Robert B. Parker: The Professional

The first Spenser novel, published in 1973.

A good man died yesterday.

A good man who just happened to be a great writer.

Robert B. Parker was 77, knocked out by a heart attack while he sat at his desk at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts doing what he loved and what few could do any better–write a story. He leaves behind an impressive body of work, 69 published works of both fiction and non, with a few more in the pipeline due to hit stores later this year. He also leaves us with a character who will never die, one who is destined to live for as long as detective fiction and good novels are allowed to exist, a rough but romantic private eye by the name of Spenser.

The 38 books in the Spenser series which began in 1973 with the publication of “The Godwulf Manuscript” and went up to last year’s aptly titled “The Professional,” kept alive the long literary line that began with Hammett and Chandler, went down river with Ross MacDonald and flowed into open waters with Ed McBain. The novels are complete and vivid portraits of a complicated man living in Boston, a city he loves as much as any woman or friend, doing his best to bring a small taste of justice to those so often damaged by shadow figures with deep pockets and veiled agendas.

 Parker’s Spenser was no burnt-out PI living on unfiltered cigarettes and stale coffee. He loved to cook, liked fine wine, was loyal to a fault to his lethal friend Hawk and his passion for the ladies never wavered, especially the love of his life, Susan Silverman. There was a lot of Robert Brown Parker in Spenser, the eternal character whose first name few know (initially he was going to be called David, after one of Parker’s two sons. But Parker didn’t want to exclude his other son, Daniel, so he decided to give his creation only the one name). Both Parker and Spenser eat in the same restaurants; they both love basketball and jazz; they are both veterans of the Korean War; and they can both throw a punch in a pinch.

 While Parker honored the traditions of Hammett, Chandler and MacDonald, he went them several steps better. He modernized the PI novel, opened the pages of his stories to include strong African-American, Hispanic and gay characters. His women are not damsels in distress, but women who can handle the hard ground as well as any man and, on occasion, best him at his own game.

 In 1977, Parker began a second series, this one featuring Jesse Stone, a small-town police chief trying to sift through the dark sands of his past. There have been eight Stone novels in all with a ninth due later this year. A third series, this one led by Sunny Randall (a character originally written for the actress Helen Hunt) as a private investigator on the prowl, went six novels deep. And still there was more.

Parker didn’t so much work at the business of writing, he attacked it. He wrote ten pages a day and then re-wrote until he was pleased with the words springing from the page. He was at his desk every day, the disciplined author eager to master his craft, getting better at it with the passage of time.

 Parker wrote four novels set in the Old West (with a fifth coming out this year). One of them, “Appaloosa,” was turned into a feature film starring and directed by Ed Harris. He completed Raymond Chandler’s last novel, “Poodle Springs,” and then wrote a sequel to Chandler’s “The Big Sleep,” called “Perchance to Dream.” He published two YA novels (with still a third coming our way) and four stand-alones, including my favorite Parker novel, “All Our Yesterdays.”

 And the hard work backed by the talent paid off.  His books were almost always bestsellers, earning him millions. He earned even more from the Spenser TV series in the 1980s that starred the late Robert Urich and the yearly CBS Jesse Stone TV movies with Tom Selleck in the lead role. On occasion, he would write with his wife Joan (whom he met when both were still toddlers). Together, they published two works of non-fiction and several television scripts. In 1994, he joined with the Japanese photographer Kasho Kumagai for a coffee table book called “Spenser’s Boston,” which mixed four-color photos of the city Parker knew and loved with excerpts from his novels.

 He won enough writing honors to fill a half-dozen shelves, including the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America (the Hall of Fame for those in that end of the arena) and earned both a Masters degree and a PhD in English Literature from Boston University. He also spent a brief time working in the “Mad Men” advertising world of the late 50’s and early 60’s (much like his contemporary and compadre in crime, Elmore Leonard).

  I didn’t know Robert B. Parker well. I interviewed him several times in the 1980s, during my years earning money working for newspapers and magazines. He was funny, smart, sharp and terrific company. He knew his sports as well as he knew how to pace a novel and had an insatiable curiosity to know as much as he could about any subject that piqued his interest. He was a writer who lived in the real world and that reality is reflected in his work. His stories are filled with flesh and blood characters, many drawing the short straw of life, forced to go up against those with the means and the will to always get their way. Spenser was there for them, eager for the fight, never taking a step back, especially when the client lacked the money or the power to take on the ones who worked out of large corner offices or in the mouth of a dark alley.

 Robert B. Parker will be missed, but the work will live. It is true for all the great ones and he was one of our best. The tales he told will be found on library shelves, bookstore racks, in Kindles or whatever other forms the written word will take these next several years. They will be there for those who want to learn about a great American city, or for those eager to grab a new recepie or get a leg-up on a good bottle of wine, or find out which restaurant to hit next time they’re in town.

 They will be there for those who want to see an injustice made right and a criminal brought down, the Spenser way. They will be there for anyone who loves great dialogue and characters who live and breath on every page.

They will be there for anyone eager to hold a great story in their hands.

A great story told to them by a gifted writer.

Robert Brown Parker of Massachusetts.