When a mature, beautiful and composed April Kyle strides into Spenser's office, the Boston PI barely hesitates before recognizing his once and future client. Now a well-established madam herself, April oversees an upscale call girl operation in Boston's Back Bay. Still looking for Spenser's approval, it takes her a moment before she can ask him, again, for his help. Her business is a success; what's more, it's an all-female enterprise. Now that some men are trying to take it away from her, she needs Spenser's help.
April claims to be in the dark about who it is that's trying to shake her down, but with a bit of legwork and a bit more muscle, Spenser and Hawk find ties to organized crime and local kingpin Tony Marcus, as well as a scheme to franchise the operation across the country. As Spenser again plays the gallant knight, it becomes clear April's not as innocent as she seems. In fact, she may be her own worst enemy.
'Robert B Parker is one of the greats of the American hard-boiled genre'
- Peter Guttridge, The Guardian [read the full review]
''The woman who came into my office on a bright January day was a knockout.' When a novel begins with a reassuring sentence like that you know exactly where you are... Pacy, punchy, and very readable.'
- Simon Shaw, Daily Mail [read the full review]
'The woman who came into my office on a bright January day was a knockout.' When a novel begins with a reassuring sentence like that you know exactly where you are. Spenser, Robert B. Parker's long-lived detective, is as hard-nosed and laconic as any fictional private eye since Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade, and he inhabits what is recognisably the same world. The men are tough, the women are beautiful, and the biggest difference between the good guys and the bad guys is that the latter have no sense of honour. In Dream Girl, Spenser tries to help out a high-class hooker who's suffering the unwelcome attention of some thugs, but he's hampered by his desire to save her from herself. Pacy, punchy, and very readable.
Simon Shaw, Daily Mail
'Parker writes old-time, stripped-to-the-bone, hard-boiled school of Chandler...His novels are funny, smart and highly entertaining...There's no writer I'd rather take on an aeroplane.'
- Sunday Telegraph
'Why Robert Parker's not better known in Britain is a mystery. His best series featuring Boston-based PI Spenser is a triumph of style and substance. '
- Daily Mirror [read the full review]
Why Robert Parker's not better known in Britain is a mystery. His best series featuring Boston-based PI Spenser is a triumph of style and substance. Dream Girl finds Spenser coming to the aid of up market call-girl April who's being threatened by the Mob. But does April know more than she's letting on?
Daily Mirror
'Nobody does it better than Parker...'
- The Sunday Times
'If you want non-stop action, awesome characters and overall kick-ass entertainment you need to read Parker'
- Janet Evanovich