BEST SELLING AUTHOR
LARRY SPENCER
THE BOOKSHELF
In Search of Ina Byers (KINDLE EDITION PREORDER)
ALSO AVAIALABLE IN PAPERBACK ON AMAZON.
ISBN 978--0-578-25288-9
ISBN 978-0-578-95885
A perennial high school crush turns toxic when Ina Byers returns to her hometown of Bakersfield after a ten-year absence to bury her estranged grandmother. Still harboring the profound affect she had on him, Jake Reilly stirs up old feelings and is once again struck down by her unconventional Bohemian allure, rough edges and offbeat persona. For most, she was trouble. But for Jake Reilly she was his kind of perfect.
Unable to reinforce his true feelings before she leaves town, Jake misses the opportunity to establish himself as a serious suitor and continues to run the family business (a roadside diner) until it begins to collapse around him. Desperate for balance and driven by his obsession, he decides to leave the nothingness of his life in Bakersfield and follow Ina hoping to reconnect with the free spirited girl that fulfilled his thirst for intimacy on the cold diner floor in the summer of 2004.
Little did he realize the pitfalls that lie ahead. A victim of her feminine wiles; seduction, deception, and manipulation, he found himself the prime suspect in a murder investigation. Is this a frame-up or was Jake Reilly guilty as charged?
Material Things
ISBN-978-0-578-21232-6
Larry Spencer’s riveting, interlocking narratives circle the lives of Matthew Street, Jon Lewis and Christopher Styles, in a 1970s California backdrop that takes them from owning and operating a fashionable clothing boutique into the gripping world of an FBI under cover operation, drug trafficking, prostitution and a nefarious criminal element, that brings to light a Mafia contract killer, who’s out to bump off a stoolie in their midst.
Material Things is based on true events surrounding the store that introduced bellbottom jeans to a hip Southern California crowd and how it became, not only a cottage industry but also an arena fraught with danger and moral strife that put the store and it’s owners under close scrutiny after an alarming number of felonious activities surface.
The climax is anything but conventional as Matthew, Jon and Christopher are confronted with a life threatening reality that they never imagined could happen just by selling bellbottom pants.
The Tipping Point of Oliver Bass
ISBN-978-0-692-85986-5
A pathologically arrogant, wealthy young man sets off on a journey of self-discovery, family tragedy, and sexual conquest in Spencer’s modern California noir debut.
Oliver Bass, 17, has been expelled from his fancy San Francisco prep school for talking back to his teachers, despite his historically high grade-point average. In his emotionally cold Pacific Heights home, where Oliver exhaustively reminds readers that his parents didn’t hug him enough as a child, his psychotherapist stepmother Lorraine decides to send Oliver to live with one of her patients for the summer. She believes that Oliver and said patient, Vance Briggs, will help one another grow, as the teen is still recovering from the fact that his mother killed herself when he was 5, and investigative journalist Vance is grieving the suicide of his wife and the loss of his son, Alex, in a car accident.
So Oliver goes to Venice, California, to meet the weed-smoking, light-beer–swilling Vance. Things get off to a murky start, as Oliver is threatened by an infamous Venice boardwalk vagrant and bats away a beautiful woman like a fly. Then Vance reveals that he thinks that his wife and Oliver’s mother were actually killed by others. This could simply be a whacked-out hunch, but then the two uncover a few clues, even as Oliver remains doubtful. Spencer is a former writer and producer of TV sitcoms , but his novel is cinematic—even sprawling. As a character, Oliver toes a curious line between Holden Caulfield and Philip Marlowe.
"A page-turning mystery with a frustrating protagonist from a veteran storyteller. . ."
—Kirkus Reviews
"Spencer’s heartfelt noir opens with a moving description of the suicide of the narrator’s mother. He keeps the twists coming in the service of the relentlessly downbeat plot."
—BookLife- Publisher's Review