S penser, the brash private eye with one name, one girlfriend, and more scars and minor injuries than most sports heroes, returns in Hugger Mugger to try, in his unusual but effective way, to right some wrongs in his corner of the world, which in this case stretches south to include the fictional town of Lamarr, Georgia. Hugger Mugger is a two-year-old thoroughbred stallion that the Clive family hopes will be the next Triple Crown winner, but the prize horse is in danger from some unknown sniper who has shot three other horses belonging to the Clives and has tried to shoot Hugger Mugger. Thus Spenser is hired to catch the bad guy.

Perceptive and acerbic as always, Parker uses this situation to observe and point out—via the cutting words of his wellknown detective—the foibles, vanities, and perversities of the worst of...