Looking for Rachel Wallace

Looking for Rachel Wallace is the sixth Spenser novel by Robert B. Parker, first published in 1980.

Looking for Rachel Wallace

First edition
Author	Robert B. Parker
Language	English
Series	Spenser
Genre	Detective fiction
Publisher	Delacorte Press
Publication date	1980
Publication place	United States
Media type	print
Pages	219
ISBN	0-440-04764-1
OCLC	5412051
Dewey Decimal	813/.5/4
LC Class	PZ4.P244 Lo PS3566.A686
Preceded by	The Judas Goat
Followed by	Early Autumn

Plot summary

Spenser is hired to protect a lesbian, feminist activist, the eponymous Rachel Wallace. Spenser defends her more vigorously than she would like and she fires him. Shortly afterwards, she is kidnapped and the police have almost nothing to go on. Though no longer officially employed to protect her, Spenser feels duty-bound to find her because he could have protected her if he had followed her orders and held onto the job.

His investigation leads him to an organization that is fiercely anti-communist, anti-gay, and loosely affiliated with the local Ku Klux Klan. Spenser gets free rein to operate because the police know that he can be more persuasive than they can in finding Rachel. A snowstorm paralyzes Boston and Spenser has to go on foot if he wants to get to Rachel Wallace before they kill her.

Characters

• Spenser: Boston private investigator
• Rachel Wallace
• Susan Silverman
• Julie Wells (Rachel Wallace's lover)
• Lawrence English
• Martin Quirk
• Frank Belson
• Mingo Mulready