Any new installment in Spenser's case file is a cause for celebration. Author Robert B. Parker laces the detective's adventures in the criminal trade with crackling humor and flair but also with such slick technique that the read is over before you've had your dinner desert. Which is my only carp.

A special treat in this yarn is the fact that his beloved companion of the legal persuasion and Spenser adorer Susan Silverman is out of town, giving us and his case full attention, except for time spent in pining for her return. We'll take the treat, however, when we get it.

The wealthy Lily Ellsworth arrives in her chauffeur driven Bentley to visit Spenser at his Boston office to hire him. Her assignment is simple: prove the innocence of her 17-year old grandson, Jared Clark, as one of two teens accused of a Columbine-style shooting at the Dowling prep school that left five students and two teachers dead. There's only one gnawing problem. Being fingered by his partner in the crime Wendell Grant after two days of police questioning, and then taking the blame for it.

But even a confession doesn't change the sprightly lady's conviction that her boy is innocent. Despite giving our ace sleuth some pause, however, he takes the case, realizing he's got a client who "can afford me."

Proceeding to render services, he has to find a way to cut through the jumble of interests very eager to take the expeditious way to close a "slam dunk" case. Just lock the kid up and throw away the keys and justice will have been done. But Spenser's persistence is in the way, and he's not exactly a hero to the expeditious types--the brass of the local and state police, and the inept lawyers representing the defendants.

Once Jared's participation in the school shooting becomes irrefutable, Spenser's objective is to find out the biggest mystery nagging him: why. Why did this little kid don a ski-mask and take part in a mad and deadly assault? Is he really a homicidal misfit? His interview with the kid doesn't bear it out. Spenser keeps asking questions until his crafty methodology leads to the one person keeping a tight lip on the secret that can answer them.

Before Spenser gets to that point, however, and happily for our amused entertainment in this distinctive detective's shrewd and debonair ways, he finds the occasion to shoot a few criminal types and to fend off some blatant offers of sex by very attractive women, his legal consultant Rita Fiore most insistently. He also indulges in the occasional self deprecations. When Rita asks how his investigation is going, he quips, "I am finding out more and more about less and less. I will eventually know everything about nothing."

And, while fending off the heat from hot babes, he very dutifully and lovingly cares for Susan's German shorthaired pointer Pearl, who fills in for the lack of her master's presence as well as filling in for Spenser's missing pal Hawk. Pearl is an ever-faithful conversational companion and ready ear.

There's probably no faster, smoother read in the annals of murder mystery suspense than what flows from the antic mind of Robert B. Parker. It's pure and swift, action and insight, a show biz ride all the way.