The Godwulf Manuscript/ Robert B. Parker/ 204 pages

Spenser is a private eye in Boston. A man of sharp wit, quick thinking, and a particular set of skills. The plot involves college campus radicals, the mob, a missing manuscript written by a monk, and a murder. The case is easy to solve for the reader, but the story is still enjoyable. If you have never read hard-boiled detective fiction, this book is a good entry point. The main character, Spenser, is the basis for the TV show Spenser for Hire from the 1980's.

Clandestine / James Ellroy 175 p.

Fred Underhill is a young LAPD cop in the early 1950's.  He aspires to make detective fast, faster than anyone else.  When his one-night stand ends up a murder victim,  he uses his "inside" knowledge she shared with him to get him onto the big guys murder investigation.  There he participates in the sweating out of a confession that crosses into brutality.  When he tries to take the credit, it blows up in his face and he is kicked out of the force.  He runs into another murder that takes him back to the original case.  He goes out on his own to investigate and finds a very grim conclusion.  The characters are rather unsavory and rather uninteresting in this hardboiled fiction showing the seamier side of both the police and the criminals.

Clandestine / James Ellroy 175 p.