Small Vices (Spencer Mystery Ser.)

New York, NY, U.S.A.: Putnam Publishing Group, The, 1997. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. First Edition. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. 308 p. A Spenser Novel, in which the popular private eye is hired by a prestigious Boston law firm to assure that a convicted bad guy w as the real murderer. Ellis Alves, a bad kid with a very long record, is suspected of killing Melissa Henderson, a white coed from snazzy Pemberton College. Alves' former lawyers think he was framed, and they hire Spenser to look into the matter. Pairing up with Hawk, his intrepid helper, they find a trail that leads from Boston to Manhattan's ritzier places where corrupted lawmen and spoiled ric h kids with nasty habits abound. Corruption is one thing, attempted murder is another as an assassin shoots Spenser. He just barely makes it, goes into hiding temporaril y while he plots how to bring d own the shooter..