Spenser has two lives, which he adroitly weaves together. In one, he's as tough as they come--tougher than the worst bad guys he finds and takes down as a Boston P.I. Being also smart as a whip, he analyzes, plans and paces himself. His sidekick is the even fiercer Hawk. It's almost a marriage as these guys trade barbs between themselves that have a racial edge to it along with a subdued humor that often rises to the hilarious.

Fortunately, that's not his whole life. His romantic side is amply gratified by his very close relationship with Susan Silverman, a psychotherapist who contributes her professional insight into Spenser's motivations as support for how he deals with the ugly things his trade causes him to do. Rounding out the love element is his beloved dog, Pearl.

This installment in that double phased life starts with a bang... or, rather, three. Hawk, the near invulnerable man, gets shot in the back from a window across the street while protecting a client from a new mob of Ukrainian gun men. From his hospital bed, he describes the incident to Spenser. "...Missed the spine, missed the heart..." "The heart I'm not surprised," observes Spenser, "being as how it's so teeny." "Don't go all mushy on me," cautions the wounded patient.

The worst of the incident is that, once Hawk is taken down, the killers go on to kill his client and most of the poor man's family. The youngest, in day care at the time of the attack, is the lone survivor. Hawk decides that they will all have to pay with their lives and, once he's back in shape, he'll see to it. Spenser will back his play in every way and proceeds with the investigation that takes them into the lairs of the principal players in a mob arrangement that is unusually cooperative, to say the least.

Little by little, the responsible parties are identified and listed on Hawk's to-do list, including the rifleman who pulled the trigger on him. After an appropriate time for healing, a fully restored Hawk is ready to deliver his payback, which will have to include a substantial sum for the little family survivor. Justice and monetary restitution are parts of the theme, the need for them, absolute.

Parker keeps the softer, romantic side constantly in view, mostly in Spenser's relationship with Susan. But, in this episode, he adds a love interest for Hawk. Cecile. But she's a little less understanding of Hawk's violent nature than Susan is with Spenser's, and she struggles with the compatibility issues over not being able to housebreak her macho man.

"Revenge is a dish best served cold," author Parker states beefore the title page. Hence, the title and the unusually glacial pacing of our fearful heroes' preparations and philosophical side tracks. What is usual, however, is Parker's classic alliance of humor and death riding side by side in another Spenser traipse through his mostly male world.