Robert B Parker

Dec 28, 2023 ∞

Every so often I like to get inspired by reading about the writer Robert B. Parker

Parker died in 2010. Here’s what Sarah Weinman wrote about him at the LA Times: Robert B. Parker, who died Monday in his Cambridge, Mass., home at age 77, spent his final moments doing exactly what he’d done for almost four decades: sitting at his desk, working on his next novel. He didn’t concern himself with looking back. Instead, he wrote, and in the process irrevocably altered American detective fiction, forging a link between classic depictions and more contemporary approaches to the form.

Dec 27, 2023 ∞

After crime writer Robert B. Parker died in 2010, his estate hired several writers to continue the multiple series Parker wrote in his lifetime.

I’ve read six of the Spenser novels by Ace Atkins. They’re enjoyable but frustrating, like seeing a cover band of your favorite group. Beatlemania rather than the Beatles.

A good writer will occasionally surprise you—write something completely unlike them. But a writer hired to write like someone else will, if they do a good job, never surprise you. They always write just like the writer they’ve been hired to write like.

I don’t mean to be harsh on Atkins. He was hired to do a job and he did it well. And I’ve put one of his original books on my to-be-read list.

Dec 23, 2023 ∞

Ace Atkins bids Robert B. Parker’s Spenser farewell. After 10 novels, Atkins looks back at what makes the Boston detective character so compelling.

May 29, 2023 ∞

What novel should I read next? 📚

I woke up this morning and decided to break up with the novel I’m currently reading. This is a new thing for me; I recently decided to start more books and quit reading more books when they’re not working for me. I’m not finding that resolution easy. A part of me feels compelled to finish a book once I start, as if failure to complete was wasteful, like not eating all the food on my plate.

Apr 25, 2023 ∞

Cory Doctorow’s “Red Team Blues” is the most exciting technothriller about a 67-year-old accountant you’ll read this year 📚

“Red Team Blues,” the latest novel by the prolific Cory Doctorow, is a gripping technothriller about billion-dollar cryptocurrency crime. I don’t often encounter fiction that pulls me in as hard as “Red Team Blues” anymore—I’m a jaded reader. But “Red Team Blues” kept me up well past my bedtime on more than one night, and I staggered around bleary-eyed at work the next day. I should send Cory a bill.

Jul 20, 2020 ∞

Lush photo essay from the golden age of shopping malls.

Cruising the Past & Future of the Retro Shopping Mall I loved to go to the mall in my 20s. I’d go alone, during the day, get a fast food lunch, see what was new on the science fiction shelves at B. Dalton and Waldenbooks — anything by Asimov, Heinlein, Niven or Zelazny? A new Robert B. Parker? In that era before the mainstream internet and before I got plugged into science fiction fandom, the only way to find out if a favorite author had a new book out was to check in stores.

Feb 23, 2020 ∞

After mystery writer Robert B. Parker’s unexpected death in 2010, his family and estate hired a Southerner, Ace Atkins, to continue writing novels featuring Parker’s Boston detective, Spenser

To cynics, the decision to carry on Parker’s novels appeared unseemly or, even worse, an act of literary grave robbing that threatened the author’s reputation. But those people didn’t know Robert B. Parker, a man who, when asked how his books would be viewed in 50 years, replied: “Don’t know, don’t care.” He was proud of his work, but he mainly saw writing as a means of providing a comfortable life for his family.

Jan 28, 2020 ∞

This trailer for "Spenser Confidential" looks great!

The Netflix movie coming March 6 stars Mark Wahlberg, Winston “Black Panther” Duke, and Alan Arkin. I wasn’t sure about the movie after reading on Wikipedia that it’s only very loosely based on one of the Spenser books and merely “uses the names of characters created by Robert B. Parker.” I’m a huge fan of the novels, and I was afraid this would be travesty. But the preview looks great. It has some hints of the novels and the Parker characters, and that’s all – but that’s enough.

Jan 27, 2020 ∞

"Spenser Confidential," a movie based on the Robert B. Parker novels, hits Netfllix March 6.

It stars Mark Wahlberg as Spenser and Winston “Black Panther” Duke as Hawk. “It is very loosely based on the novel Wonderland by Ace Atkins, and uses the names of characters created by Robert B. Parker.” Spenser is an ex-cop and ex-con and Hawk is an MMA fighter. wikipedia.org Okaaaaay. What the hell, I’ll watch. I loved the early novels and the later ones are fun. It’s an action-comedy directed by Peter Berg.