Walter Clive, the head of the family, hires Spenser to investigate several horse shootings at his Georgia stables, the last of which was an attempt on Hugger Mugger. Spenser discovers that his clients, Walter, Walter's daughter Penny, who manages the stables, his other daughters (Suesue and Stonie), as well as their husbands, are wealthy as can be, and three times as dysfunctional. Spenser gets his choice of alcoholics, sexual peccadilloes, myriad weird compulsive behaviors, and a psychotic security chief as he sorts through a mystery which makes little or no sense.

Suddenly the story turns serious when Walter Clive is murdered. Penny, the daughter in charge promptly fires Spenser and sends him home. But nothing keeps a good P.I. down for long. Dolly, Walter's not quite wife, rehires Spencer to investigate further. She believes that her son, whom DNA testing has proved to be Walter's, is being cheated of his inheritance. Spenser, helped by Deputy Sheriff Becker and a bouncer at the local bar (both of whom are no slouches at wisecracking), begin the work of finding the mind behind the murder.

In truth, Hugger Mugger is a bit light on plot, and the mystery is more about Spenser figuring out 'how' not discovering 'who.' Everybody in the book wisecracks, except for the poor psychopathic security chief. This is funny, but wears thin in high doses. For some reason, feeling it necessary to include Susan, Parker seems compelled to make most of her and Spenser's moments overtly sexual, which overbalances their relationship, and make it ring a bit false.

While this is not the perfect Spenser story, the reader needs to keep in mind that even a bad novel by Robert Parker is going to be an enjoyable read. And this is by no means a bad novel. The Clive husbands and the bar bouncer are very fine characterizations. In addition, Parker shows himself capable of taking on some controversial themes. This is well worth the reading, and is one of the later Spenser novels that can stand alone, making it a good starter for those interested in the series.

--Marc Ruby