Book Review: Robert B. Parker’s Broken Trust by Mike Lupica
By Janet Webb
December 14, 2023
It’s a joy to read a new novel in the Robert B. Parker/Spenser world. Celebrated sportswriter Mike Lupica is the author: it’s his first Spenser mystery. Readers recognize in Spenser an honorable man of a certain age who is challenged by a changing world. He misses everything from microfilm to former Red Sox Mookie Betts (a continuing theme). With an ironic touch, Spenser articulates the pitfalls of changing mores.
Which is not to say that Broken Trust is elegiac in any way. The plot couldn’t be more of the moment. Bostonian Andrew Crain is a reclusive billionaire, “a brilliant scientist and astute businessman, his groundbreaking work with lithium has made him one of the world’s richest men.” He and his partner Ethan Lowe are much admired for their far-reaching philanthropy.
He and Lowe had started charter schools from Africa to Serbia. There was no telling how much of his own personal wealth Crain had directed to Ukraine by now, in support of its president and its army.
All in all it was a modern American success story, another one out of the tech world, this one originating in Boston the way Zuckerberg’s had with Facebook.
Just like that, another nerd ruled.
Spenser’s special spin on Crain and Lowe’s outstanding success— “when it happened, I always pictured another angel getting its wings.” All is not well in Andrew Crain’s personal world. At the suggestion of Spenser’s longtime partner, psychologist Susan Silverman, Andrew’s wife Laura consults with Spenser. Recently Andrew has acted in disturbing ways: he’s been angry and paranoid. Laura needs Spenser to “find out what skeletons lurk in her husband’s closet.” Crain and Lowe are considering “a lucrative company merger that would be life-changing for the Crains, their business partner, and everyone associated,” and volatility on Andrew’s part might upset the apple cart. Spenser is uncertain that he can help Laura.
Sometimes I wondered about the value of the kind of work I did, and had done for a long time, and done well, in a modern world where everybody seemed to know everything, about everybody.
Now there were things that Laura Crain did not know about her husband, things I was intuiting, with little to go on, at least so far, that she might not want to know. But in her mind, it was her husband who was now at risk, which is how she had ended up at my office.
Susan arranges dinner with Andrew and Laura at Davio’s, a restaurant that Andrew likes. Spenser is happy because he can walk to it: he’s a creature of habits. The two women and Spenser do most of the talking although Andrew does open to Susan somewhat, sharing a bit of his past. That is until his attention shifts to a young couple eating nearby. They’re arguing and it’s not pretty. Laura notices how upset Andrew is getting at the altercation, asks what’s the matter, and he replies, “You know I hate bullies.” The woman leaves and her date throws some money on the table before following her out.
“Enough,” Andrew Crain said as we all watched him go. “Enough.”
He took his napkin from his lap and spiked it like he was Gronk, the old Patriot, spiking a football after catching another touchdown pass from Tom Brady. Then Andrew Crain was pushing his chair back. It was like watching a kettle that had now come to full boil.
Andrew storms out of the restaurant but when Spenser catches up outside, he’s gone. Disappeared. The bully is the only one out there and he’s nursing a sore hand. Andrew didn’t come home that night.
Googling a subject can only get Spenser so far. He checks out the Crain home in Chestnut Hill, a prestigious Boston suburb close to downtown. Their “tasteful and spectacular” place reminds Spenser of an art museum. Maybe Andrew’s “ego room,” packed with photographs and accolades will be more revealing. Spenser’s thoughts on Andrew posing beside Mookie Betts and Queen Elizabeth are worth the price of admission.
He and Mookie were in front of the Green Monster at Fenway and looked happy. So was I when Mookie was still at Fenway.
There was also a picture on the fireplace mantel of him with Queen Elizabeth, which made me smile, not at the sight of the late monarch, but at something Hawk had said when she passed.
“Still watching The Crown,” Hawk had said. “Thanks for the damn spoiler alert.”
Mike Lupica sprinkles Boston sports references throughout Broken Heart with great ease but I digress. Spenser’s look-see at the mansion didn’t turn up anything but when he left the Craigs’ house, he noticed he’d picked up a tail. A gentleman a bit taller and broader than Hawk. Muses Spenser, “If I wasn’t working as diligently as I was at non-objectification, my first reaction would have been that he looked as if he should have been playing power forward for the Celtics.”
Spoiler alert: a few days after the dinner at Davio’s, Andrew Crain is still MIA and Laura is found dead. Spenser is attacked numerous times by a changing constellation of thugs. As if that would keep Spenser from uncovering the truth. Spenser’s way of life echoes a famous saying from Thomas Jefferson, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
Robert B. Parker gives us Spenser’s Boston: its bars, restaurants, doughnut shops, parks, sports figures, and gyms, are continuing characters, as are Spenser’s favored cocktails and brews. There’s a special place for psychologist and love of his life Susan Silverman (and their shared canine, Pearl the Wonder Dog) particularly since Susan is the initial bridge between Laura Crain and Spenser and his coterie of fellow investigators (all of whom play a part in Broken Trust). Although the plot of Broken Trust is satisfyingly convoluted and surprising, readers will most enjoy how Spenser and the recurring cast of characters solve the crime with an elegant mixture of panache and muscle.