenser recognize the fear behind the woman's mask. The detective investigates the threatening phone calls and letters that precede the murder of Joyce's stand-in, a tragic mistake that pushes him to the limit in his search for the killer. Success comes as the final revelation in a drama crammed with the unexpected. A nice surprise is the role played by three mongrels Spenser rescues from a pound. The dignified, impeccably mannered dogs upstage the entire cast of characters in a performance that reveals genuine star quality. Doubleday Book Club selection; Literary Guild alternate. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Spenser of Boston in another TV-episode-sized, awfully familiar scenario: this time he's hired to guard the temperamental star of a TV series (shooting on location in Boston) and to find how who, if anyone, has been terrorizing her with nasty phone calls and such. Is someone out to get sexy, boozy, fragile Jill Joyce, star of Fifty Minutes? Or is she just a nuts-o prima donna? Spenser takes Jill fairly seriously--especially after her stunt-double is murdered (by mistake?). He quizzes some of the men she's dumped: a mob-connected tycoon; a pathetic ex-husband living in grimy anonymity in western Massachusetts (the book's best vignette). Then, leaving sidekick Hawk to watch over Jill, Spenser flies to California to interview the star's alcoholic mother and dried-up father (long-estranged from each other and from Jill); he also uncovers the secret illegitimate child in her past. But only after another death and Jill's disappearance does the truth emerge--in a melodramatic showdown with a trendy, psychosexual twist. The windup's a disappointment here--especially when it leads to another one of Spenser's saintly excursions into the psychological rehabilitation of a damaged soul. But the repartee along the way is better than in other recent Spensers; there's a blessed minimum of the sleuth's cooking and preening; and Parker's TV-series experience shows nicely in the irreverent detailing of on-location production and show-biz dealings. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.