Robert B. Parker

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About Robert B. Parker
Robert B. Parker (1932-2010) has long been acknowledged as the dean of American crime fiction. His novel featuring the wise-cracking, street-smart Boston private-eye Spenser earned him a devoted following and reams of critical acclaim, typified by R.W.B. Lewis' comment, "We are witnessing one of the great series in the history of the American detective story" (The New York Times Book Review). In June and October of 2005, Parker had national bestsellers with APPALOOSA and SCHOOL DAYS, and continued his winning streak in February of 2006 with his latest Jesse Stone novel, SEA CHANGE.
Born and raised in Massachusetts, Parker attended Colby College in Maine, served with the Army in Korea, and then completed a Ph.D. in English at Boston University. He married his wife Joan in 1956; they raised two sons, David and Daniel. Together the Parkers founded Pearl Productions, a Boston-based independent film company named after their short-haired pointer, Pearl, who has also been featured in many of Parker's novels.
Parker began writing his Spenser novels in 1971 while teaching at Boston's Northeastern University. Little did he suspect then that his witty, literate prose and psychological insights would make him keeper-of-the-flame of America's rich tradition of detective fiction. Parker's fictional Spenser inspired the ABC-TV series Spenser: For Hire. In February 2005, CBS-TV broadcast its highly-rated adaptation of the Jesse Stone novel Stone Cold, which featured Tom Selleck in the lead role as Parker's small-town police chief. The second CBS movie, Night Passage, also scored high ratings, and the third, Death in Paradise, aired on April 30, 2006.
Parker was named Grand Master of the 2002 Edgar Awards by the Mystery Writers of America, an honor shared with earlier masters such as Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen.
Parker died on January 19, 2010, at the age of 77.
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Author Updates
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Blog postTime to address some input from blogees:
Negotiations continue on the Spenser For Hire front. The mills of Hollywood grind exceeding fine. But I have no reason to think it won't happen in awhile. . . . The response to BRIMSTONE has been gratifying. I don't know very far ahead, what I'm going to write. But I rather don't like the idea of not writing anymore about Hitch and Cole, so, probably, I will. . . . to the high school teacher who is planning to teach my books to her 10th graders (s13 years ago Read more -
Blog postAs the swallows return to Capistrano (usually), I am back, in the spring, with a commercial message. As you may have noticed NIGHT & DAY (the most recent Jesse Stone novel) had a 5 week run on the NYTimes best seller list, and the paperback of STRANGER IN PARADISE had some face time there too. APPALOOSA, the movie, is now available on DVD. Since I had nothing to do with it once they bought the book, I can say without false modesty, that it is one of the best movies I have ever seen.13 years ago Read more
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Blog postHello,
The new Jesse Stone novel, NIGHT & DAY, appears on Feb 24. The latest Jesse Stone movie , THIN ICE(Tom Selleck as Jesse Stone), is on CBS March 1. The movie is an original, not based on one of the books, but of course using the characters. I don't like it that they don't need me, but you'll enjoy it. Tom and I will be in New York promoting Jesse Stone and may do so at some point, together. If you see us and are confused (we both have moustaches), Tom's the taller o13 years ago Read more -
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Blog postBack after long absence, with an update. "Resolution," the sequel to "Appalooosa" came out in June. The newest Spenser, "Rough Weather" will be out in October, and "Appaloosa," the movie, has had its world premier at the Toronto Film Festival, then limited release in Boston, New York, and LA. It will appear nationally, at a theater near you, starting October 3rd when it goes into geneal release. I had no part in the movie other than to sell them m14 years ago Read more
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Blog postThe CD album, "Songs That Spenser Taught Me," Sung by Daniel T. Parker, with a guest appearance by someone who sounds a little like Donald Duck, is now available on ITUNES.
Go to ITUNES, go to the store, and search by name or title or both. Hurry!
rbp
14 years ago Read more -
Blog postI'm back after a long delinquency. . . .
Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch have returned as well, in RESOLUTION, the second book in the "Appaloosa" trilogy, which is now out and available. The third entry, BRIMSTONE, will appear next year. . . My new young adult novel, THE BOXER AND THE SPY is also available for purchase . . . APPALOOSA, the movie (Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Jeremy Irons, & Rene Zellweger -- directed by Harris) has finished shooting and prog14 years ago Read more -
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Blog postI'm back, with a new right knee, to match the previously replaced left one. Both are titanium steel (in keeping with my body type), and I set of alarms in all airports. On the other hand I can walk good. "Resolution", The second in the Appaloosa Trilogy, will be out in the first week of June. I'll be in Texas to promote it (I'm not planning to visit Crawford, or hunt with Dick Chaney). My new YA novel, "The Boxer and the Spy" is out this month. The next Jesse Stone/Tom Sel14 years ago Read more
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Blog postThe question of spelling Spenser's name has arisen. I may be the only one who has never mis-spelled it. Spenser, with an S like the English poet (who probably also spelled it right, though they were less picky about spelling in the 16th century). . . . Several have raised a question about who this "Rose" is, to whom NOW & THEN was dedicated. That would be Rosie, Joan's miniature bull terrier, who died at age 14 this past March. She was the model for Sunny Randall's dog. Th15 years ago Read more
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Blog postJoan and I have returned from Hollywood. We visited Dan, dined with moguls, and were generally the talk of Tinsel Town. . . several moguls asked me if I was the wine guy. . . the fifth Jesse Stone Movie, an original called THIN EDGE, starring Tom Selleck again as Jesse Stone, is in post production (we Hollywood insiders refer to that simply as "post") and is expected to air in February. APPALOOSA is now shooting in Santa Fe. Jeremy Irons has joined the cast, and so has Daniel T. Par15 years ago Read more
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Blog postI am not, as you may have noticed, an assiduous blogger -- for which most of the world seems grateful. But it is time to catch up. I've been asked about major league baseball, steroids, and Barry Bonds. My answer is I don't know. His situation is yet to be legally resolved, and until it is, I'll simply observe that he is one of the best players in the history of the game. . . and if he did in fact enhance his natural talents in some chemical way, he certainly made more of it than anyone else15 years ago Read more
Titles By Robert B. Parker
The woman on the bed was barely out of her teens. She wasn’t exactly beautiful, but she’d tried to make the most of her looks. And now, alone in a seedy beachfront motel, she was dead.
Paradise Police Chief Jesse Stone doesn’t know her name. Whoever she is, she didn’t deserve to die. Jesse starts digging, only to find himself caught in the crosshairs of a bitter turf war between two ruthless pimps. And more blood will spill before it’s over.
When a woman's partially decomposed body washes ashore in Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone is forced into a case far more difficult than it initially appears. Identifying the woman is just the first step in what proves to be an emotionally charged investigation. Florence Horvath was an attractive, recently divorced heiress from Florida; she also had a penchant for steamy sex and was an enthusiastic participant in a video depicting the same. Somehow the combination of her past and present got her killed, but no one is talking—not the crew of the Lady Jane, the Fort Lauderdale yacht moored in Paradise Harbor; not her very blond, very tan twin sisters, Corliss and Claudia; and not her curiously affectless parents, living out a sterile retirement in a Miami high rise. But someone—Jesse—has to speak for the dead, even if it puts him in harm's way.
After a busted marriage kicks his drinking problem into overdrive and the LAPD unceremoniously dumps him, thirty-five-year-old Jesse Stone’s future looks bleak. So he’s shocked when a small Massachusetts town called Paradise recruits him as police chief. He can’t help wondering if this job is a genuine chance to start over, the kind of offer he can’t refuse.
Once on board, Jesse doesn’t have to look for trouble in Paradise: it comes to him. For what is on the surface a quiet New England community quickly proves to be a crucible of political and moral corruption—replete with triple homicide, tight Boston mob ties, flamboyantly errant spouses, maddened militiamen and a psychopath-about-town who has fixed his violent sights on the new lawman. Against all this, Jesse stands utterly alone, with no one to trust—even he and the woman he’s seeing are like ships passing in the night. He finds he must test his mettle and powers of command to emerge a local hero—or the deadest of dupes.
“The toughest, funniest, wisest, private eye in the field these days.”—Houston Chronicle
Spenser earned his degree in the school of hard knocks, so he is ready when a Boston university hires him to recover a rare, stolen manuscript. He is hardly surpised that his only clue is a radical student with four bullets in his chest.
The cops are ready to throw the book at the pretty blond coed whose prints are all over the murder weapon but Spenser knows there are no easy answers. He tackles some very heavy homework and knows that if he doesn't finish his assignment soon, he could end up marked “D”—for dead.
Robert B. Parker takes readers back in Paradise, where Detective Jesse Stone is looking for two things: the killer of a teenage girl—and someone, anyone, who is willing to claim the body...
The local cops haven't seen anything like this, but Jesse's L.A. past has made him all too familiar with floaters. This girl hadn't committed suicide; she hadn't been drowned: she'd been shot and dumped, discarded like trash. Before long it becomes clear that she had a taste for the wild life; and her own parents can't be bothered to report her missing, or even admit that she once was a child of theirs. All Jesse has to go on is a young man's school ring on a gold chain, and a hunch or two.
Filled with magnetic characters and the muscular writing that are Parker's trademarks, Death in Paradise is a storytelling masterpiece.
Stiles Island is a wealthy and exclusive enclave separated by a bridge from the Massachusetts coast town of Paradise. James Macklin sees the Island as the ultimate investment opportunity: all he needs to do is invade it, blow the bridge, and loot the island. To realize his scheme, Macklin, along with his devoted girlfriend, Faye, assembles a crew of fellow ex-cons—all experts in their fields—including Wilson Cromartie, a fearsome Apache. James Macklin is a bad man, a very bad man. And Wilson Cromartie, known as Crow, is even worse.
As Macklin plans his crime, Paradise police chief Jesse Stone has his hands full. He faces romantic entanglements in triplicate: his ex-wife, Jenn, is in the Paradise jail for assault, he’s begun a new relationship with a Stiles Island realtor named Marcy Campbell, and he’s still sorting out his feelings for attorney Abby Taylor. When Macklin’s attack on Stiles Island is set in motion, both Marcy and Abby are put in jeopardy. As the casualties mount, it’s up to Jesse to keep both women from harm.
Sunny Randall is a Boston P.I. and former cop, a college graduate, an aspiring painter, a divorcée, and the owner of a miniature bull terrier named Rosie. Hired by a wealthy family to locate their teenage daughter, Sunny is tested by the parents’ preconceived notion of what a detective should be. With the help of underworld contacts she tracks down the runaway Millicent, who has turned to prostitution, rescues her from a vicious pimp, and finds herself, at thirty-four, the unlikely custodian of a difficult teenager when the girl refuses to return to her family.
But Millicent’s problems are rooted in much larger crimes than running away, and Sunny, now playing the role of bodyguard, is caught in a shooting war with some very serious mobsters. She turns for help to her ex-husband, Richie, himself the son of a mob family, and to her dearest friend, Spike, a flamboyant and dangerous gay man. Heading this unlikely alliance, Sunny must solve at least one murder, resolve a criminal conspiracy that reaches to the top of state government, and bring Millicent back into functional young womanhood.
When the sun sets in Paradise, the women get nervous. A Peeping Tom is on the loose. According to the notes he sends Police Chief Jesse Stone, he's about to take his obsession one step further.
Appie Knoll is the kind of suburb where kids grow up right. But something is wrong. Fourteen-year-old Kevin Bartlett disappears. Everyone thinks he's run away -- until the comic strip ransom note arrives. It doesn't take Spenser long to get the picture -- an affluent family seething with rage, a desperate boy making strange friends...friends like Vic Harroway, body builder. Mr. Muscle is Spenser's only lead and he isn't talking...except with his fists. But when push comes to shove, when a boy's life is on the line, Spenser can speak that language too.
"A brillant, and cynical, comic tragedy or tragic comedy of manners. Long may Parker wave." -- Los Angeles Times
Police Chief Jesse Stone is back in the remarkable new installment of the New York Times–bestselling series.
It’s been a long time since Jesse Stone left L.A., and still longer since the tragic injury that ruined his chances for a major league baseball career. When Jesse is invited to a reunion of his old Triple-A team at a hip New York city hotel, he is forced to grapple with his memories and regrets over what might have been.
Jesse left more behind him than unresolved feelings about the play that ended his baseball career. The darkly sensuous Kayla, his former girlfriend and current wife of an old teammate is there in New York, too. As is Kayla’s friend, Dee, an otherworldly beauty with secret regrets of her own. But Jesse’s time at the reunion is cut short when, in Paradise, a young woman is found murdered and her boyfriend, a son of one of the town’s most prominent families, is missing and presumed kidnapped.
Though seemingly coincidental, there is a connection between the reunion and the crimes back in Paradise. As Jesse, Molly, and Suit hunt for the killer and for the missing son, it becomes clear that one of Jesse’s old teammates is intimately involved in the crimes. That there are deadly forces working below the surface and just beyond the edge of their vision. Sometimes, that’s where the danger comes from, and where real evil lurks. Not out in the light—but in your blind spot.
When the body of controversial talk-show host Walton Weeks is discovered hanging from a tree on the outskirts of Paradise, Massachusetts, police chief Jesse Stone finds himself at the center of a highly public case, forcing him to deal with small-minded local officials and national media scrutiny. When another dead body-that of a young woman-is discovered just a few days later, the pressure becomes almost unbearable.
Two victims in less than a week should provide a host of clues, but all Jesse runs into are dead ends. But what may be the most disturbing aspect of these murders is the fact that no one seems to care-not a single one of Weeks's ex-wives, not the family of the girl. And when the medical examiner reveals a heartbreaking link between the two departed souls, the mystery only deepens.
Despite Weeks's reputation and the girl's tender age, Jesse is hard-pressed to find legitimate suspects. Though the crimes are perhaps the most gruesome Jesse has ever witnessed, it is the malevolence behind them that makes them all the more frightening. Forced to delve into a world of stormy relationships, Jesse soon comes to realize that knowing whom he can trust is indeed a matter of life and death.
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