The Boxer and the Spy

by Robert B. Parker

Book Overview

Another teen thriller from the "New York Times" bestselling author of the "Spenser" mysteries. When a shy high school student's body is found washed up on the shore of a quiet New England beach... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399247750
• ISBN13: 9780399247750
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Philomel Books
• Length: 210 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Teens Reveal the Truth behind a Puzzling Death

What would Spenser and Susan Silverman have been like as a teenage couple? It's possible they might have sounded and acted a great deal like Terry Novak and his friend, Abby. That link in characterization gives this book extra fascination for adult fans of Robert B. Parker. I particularly enjoyed the innuendo in the dialog where Terry and Abby refer to their physical desire for one another in flirting, boy-girl terms. The mystery isn't all that mysterious; the main mystery is how two high school students will be able to bring out the truth: A high school student is found dead and most adults presume it was suicide related to using steroids. Terry doesn't believe it and starts asking around. His detection is interspaced with boxing lessons from his fifty-five year-old friend, George. There's a bullying jock at the high school who tries to stop Terry, but Terry jabs on. In the background are some greedy adults looking out for themselves at the expense of everyone else. I would have loved to read this book when I was a young teen. I also loved it as a 61-year-old man. I suspect the appeal wouldn't be as great for those in the 25-45 age range. I look forward to reading other books for younger readers by Mr. Parker.

RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN SAYS: "YOUTH MYSTERY IS A KNOCKOUT!!"

This book is written by the author of the world famous Spenser and Jesse Stone mysteries (among others) Robert B. Parker. This is his second book targeted for the youth market, but I'll be the first to say adults will truly enjoy it also. The reader is first introduced to a shy, young, sad boy by the name of Jason Green. His Father had died and his Mother has buried what's left of her life in a bottle. He didn't like sports so a lot of kids in school thought he was a "sissy". What he did enjoy was old movies and drawing. Each night at dinner his Mother would get drunk and then Jason would have the rest of his night down to a science. He'd go out for a walk down to the beach to a secluded spot to be by himself to think about things, and by the time he got home his Mother would be passed out drunk, and Jason would just go to bed like nothing happened. Then one fateful night while Jason was in his special spot he overheard a man and woman talking about some illegal endeavors, but they couldn't see him. The man and woman were afraid of being seen together so the woman left first. Then the man saw Jason and said: "You heard everything." Jason said: "I didn't hear anything." The tide later brought in Jason's dead body. The rumor around school was that he had used steroids and committed suicide. The cast of characters that are introduced on both sides of the law form the backbone of the story involving the unrelenting quest to clear Jason's name and uncover the criminal element in William Dawes Regional High School. The main protagonist is fifteen-year-old Terry Novack who is working extremely hard learning how to box from George, a black fifty-five-year-old former boxer who works at the local gym. Terry is extremely dedicated to following all the rules, regulations, and training regimens that George sets out. The idea is to find out if Terry truly has the proper character to be a boxer before he actually gets in the ring. Throughout the story George is instrumental not only in the physical and mental part of boxing, but he also conveys sage advice to Terry in his own unique brand of English, that includes numerous sentences that are devoid of many integral verbs and adjectives. Terry's trusty sidekick is his good friend and burgeoning love interest Abby Hall. Abby is a tremendous student, extremely cute, and becomes the "spy" to Terry's "boxer" in this coming of age story of loyalty and the many obstacles in growing up in today's young world of dwindling role models. While just about all the other kids in school thought Jason was gay and didn't care that he died, Terry remembered that years ago when his own Dad had died, that the day of his Dad's wake, "there was a kid, by himself, Jason Green, wearing a suit coat and tie. He walked past the funeral parlor man at the door, who looked at him as if he didn't belong, and came straight up to Terry. Hi, he said. I wanted to tell you something. My Father died when I was ten, Jason said, after a while you w

Excellent Young Adult Novel with the Parker Touch

The Boxer and the Spy is Robert B. Parker's second foray into young adult literature. Fans of Parker's Spenser novels will no doubt recognize the character development and plot as a young, 15 year old boy and his smarter than a whip girlfriend set out to find out what happened to a young boy found washed up on the beach dead. Word has it that the young, nerdy boy, Jason Green, committed suicide, possibly as a result of steroids. Our young boxer, Terry Novak, isn't buying it and wants to find out what happened to this boy, even though he knows he'll have to go up against adults to do it. His special friend, Abby, jumps in to help him out as they unravel a plot that poor Jason just accidently stumbled across which led to his murder. This novel was quite entertaining and enjoyable. It was interesting to see Parker take a 15 year old character and start to build him into the same kind of self-contained man that we see in Spenser. Terry is also somewhat of a loner, with a dead father and always drunk mother, but he raises above this disadvantage. He has found a father figure in a retired boxer, George, who is teaching Terry to box and how to be a man. This relationship is really more interesting than the plot itself, and in some ways more believable. Overall, I'd have to give this effort a definite thumbs up. I could hardly put it down once I started it.

Great YA Mystery for Reluctant Readers!

Robert B. Parker's sophomore effort into YA fiction delivers more action and better pacing than his first. THE BOXER AND THE SPY is also set in today's world rather than the 1940s as EDENVILLE OWLS was. As an older reader who's been reading Parker's books since the 1970s, the earlier time period was no problem for me, but I wondered how many actual YA readers really understood everything that was going on after World War II. As in his first novel, Parker develops a mystery for his young protagonist, Terry Novak, that spills out of the adult world. Parker spends a lot of time getting the young heroes acquainted with the adult world, though I believe that today's kids are a lot more acclimated to that world than Parker's characters. Still, Terry Novak is a kid I would have loved to know back when I was a freshman in high school, and I bet there are prospective readers out there who would feel the same way. He's got honor, vision, and a sense of himself that are characteristic of Parker's heroes and heroines. The mystery wraps around the death of Jason Green. Terry knew Jason as a friend, and the relationship takes on special meaning when Parker reveals the tie that bound them. While everyone else seems content to believe Jason committed suicide, Terry just doesn't buy it. He (the boxer) enlists the aid of his best gal pal, Abby (the spy), and they set about trying to figure out what really happened. The relationship between Terry and Abby takes on as much weight as the mystery. This isn't surprising to those of use that know Parker the way we do, but I believe the actual YA crowd might like the interaction between the two, though a few of them might wonder about how naïve the two are. Today's kids, while not always callous, definitely have an idea of how the real world works in many ways. Parker's trademark clipped prose and rapid-fire dialogue provides plenty of muscle and drives the story along at a good clip. The scenes are powerful and evocative, without being too demanding. The level the books are written on would serve teachers needing something with an easier reading mechanics while maintaining a high interest. Educations dealing with high-risk students should definitely look into Parker's YA efforts. The short chapters make reading just one more page way too irresistible. Librarians and reading specialists should take note of Parker's YA books for that aspect alone. I really enjoyed the boxing angle of the story too. Any longtime reader of Parker's works will know that his private eye, Spenser, has a history of being a boxer. The love that Parker obviously holds for the sport is immediately apparent during his accounts of Terry's workouts and talks with George, the black boxer that trains him. However, I would have liked to know more about what brought Terry into the ring and what his mom thought about him boxing. I know the adults are supposed to stay pretty much off screen in a YA book, but this one really cried ou

engaging high school mystery

When the body of Jason Green is found, his classmates, teachers and administrators at Cabot, north of Boston, accept the cops' official findings that he killed himself because he was juiced with "roids". Only student athlete Terry Novak disagrees with the prevalent suicide theory; he knows that Jason may have been a lover, but was not a jock so would not have done steroids to become a landscape designer as the teen planned to be. Terry wonders if his classmate he was murdered. Terry half persuades his best friend Abby to help him investigate the death. However, he makes little progress until his trainer retired professional boxer George encourages him to hold his head up, jab away, and not quit. Heeding that advice, Terry keeps digging not aware the danger he brings to himself and Abby by someone who wants the ruling to remain suicide. Obviously targeting the teen crowd, Robert B. Parker provides an engaging high school mystery starring a young sleuth trying to uncover the truth about the recent death of a classmate. With a strong support cast from George to cigarette smoking Beverly, Suzi and Tank to Mr. Principal and more, the story line is fast-paced from the first jab to the last as Terry and Abby follow clues that lead them to danger. Harriet Klausner