Book excerpt: The adoring wife of a senatorial candidate has a smile as sweet as candy and dots her i's with little hearts. A blonde beauty, she is the perfect mate for an ambitious politician, but she has a little problem with sex and drugs - a problem someone has put on videotape. The big boys reckon a little blackmail will put her husband out of the race ... until Spenser hops on the candidate's bandwagon. But getting back the tape of the lady's indiscretions is a non-stop express ride to trouble - trouble that is deep, wide and deadly. 'One of the great series in the history of the American detective story' New York Times