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Mystery and suspense series based on Robert Parker's "Spenser" novels. Spenser, a private investigator living in Boston, gets involved in a new murder mystery each episode.
“A lot of people think I like to get even. They're dead right.”
1987
A cop who helped send a gangster's son to prison years ago has been hiding, cause the gangster wants to get him. But now he wants to come home, so he and his father, asks Spenser to act as intermediary. While the gangster is unwilling to settle for nothing less than seeing him dead. Spenser tries to see what he can do. At the same time Spenser has to deal with Susan, who came back to town, and would like to see if they have a future, but this case is taking up all of his time.
A streetwise young kid gets involved over his head in the underworld. Spenser and Hawk try to protect him from would-be killers.
Lt. Quirk faces his mortality when he suffers a heart attack. Spenser and Hawk protect him from revenge-minded villains as he recovers.
Spenser helps an old friend, an alcoholic priest who tries to help homeless teenagers, when he gets involved over his head.
Spenser becomes obsessed with an apparently suicidal woman after a chance encounter on the street.
Susan is in trouble when her claims of sexual harassment lead her college counselor to retaliate by hiring a hit man to keep her quiet. Spenser gets arrested for getting involved in a fight.
Spenser runs into an old friend while visiting a recreation of a Puritan village. Spenser does everything in his power to exonerate said friend when he's accused of a brutal slaying. As he uncovers more and more, Spenser begins to think it might be hard to clear the name of a guilty man.
Spenser's fishing trip is interrupted when he has to protect a young man who's not allowed to marry the girl he loves.
A sniper takes some shots at Spenser and Susan, and a young boy ends up dead in the crossfire. Spenser sets out to determine why such a tragedy happened and track down the shooter.
Spenser and Hawk find themselves on opposite sides of the same case. Spenser is hired to retrieve a stolen journal containing information damaging to a judge's career. Hawk is hired by the thief to extort money from the judge.
Hawk and Susan along with other people are held captive in a post office. Richard Brooks later seen on Law and Order during Season's 1 & 2 plays one of the hostage takers.
Spenser protects an old friend, Arthur, after he's assaulted and robbed. In the course of his investigation, Spenser comes across disturbing information connecting Arthur with racketeering.
When Frank's niece dies of a drug overdose, Spenser and Frank go after the men responsible.
Sammy Backlin calls Spenser for protection when he's being hunted by a 'vicious horde of bloodthirsty assassins'.
One of Spenser's old trainers lures Spenser to a deserted warehouse where Spenser is supposed to be killed, to get out from under a gambling debt. Spenser survives, then turns around and protects his trainer from the goons now after him.
Spenser protects a theater owner from gangsters, but begins to suspect she's not as innocent as she appears.
Spenser suspects insurance fraud when a building blows up. Susan has a possibly cancerous mass removed.
Spenser protects a child artist after the child witnesses a mob execution while painting in the forest.
Spenser investigates the death of a friend apparently involved with white supremicists. Hawk is rendered blind by an explosion.
Spenser assists a lawyer in proving the innocence of his client, a Navy seaman accused of murdering the captain's daughter. The only witness is a missing Polish sailor.
Spenser investigates an old child kidnapping case when he tries to track down a teenage girl's biological parents.
1985
Spenser is hired to find the runaway wife of a wealthy businessman. Based on a story by Spenser novelist Robert B. Parker.
Spenser's apartment burns down, but he's allowed to move into an old fire station as thanks for saving a firefighter's life. Meanwhile, Spenser and Hawk are hired to protect the life of grand jury witness. When it starts to look like someone on the inside might be trying to have the witness killed, and that the witness may not be who she says she is, things get convoluted.
A old man whom Spenser and Hawk knows is shot. They discover that the killer are a couple who comes from an affluent background, which they hide behind. It turns into a cat and mouse game for Spenser and Hawk, who are determined to take them down.
Spenser kills a would-be thief in the course of thwarting a robbery. He and Susan take in the man's two children while investigating his past. Susan discovers she's pregnant.
Spenser investigates the apparent suicide of a young nun, and stumbles onto a corrupt landlord.
Spenser's been hired by a conductor to find his daughter who ran away with her boyfriend. When he finds them, she tells him that her father has been molesting her. Spenser then tells her father what she said which he denies. After Spenser leaves, he calls Hawk, who once did a job for him, to do something for him.
Spenser is hired to protect a woman's identical twin sister from assassins, only to discover his employer suffers from a split personality.
Spenser stumbles onto a ring of thieves while investigating a relic stolen from a museum.
The wife of a kidnapped oil tycoon hires Spenser to deliver $1 million in ransom money to a ring of terrorists while police have the drop-off area surrounded.
Spenser investigates a crooked vice cop involved in the mugging of one of Susan's friends.
Marital infidelity and suspected involvement in a gambling ring lead to Lt. Quirk's suspension. Belson is shot during a raid. Spenser works to clear Quirk's name and catch Belson's would-be killer.
Spenser and Hawk blame themselves for failing to protect their respective clients from the clutches of the underworld, and vow to settle the score with a big-time racketeer and his henchmen.
A young ex-con named Louis Harper steals from his boss, John Brady. Brady hires Spenser to prove it and Harper hires Hawk to protect him from leg-breakers. Spenser and Hawk team up to solve Louis' murder.
Spenser tries to protect a former Russian ballerina, when she hires him to help her find stolen papers, but he gets more than he bargained for once he discovers that she is a person of interest to dueling government agents employed by American and Russian forces.
Spenser is going skiing with Susan, but when he picks her up at Smithfield High School where she works, he finds out one of her students died of a heroin overdose. Spenser gets hired by the superintendent and goes undercover as a teacher at her school to find out where the drugs are coming from. He obviously gets into it with the dealers.
A deaf woman hires Spenser to find a man she had been corresponding with who had gone missing. As Spenser investigates, he realizes that the missing man is somehow involved with a gang of thieves who are trying to kill Spenser in revenge for busting up their diamond heist.
Spenser searches for the father of an undocumented boy killed by an unhinged unemployed man. The trail leads Spenser into a conspiracy involving the exploitation of undocumented workers on the waterfront.
Spenser is hired by the fashion model wife of a rich bank owner who says her life is in danger. After multiple attempted murders and one successful murder, Spenser realizes that the wife is not the target. When the wife's past comes to light, the investigation takes a whole new direction.
Detective Belson's ex-partner is murdered during his daughter's wedding reception. The dead cop is suspected of being involved in criminal activities, so Lt. Quirk asks Spenser to investigate the dead man and find out if Belson is dirty, too.
Spenser witnesses an ex-convict murder a 19 year-old girl, then kill himself. The girl's wealthy younger sister hires Spenser to find out why her sister was killed.
Spenser locates a runaway, and saves her from a psychotic man—but the man escapes.
Partnering with an attractive TV news reporter, Spenser investigates the reason a newly constructed building collapsed, killing a boy.
Michael Shayne
1960
Robert Urich
Spenser
Avery Brooks
Hawk
Barbara Stock
Susan Silverman
Ron McLarty
Frank Belson
1986
New District Attorney Rita Fiori tries to prosecute Spenser for blackmail.
A small fishing family hires Spenser to investigate the death of their father. Spenser suspects a rival fishing family, the Almeidas.
While Spenser and Hawk are in a small town to view a boxing match, Hawk is arrested, ostensibly for carrying a concealed weapon, but Spenser suspects racism may be involved.
A mobster's pregnant teenage girlfriend tries to keep her unborn son from his father.
Spenser protects a man suffering from amnesia.
Spenser travels to Maine to help hunt down an escaped murderer, but the tables are turned when the man's father stalks Spenser.
Rita hires Spenser to investigate a troubled teenager, yet another 'Spenser helps a misguided youth' episode.
A friend of Spenser's is shot and killed while portraying Paul Revere during a Revolutionary War re-enactment.
A girl who apparently has the unique ability to 'see' through both space and time, enlists Spenser's help to solve a rash of arsons.
With the help of Hawk, a disgusted Spenser is determined to get rid of thugs who are terrorizing his Boston neighborhood.
Hawk is the main suspect when Lt. Quirk is shot, due to a recent fracas between the two. Spenser suspects a new man in town, trying to take Hawk down to make a name for himself.
A wealthy man is murdererd and, surprise, an innocent man is arrested. If you've seen one Spenser, you've seen them all.
Spenser investigates the apparent suicide of a philandering financier about to turn state's evidence to bring down insider trading. Rita has problems of her own when an old boyfriend shows up. Belson hires Spenser to find his missing wallet containing a winning lottery ticket.
Spenser and Rita go after a corrupt African.
A girl comes to Boston looking for her estranged father. Spenser decides to help her.
A pimp is wrongfully arrested for the murder of one of his girls. Spenser agonizes between pursuing the real murderer or letting the pimp take the rap.
Spenser and Hawk protect a man who owes money to men of dubious ethics. When their client, Bo Braxton tries to blackmail his creditors, he and his alcoholic teenage daughter go on the run.
Spenser becomes embroiled in the seamy Vietnamese organized crime racket after a Vietnamese crime boss uses Spenser to track down a former soldier.
Spenser loses all feeling in his right arm after he's shot while guarding a politician.
NRA poster-boy Sammy Backlin breezes into town for a book signing, unwittingly involving Spenser in a shoot out. Spenser agrees to protect Sammy from gangland thugs.
Rita and her old college friends are reunited when a fictional person they created 20 years ago is found dead in his apartment.
A prison inmate with a grudge against Hawk hires outside muscle to rub him out.
