Robert Parker and Beyond

 

If you’ve followed this blog, you know I’m a fan of the late Robert B. Parker (1932-2010). He wrote 40 novels featuring wisecracking, hard-punching Spenser, a PI based in Boston who bends the rules. Parker also wrote nine Jesse Stone mysteries, six featuring female detective Sunny Randall, plus Westerns and TV scripts. Parker became a franchise, so it’s not surprising that others stepped in to (ahem!) ghost write more books as “Robert Parker’s….” Here are three novels for comparison, the first written by Parker himself. 

 

Note: Off-center views will not public on Friday to allow us to recover from pumpkin pie!

 

 Hugger Mugger (2000) is unusual in that it’s not set anywhere near Boston, doesn’t involve his dodgy friend/associate Hawk, and barely includes Susan Silverman, his longtime squeeze.

 

Spenser is hired by humor-challenged Walter Clive and Penny, his lovely youngest daughter, to come to Lamarr, Georgia, and hang out at Three Fillies Stables to protect the thoroughbred horse of the book’s title. It’s an odd gig, as Clive already has Southern Security on the job and its head, Jon Delroy, doesn’t want Spenser poking about. But two horses have already been shot and Walter’s word rules. The extended Clive family, beyond the flirty Penny, is no treat. Older daughter SueSue is married to Poole (“Pud”), a drunken lout, and “Stonie” to Cord, who harbors a secret. There’s also Walter’s estranged wife Polly living as a hippie in the Bay Area, and Dolly, his longtime paramour.

 

What’s a snarky Bostonian doing in Georgia? Only Becker, a black sheriff; Tedy Sapp, the bouncer at a gar bar; and Polly Brown, a local madam, speak Spenser’s language. Spenser is fired when a key figure dies, and is later rehired, though he’s officially banned from Three Fillies–not that Spenser cares about such things. He is tasked with solving a murder, getting to the bottom of the horse shootings, making sense of a dead man’s will, and wading through toxic Clive waters.

 

Assessment: This is a good, but not great, Spenser novel. It has all the elements but it’s not too hard to finger who is behind the hullabaloo. It might have worked better in a Yankee location that didn’t pretend to be charming. ★★★

 

 

 

Robert B. Parker’s Little White Lies (2017) was penned by Ace Atkins who was chosen by Parker’s estate to continue the Spenser series. Atkins has 15 novels in his own right–many classified as Southern noir–and has written ten more Spensers. He doesn’t mess with Spenser’s snark, his fondness for donuts, or his love for Susan, but he does allow him to age. Spenser is now as likely to pass up a fight as willingly engage. His client is Connie Kelly, who fell in love with the handsome but older M. Brooks Welles, a Harvard grad, military analyst, and former CIA agent. Or so he says. After “investing” $300,000 of Connie’s money he takes off, leaving her heart and money in the lurch. She wants the first back and is torn about the latter. Spenser runs into a dead end when he traces the cash to Johnny Gredoni, a gun dealer near Boston. Gredoni’s murder stops the investigation.

Not really! Spenser sets out to see how much of Welles’ backstory is true. About as much as the pastor he’s pretending to be in Georgia. Spenser will eventually speak with the too-sincere-to-be-true Dr. Ridgeway of the Greater Faith Ministry of Georgia. Is a Christian holy war brewing? Who is Brother Bliss? Is Welles a link or the pivot? Does Spenser need Welles? Spenser’s FBI sources know some of what’s going on but there are puzzle pieces missing. Hawk and Tedy Sapp provide some muscle in an attempted double cross that Spenser knows is coming. And what about Connie?

 

Assessment: Atkins’ plot is more complex than many of Parker’s, hence the central mystery is better, though the conman preying on women angle was used in The Professional. Atkins does Spenser well, though he blunts his cockiness. ★★★★

 

 

 

Mike Lupica is a sportswriter, though he has fiction books to his credit. He was chosen to write more Jesse Stone novels. Thus far, Robert B. Parker’s Fool’s Paradise (2020) is the only one. Stone is the chief of police of Paradise, Massachusetts, probably a mashup of Marblehead and Newburyport. Jesse’s also a recovering alcoholic. There’s trouble in Paradise when a man he met briefly at an AA meeting is murdered. No one knows who he is or why he took a long taxi ride to be dropped off in front of Lily Crain’s mansion. Nor do Stone or underlings Molly Crane and Suitcase Simpson know who grabbed Molly or took potshots at Suitcase. Was it some kids who Jesse busted years ago? How are the Cains involved?

 

Assessment: It kept my interest, though I admit that the Jesse Stone novels never really floated my boat. Stone is too downbeat for me and the series fixates too much on the desire to drink, his sullen moods, attending AA, and yearning for Sunny, his on-and-off lover. I know, though, that many readers like the damaged Jesse. ★★★