Potshot

Even after 27 books, Parker still finds clever ways to invigorate his Spenser series. The set-up is traditional: A mysterious beauty walks into the Boston PI's office and asks him to find out who killed her husband. But here's the twist: The case takes him to Potshot, Ariz., where a gang of varmints has been terrorizing the locals. As Spenser rounds up a posse and prepares for a showdown, Potshot emerges as a cross between High Noon and Chinatown (the desert town's water supply figures prominently in the plot). Parker's terse prose nicely suits this transplanted Western, which bodes well for his next novel, the Wyatt Earp oater Gunman's Rhapsody.