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Hundred-Dollar Baby

by Robert B. Parker

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Spenser (34)

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1,2502515,296 (3.45)18
Spenser, a Boston PI, is once again hired by April Kyle who was a teenage runaway that turned to prostitution. Now she is a madam of an up-scale, all-female operation that some men are trying to take away from her. April claims she doesn't know who is after her business, but Spenser finds ties to organized crime. Spenser without much surprise also finds that April, the thugs and everyone else involved is lying to him.… (more)
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Hundred-Dollar Baby was a last hurrah of sorts for the Spenser series, and a return to near-greatness for Parker as a writer. The emotional impact of the final entry in the sad April Kyle trilogy within the Spenser canon was well written and deeply moving. The years seemed to disappear — almost — as you turned the pages of Hundred-Dollar Baby, aka Dream Girl. This was a return to the early days of Spenser, before Parker shifted the focus of the series to the vain and pretentious mess that was Susan Silverman, allowing the cloying and nauseating exchanges between the two, and the psychobabble to eclipse plot, and depth.

It was the shift in focus brought about by events in Parker’s own life which, in my opinion, throttled the literary heights to which he had begun to strive for with the series. The second entry in the story-line, Taming a Sea-Horse, came after Catskill Eagle, and the focus had shifted completely. Reading it after Ceremony was almost a shock. Having re-read Hundred-Dollar Baby on the heels of reading Sea-Horse that book feels like an aberration sandwiched between Ceremony and Hundred-Dollar Baby. But whereas reading Sea-Horse is a disappointing shock after Ceremony, Hundred-Dollar Baby is a startling surprise after the changed focus in Sea-Horse.

Parker had invested a lot in the April Kyle saga. Proof of that is that he kept returning to her in the series. Perhaps he sensed that neither this series, nor its writer, could go on forever, and he wanted to at least write one more great one. The fact that he chose to make it the final book in the April Kyle story, speaks volumes about his own feelings for the character. Parker once again, and finally gave readers a real mystery, with both Spenser and the reader not quite able to connect the dots in a multi-layered plot in which every time Spenser peels back one layer, another emerges. It’s the classic detective novel — Parker’s style imposed on it — of a detective working on a case where everyone is lying to him, including his client. In this case the client is a beautiful and sophisticated woman Spenser doesn’t at first recognize when she walks into his office — April Kyle.

The years have apparently been kind to April, as the troubled kid once hooking in Boston’s Combat Zone seems to have become very much like Patricia Utley. While Spenser might have hoped she would find love at some point and take a Linda Rabb route, it’s impossible to be disappointed with the smiling, lovely and elegant woman in front of him. Outwardly at least, April seems to have overcome her damage, but as Spenser attempts to help her, he gradually realizes things are not as they seem. Before this one is over, there will be no doubt that April never really overcame the damage at all, and that Spenser’s morally ambiguous solution in Ceremony — even if it seemed like the only one at the time — was the wrong one.

April is running a Back Bay branch office of sorts for New York’s Patricia Utley, but someone is trying to horn in on the very high-end operation. The carefully recruited women working for April are teachers, real estate agents, graduate students, and bored but beautiful housewives. The clientele is upscale and as painstakingly screened as possible. When Spenser speaks with them during the investigation, it becomes clear that at least in this instance, these women are doing what they want to do, and feel like they’re the ones doing the exploiting. The psychology of that is of course hashed around by Spenser and Susan, but this is more the Spenser and Hawk show; and eventually, the Spenser and April show.

Parker could not change what he’d done from Valediction going forward at this point in the series, so he just worked around Susan. He gave the reader a real mystery with a labyrinth plot, and a depth missing in the Spenser entries which were simply great entertainment. By keeping the interludes between Spenser and Susan to a not-too-nauseating level, he kept the focus on April Kyle, which is what the character deserved. Only twice, when Susan mentions that business out West, does the reader cringe, because it’s a reminder of where this series jumped the rails, and never found its way to its intended destination once it got back on them.

As Spenser and Hawk discourage the thugs attempting to muscle in, Spenser learns that the overhead on April’s operation is so great, it leaves little for Patricia Utley. Then he discovers Utley only expanded into Boston because she cares for April, and wanted her to have something of her own. Once Spenser realizes there really isn’t a lot worth taking, he sadly concludes that April must be lying to him. It bothers Spenser on a personal level more than professional, and it bothers him that April seemingly rejects even the possibility of love. It is an early hint to both the reader and Spenser, that there will be no Linda Rabb happy ending, and suggests that the fateful decision at the end of Ceremony, was not the right one.

The threat to April’s operation escalates when one of her girls get worked over and put in the hospital. Because Spenser can already feel something wrong, the beating makes no sense. With Vinnie in Cincinnati helping his new boss, Gino, “persuade” some people, and Chollo on his way to Mexico to do similar work, Spenser brings in Tedy Sapp from Hugger Mugger to help Hawk watch over the Back Bay brothel, while he pokes around in New York. What Spenser discovers, he doesn’t like. But the more layers of a possible con game Spenser peels back, the more confused he is. With everyone lying to him, including Patricia Utley, it’s unclear just who is doing the playing, and who is getting played.

This time around, just as in Sea-Horse, Tony Marcus and Spenser have parallel interests, and Tony is content to let Spenser rid him of a problem. Tony is getting a cut of April’s operation, and doesn’t want anyone else splitting up the pie. Corsetti, the New York cop from the earlier book in the saga, lends Spenser out of town support in this one, and it’s too bad Parker didn’t include him more in the series. Parker addresses the Hawk issue here, by having Hawk tell Spenser in a moment of banter, that he isn’t Tonto. Parker could not have been unaware of the opportunities he missed with Hawk, Vinnie and others in the series, once he’d shifted the focus to perhaps placate his personal demons, and assuage truncated expectations. He was too good a writer not to be aware of it, or not be aware of how millions of readers disliked the vain and pretentious Susan Silverman — and what she made Spenser become when they were together. One can infer that Parker is acknowledging that he should have never allowed Hawk to become Tonto to Spenser’s Lone Ranger, nor compromised the series.

When the guy doing the muscle work for someone trying to cut into April's Back Bay operation gets burned, and New York mob connections emerge, this one becomes about a dream, and unaddressed damage. The conclusion is deeply sad, and emotionally powerful. Twisting and involving, and in the end, terribly moving, this was Parker’s final great moment. The insipid Now and Then followed this one, and it seemed for a moment as though, having expended so much on this entry, Parker had emptied the tank. But then we got the very good The Professional. It was fumes, but they were high-octane fumes, so it was a terrific read, even if it didn’t have the deeply moving emotional resonance of Hundred-Dollar Baby.

If you’re reading the Spenser series, I suggest reading The Professional before this one, allowing this late entry to be Parker’s swan song. It’s sad and moving, it has a multi-layered plot, and for those who've read the previous entries concerning April Kyle (Ceremony, and Taming a Sea-Horse), the human drama of April Kyle, especially the final scene, is one you’re not likely to ever forget. If you're a true Parker fan, let it end here, on a powerful note in Parker's own literary voice; avoiding the gore and superfluous expletives, and characters that no longer seem themselves now that Parker has passed, and others are writing this series. Parker’s own work was his legacy, just like every writer, and Hundred-Dollar Baby was a sad and powerful way to say goodbye. ( )
  Matt_Ransom | Oct 6, 2023 |
First edition very good
  dgmathis | Mar 17, 2023 |
Hundred Dollar Baby is #34 of the many Spenser mysteries by Robert B. Parker. In this novel Spenser tries to rescue April Kyle again. This time it is not from pimps and gangsters but from herself. In an earlier novel Spenser tracked her down when she was a run away and underage prostitute. The usual characters appear including Boston Police detectives Belson and Quirk, Spenser's friend Hawk and his girlfriend Susan. Does he succeed in rescuing April? Well, the dialog is really good.
  MMc009 | Jan 30, 2022 |
April Kyle, rescued twice by Spenser, needs it again but turns out to be elaborate plot to get control of whore house
  ritaer | Aug 12, 2021 |
This was an okay book. Parts were exciting but parts just kept reiterating the fact that Spenser helped April Kyle become a high class hooker and he wished he could have done more to help her. Up until the end, he still wants to help her even though she has become a murderer at that point in her life. The ending surprised me. ( )
  LilQuebe | Dec 3, 2019 |
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Robert B. Parkerprimary authorall editionscalculated
Mantegna, JoeNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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For Joan: Priceless
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The woman who came into my office on a bright January day was a knockout.
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Spenser, a Boston PI, is once again hired by April Kyle who was a teenage runaway that turned to prostitution. Now she is a madam of an up-scale, all-female operation that some men are trying to take away from her. April claims she doesn't know who is after her business, but Spenser finds ties to organized crime. Spenser without much surprise also finds that April, the thugs and everyone else involved is lying to him.

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