God Save the Child

Robert B. Parker’s God Save the Child (1974) is the second book in his mystery series featuring Boston private investigator Spenser. Following in the tradition of the hard-boiled gumshoe, Spenser is a tough, wisecracking, good guy who wipes out crime in the city’s mean streets. This particular mystery takes Spenser to the suburb of Smithfield. A wealthy couple hires Spenser to find their missing teenage son, but clues are scarce. After being sidetracked by a hearse, a murder, and an attractive guidance counselor, Spenser begins to wonder if he will ever crack the case.

In his office in a seedy part of Boston, Spenser interviews his new clients, Margery and Roger Bartlett. Their son Kevin, a high school freshman, has disappeared. The local police in their nearby town of Smithfield are stymied, unable to determine if Kevin ran away or was kidnapped. After admitting their relationship with Kevin is strained, the Bartletts start to bitterly squabble, exposing the hostility in their own relationship. Spenser silences the bickering, then makes plans to visit the Bartletts’ home that afternoon.

Mr. Bartlett owns a construction company, which keeps him very busy but also pays for a nice house in an affluent neighborhood in Smithfield. Mrs. Bartlett occupies herself by dwelling on her appearance, taking acting classes, drinking, and seducing men around town. When Spencer knocks at their door, the Bartletts are having drinks with a police officer, whom Margery introduces as Chief Trask. Roger takes Spencer to inspect Kevin’s room while Margery becomes increasingly drunk and Trask scowls at Spencer’s intrusion.



The next day, Spenser talks with Susan Silverman, the guidance counselor at Kevin’s high school. Sparks fly, and they banter flirtatiously before getting down to business. They agree that Kevin’s parents are dysfunctional, and Susan shares her suspicion that Kevin has an “Oedipal Complex.” She notes that Kevin is troubled, suggesting he is confused about his gender identity because his mother is domineering and his father is meek.

The Bartlett’s receive a ransom note designed as a cartoon demanding $50,000 for Kevin’s safe return. Spenser, Trask, and a state officer, Lieutenant Healy, organize an elaborate stakeout at the horse stable where the ransom will be collected, but the kidnapper takes the money and vanishes without a trace. Ten minutes later, the Bartletts’ phone rings. Sing-song voices deliver a rhyme that leads the officers to a parked hearse containing a coffin. Trask opens it with trepidation, and a large rag doll pops out.

Back at the Bartlett residence, Margery becomes emotionally unhinged, and her physician, Dr. Croft, arrives to give her a sedative.



Spenser invites Susan Silverman over for dinner. They drink a great deal and then discuss Kevin. Susan says his friends are school dropouts who, according to rumor, live together in a type of commune. The group’s leader is a man about thirty years old named Vic Harroway. After a few passionate moments on the couch, Susan says goodnight. The next morning, she calls Spenser to say she has located the commune, thanks to a student. They drive to a shack in the woods where they encounter Harroway, an extreme body-builder with bulging biceps. He threatens Spenser and Susan, and they leave.

Margery receives a death threat, which exacerbates her self-centered tendencies. She demands that Spenser serve as her full-time bodyguard, so he moves into the Bartletts' house. He talks with Dolly, Kevin’s younger sister, who shows him her brother’s secret trunk. Inside is a stash of bodybuilding magazines featuring Vic Harroway.

Margery takes Spenser with her to shop for the cocktail party she is hosting later that day. When they return, Spencer finds the Barletts’ lawyer on the living room floor, apparently murdered. This inconveniences Margery, but several hours later, she welcomes dozens of party guests and has a merry time drinking and behaving promiscuously.



The following day, Spenser sneaks off to spy on Harroway’s shack, catching sight of Kevin Bartlett with his arm around the bodybuilder.

Spenser meets with Henry Cimoli, the manager of the gym where he once trained. Following up on a tip from Cimoli, who knows Harroway, Spenser visits his gay friend Race Witherspoon. Race has also heard of Harroway, and word in the gay community is that Harroway likes young boys. Spencer then heads to the local gay bar, where he sees Harroway and follows him when he leaves. After a long wait in the rain, a man approaches Harroway and gives him a briefcase in exchange for an envelope. Spenser realizes the man is Dr. Croft.

Spenser spends another day shadowing Harroway and then, over dinner, tells Susan what he has learned. Harroway is running a vice ring out of his so-called commune. He hires out the kids living in his shack for sex and peddles drugs supplied to him by Dr. Croft. Spenser believes Kevin left his neglectful parents to join Harroway’s cult and was not actually kidnapped.



Suspecting Harroway has moved Kevin, Spenser confronts Croft, threatening to expose his crimes if he doesn’t reveal Kevin’s whereabouts. Croft capitulates and gives Spenser a Boston address. Before leaving, Spenser calls Lieutenant Healy to arrange for Croft’s detention to prevent him from warning Harroway.

Spenser and the Bartletts arrive at Harroway’s Boston apartment, determined to rescue Kevin. He refuses to leave, however, convinced that Harroway is his all-powerful protector. In a surprising display of parental devotion, Roger and Margery resort to fisticuffs with Harroway, who quickly over-powers them. Spencer steps in, drawing on his boxing skills to give Harroway a good thrashing. When Kevin sees Harroway defeated, his illusions about the bodybuilder are shattered, and he leaves with his parents. Harroway is arrested for, among other things, the murder of the Bartletts' lawyer (who was in the wrong place at the wrong time when Kevin, with Harroway, returned home to retrieve some items).

Spencer discovers that Chief Trask detained Croft in the local jail, where Croft died in his cell. This is sufficient proof for Spenser that Trask is part of the prostitution and drug ring. Cornered, Trask tries to shoot Spencer, but Spencer nabs his gun and shows him undeserved mercy. Spencer tells Trask to “start running,” because he is going to report him to Lieutenant Healy.



Robert B. Parker wrote forty novels in his Spenser series before he died in 2010. More books in the series have appeared since then, written by Ace Atkins. The 1980s television show Spenser: For Hire was based on Parker’s Spenser novels.