On Jan 19, 3:26 pm, Joe Coughlin <[email protected]> wrote: > Robert Parker, author of the Spenser and Jesse Stone detective series, has > died, aged 77. > > http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100119/ap_en_ot/us_obit_robert_parker
This is a tragedy for me too. I've read nearly 40 of Parker's 65 novels, and I have 2 or 3 lying around the house that I haven't gotten too. I've probably read more books by him than by any other author. What a great, GREAT writer. The real heir of the Hammett/Chandler hardboiled tradition, but he was no dinosaur - Spenser was a tough, modern man with great sensitivity as well as great wit. And the fact that his closest confidantes were a white woman and a black man - well, that set him apart from detectives that came before, too. I met him at a book signing in late 2004. He was an unusual character. Gruff, but also very sarcastic, and not always in a funny way. For instance, at one point he was talking about the actress who played Susan Silverman in the A&E Spenser movies, and he referred to her as "Marcia Gay Harden - oh, excuse me that's 'Academy Award Winner Marcia Gay Harden.' I think that's part of her legal name now." Then he gave an eye-roll for good measure. Clearly he was referring to a contractual demand Ms. Harden had made - but I wonder who came off worse, Harden for making the demand or Parker for making it public. He was also quite frank about his dislike for Robert Urich's portrayal of Spenser. He praised Joe Mantegna's version of Spenser - "Mantegna's read all my books, and he understands the character better than anyone else could... [but] the problem with Mantegna was he didn't look the part." Parker wrote on his blog recently that negotiations were underway for a new Spenser TV series. At the book signing he also discussed his female detective Sunny Randall - who was created as a possible vehicle for a feature film starring Helen Hunt. Although the film never got made, he did say that Sunny Randall TV movies were in discussion, with Hunt producing rather than starring. I look forward to those movies, and I'm really looking forward to Parker's remaining books. -Tim
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