Small vices

Ellis Alves is a bad kid from the 'hood with a long, long record, but did he really murder Melissa Henderson, a white coed from ritzy Pemberton College? Alves's former lawyers think he was framed, and they hire Spenser to uncover the truth.

As he and longtime associate Hawk race from the back streets of Boston to Manhattan's most elegant avenues, Spenser gets a postgraduate course in the seamy side of life - an ethical no-man's-land where twisted cops and spoiled rich kids with peculiar private proclivities are just the tip of the iceberg.

The stakes abruptly shift from corruption to catastrophe when a master assassin's bullets take Spenser down. He survives the attack - barely - but must play dead to the world, while recovering his strength hiding in secret. Only then can he see justice done - and let the shooter know that it's payback time.