Playmates, Audio Book

Playmates, Audio Book (1989) Robert B. Parker narrated by Michael Prichard (Spenser)

Accusations have been made of point shaving in college basketball, and Spenser is asked to see if there is any truth in it.

Although he is supposed to be looking into point shaving, what draws Spenser in is a discover about Dwayne.

“Do you know that he can’t read?” I said.

“I don’t know it,” Wagner said. “But I suspected it. He missed the midterm, and prevailed upon me to let him do a paper instead. He got an A on the paper. He said he was going to have to miss the final because of basketball. I said he’d have to make it up. I was skeptical about the paper. He missed two scheduled make-ups. He said an incomplete would make him ineligible to play. That Coach Dunham was a martinet, not his phrase, about such things. I knew what was riding on his having a good senior year. I said he could take a D for the course. His grades in his other courses were such that a D wouldn’t make him ineligible.”

“And that was it?” I said.

“No. I spoke to Dr. Roth, the academic coordinator for basketball. I said Dwayne was academically troubled. That I questioned his basic skills and that I thought perhaps he should be tested to see if we could help him.”

“What did she say?”

“She said she thought I was unduly worried. That Dwayne had been doing well in other classes, but that she’d talk with him.”

We also see a deal of Spenser’s complicated morality in what he believes should be done about not just Dwayne’s illiteracy, but the crimes he uncovers.

And now I’m done listening, because it’s the end of Michael Prichard narrating and a switch of David Dukes, who I absolutely hate listening to for this series.

Publisher: Random House Audio

Rating: 7.5/10

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