23 September, 2001: Ceremony
Ceremony is one of the last of the really great Spenser novels; I think the series really hits its stride around Mortal Stakes or Promised Land and begins dropping off around A Catskill Eagle (which concludes the story arc of the early books in a mostly dissatisfactory way). Spenser is hired to track down a teenage runaway who's turning tricks; in the process of doing so, he runs afoul of a pimp and the mob. It's interesting -- I never really noticed how many of the early Spenser novels involve teenagers.