Robert B. Parker: Painted Ladies (USA 2011)

From the Publisher:
The brilliant new Spenser novel from the beloved New York Times-bestselling author Robert B. Parker.
Called upon by The Hammond Museum and renowned art scholar Dr. Ashton Prince, Spenser accepts his latest case: to provide protection during a ransom exchange-money for a stolen painting.

The case becomes personal when Spenser fails to protect his client and the valuable painting remains stolen. Convinced that Ashton Prince played a bigger role than just ransom delivery boy, Spenser enters into a daring game of cat-and-mouse with the thieves. But this is a game he might not come out of alive...

Completed the year before he passed away, Painted Ladies is Spenser and Robert B. Parker at their electrifying best.

Robert B. Parker: Painted Ladies. Berkley Books, ISBN: 9780425243626 (September, 2011), 304 p., $9.99.

Robert B. Parker: Painted Ladies (UK 2011)

From the Publisher:
Private Detective Spenser is on his easiest job yet. Art professor Ashton Prince has hired him to help recover a stolen painting. The thieves will return it in exchange for a ransom. All Spenser has to do is accompany Prince, just in case. And collect his fee. But, as Prince walks away from the exchange towards Spenser's car carrying the wrapped painting, it explodes. Prince is gone, and with him, Spenser's cash. Starting to investigate, Spenser discovers Prince's past is far from squeaky clean, but nothing warrants going to such unusual lengths to kill him. Who did it, and why?

Robert B. Parker: Painted Ladies. Before Reacher there was Spenser. A Spenser Mystery. Quercus Publishing, ISBN: 9781849161336 (July, 2011), 304 p., £7.99.

Robert B. Parker: Painted Ladies (UK 2010)

From the Publisher:
Spenser is approached by Ashton Prince, an art professor who wants him to help recover a stolen painting. The thieves will return the painting in exchange for a ransom, and so the professor wants Spenser along in case things turn nasty. The exchange goes seemingly without a hitch, but as Prince emerges carrying a rectangular object wrapped in brown paper and heads for the private detective's car, the package explodes and makes a dreadful mess of the hapless prof. Spenser isn't going to let anyone get away with killing one of his clients, but first he's got to figure out who did it and why. Turns out that Professor Prince was giving extra tuition to his pretty young female students - and not just of the academic kind. But why go to such elaborate lengths to murder him? And is the painting still out there? Soon Spenser will find that powerful men have their own reasons to suppress the answers to such questions - and they will think nothing of silencing a prying detective.

Robert B. Parker: Painted Ladies. A Spenser Novel. Quercus Publishing, ISBN: 9781849161312 (October, 2010), 304 p., £18.99.

Robert B. Parker: Painted Ladies (USA 2010)

From the Publisher:
The brilliant new Spenser novel from the beloved New York Times-bestselling author Robert B. Parker.
Called upon by The Hammond Museum and renowned art scholar Dr. Ashton Prince, Spenser accepts his latest case: to provide protection during a ransom exchange-money for a stolen painting.

The case becomes personal when Spenser fails to protect his client and the valuable painting remains stolen. Convinced that Ashton Prince played a bigger role than just ransom delivery boy, Spenser enters into a daring game of cat-and-mouse with the thieves. But this is a game he might not come out of alive...

Completed the year before he passed away, Painted Ladies is Spenser and Robert B. Parker at their electrifying best.

Robert B. Parker: Painted Ladies. A Spenser Novel. Putnam's, ISBN: 9780399156854 (October, 2010), 291 p., $26.95.