The most personal and revealing Spenser thriller of all, Pastime is an electrifying masterpiece of crime fiction - a startling game of memory, desire and danger that forces Spenser to face his own past. Ten years ago, he saved a teenage boy from a father's rage. Now on the brink of manhood, when Paul Giacomin seeks answers to his mother's sudden disappearance. Spenser is the only man he can turn to.

Paul's missing mother Patty has become involved with the mob - and disappeared under mysterious circumstances. But what starts as a routine search has unusual consequences, for if he is to find Patty in time, Spenser must delve into his own past, and search his own soul.