Robert B. Parker

Robert B. Parker was an American crime novelist credited with reviving and modernizing the hardboiled detective genre for the late twentieth century. A former English professor with a doctoral dissertation on Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, he channeled that scholarship into the Spenser series, following a wisecracking, code-bound Boston private investigator across nearly forty novels beginning with The Godwulf Manuscript in 1973. Spenser's blend of tough-guy plotting, literary wit, and a genuine emotional partnership with his girlfriend Susan Silverman and enforcer sidekick Hawk set a template many later crime writers followed. Parker also created two further long-running series, the Jesse Stone novels featuring a troubled small-town police chief, and the Sunny Randall books about a Boston private investigator. His lean, dialogue-driven prose style became so influential it's often described as a direct descendant of Chandler's, and he was awarded the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award in 2002. Spenser: For Hire ran as a television series in the 1980s starring Robert Urich, and the Jesse Stone novels were adapted into a long-running series of TV films starring Tom Selleck. New readers typically start with The Godwulf Manuscript for Spenser from the beginning, or Night Passage for Jesse Stone. Parker died in 2010 at his writing desk; his estate has authorized other novelists, including Ace Atkins, to continue the Spenser series.