Mortal Stakes (1975) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters edit see section history

• Mr. Spenser: Hard boiled detective (The series is based on the adventures of this character)
• Bucky Maynard: a play-by-play man for the Boston Red Sox; famous broadcaster; fat southern guy
• Frank Doerr: loanshark,
• Linda Rabb: Marty's wife
• Marty Rabb: Red Sox star pitcher
• Lester Floyd: Bucky's driver, bodyguard, and gofer; dresses flamboyantly; knows tae kwon do; chews gum
• Wally Hogg: thug who works for Frank Doerr
• Donna Burlington: ran away from her midwestern small town at 18; spent some time in New York
• Patricia Utley: High price madam
• Donaldson: Add a description of this character.
• Brenda Loring: a woman Spenser sometimes spends time with; a friend; also appears in The Godwulf Manuscript
• Frank Belson: Sergeant, Boston police; thin; http://sharetv.org/person/ron_mclarty
• Carol Curtis: a journalist
• Flip Wilson: color commentary man for the Red Sox
• Harold Erskine: Red Sox manager who hires Spenser
• Carter
• Dr. Susan Silverman: Spenser's long time girlfriend. She is a psychologist and his sounding board. In this book she is still working as a school guidance counselor, and her relationship with Spenser is still young (they met in the previous book, God Save the Child).
• Steven
• Violet: a New Yorker pimp
• Billy
• Frankie
• Farrell
• Healy: Massachusetts State Police Homicide Commander

Quotes edit see section history

• ““When we stop learning, we stop growing,””

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• “Then it’s not a code anymore. See, being a person is kind of random and arbitrary business. You may have noticed that. And you need to believe in something to keep it from being too random and arbitrary to handle. Some people take religion, or success, or patriotism, or family, but for a lot of guys those things don’t work. A guy like me. I don’t have religion or family, that sort of thing. So you accept some system of order, and you stick to it.

  Highlighted by 26 Kindle customers

• “You spend too much time reading, Spenser. You know more stuff that don’t make you money than anybody I know.”

  Highlighted by 22 Kindle customers

• I don’t know if there is even a name for the system I’ve chosen, but it has to do with honor. And honor is behavior for its own reason.

  Highlighted by 19 Kindle customers

• But all I have is how I act. It’s the only system I fit into. Whatever the hell I am is based in part on not doing things I don’t think I should do. Or don’t want to do.

  Highlighted by 15 Kindle customers

• “Grow up, Marty,” I said. “The world’s not all that clean. You do what you can, not what you oughta.

  Highlighted by 15 Kindle customers

• There is excitement in a new kiss, but there is a quality of memory and intimacy in kissing someone you’ve kissed often before. I liked the quality. Maybe continuity is better than change.

  Highlighted by 12 Kindle customers

• “And,” Susan said, “two moral imperatives in your system are never to allow innocents to be victimized and never to kill people except involuntarily. Perhaps the words aren’t quite the right ones, but that’s the idea, isn’t it?”

  Highlighted by 12 Kindle customers

• Samuel Eliot Morison’s The Oxford History of the American People,

  Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers

• I care about promises, and I don’t want to make one I can’t be sure I’ll keep. It’s important to me.”

  Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers

• Across the street a vacant lot, not yet renewed, supported a flourishing crop of chicory and Queen Anne’s lace. Nature never betrayed the heart that loved her.

  Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• New York
• Chicago
• Boston
• Illinois
• Charlestown
• Church Park
• Amstel

First Sentence edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by God Save the Child, and followed by Promised Land.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Robert B. Parker (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Authors, A-Z › ( P ) › Parker, Robert B.
• Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Mystery › Hard-Boiled
• Books › Literature & Fiction

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Robert B. Parker: Author's website

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history