| Author |
Message |
    
Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu
Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 86.29.189.151
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 - 12:09 am: | |
Just heard that Robert B Parker passed away on Monday. He made a huge impact on the crime scene in the '70s and published over 60 novels, most famously the Spenser series. His work was tough, funny, intelligent and romantic. From all accounts so was he.
One of my favourite writers. I'm sorry that he's gone. |
Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.240.106
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 - 12:55 pm: | |
Stu (or anyone else), I'm ashamed to admit that I've not read anuything by Parker. Tell me a book of his that's a good place to start? |
Mark West (Mark_west)
Username: Mark_west
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.39.177.173
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 - 02:02 pm: | |
I've just started "The Judas Goat" (late 70s) and Spenser has just arrived in England. Very amusing, very hard-boiled already and I'm keen to get home to read some more! |
Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu
Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 86.29.188.197
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 - 05:43 pm: | |
Gary, Facebook's refusing to show me what people have recommended to you on there so I'm just going to reel off some titles.
Offhand the first four Spenser novels are "essential." The Godwulf Manuscript, God Save the Child, Mortal Stakes and Promised Land.
Wilderness is also good, a standalone thriller that's slightly darker than his usual fare. You can get a cheap 2nd hand copy on Amazon.
And Appaloosa, a western that got made into a film starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen.
There's probably more but with over 60 books to choose from I'll leave it at that for the moment. Btw, you may find the books a little tame. They were edgy back in the day but they're more hardboiled than noir.
Mark, Judas Goat was funny. All the PI cliches that make perfect sense in a US setting (of course the bloody colonials will let a private citizen engage in shootouts in public places without batting an eyelid) suddenly become absurd in good old Blighty.
I'm currently reading Double Play his novel about an ex-marine bodyguarding Jackie Robinson, the first black major league baseball player of the modern era. I read Harlem Nocturne, the short story Parker did using the same scenario, a couple of years back but this time round he's changed to a third person narrative and is showing the road the bodyguard took to becoming Robinson's bodyguard as well as flashbacks to his marriage. Not to mention (semi?)autobiographical passages with "Bobby" waxing lyrical about WWII-era baseball and the bond it hepled him form with his father. |
Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.240.106
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 - 05:55 pm: | |
Cheers, Stu. The consensus seems to agree with you - the first Spenser novel and then carry on from there... |
Stu (Stu)
Username: Stu
Registered: 04-2008
Posted From: 86.29.183.139
| | Posted on Saturday, January 23, 2010 - 04:56 pm: | |
Apparently Parker has four more novels coming out. Even dead he's still more prolific than most writers. |