Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Robert B. Parker, R.I.P.

Plenty of people will be commenting on Parker's passing, and I'm no different. I'm one of those who sort-of, kind-of quit reading him, but only a year or so back, so I've read most of his books. I enjoyed all of those I read and think I probably laughed out loud at least once in reading each one of them. I discovered Parker's work when the first paperback edition of THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT came out. I was working in the book department of a department store in downtown Fort Worth, and we carried it. I was already a big fan of Hammett, Chandler, Ross Macdonald, and many other private eye writers, and when I read THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT, I knew it was the real stuff. I think we're only beginning to appreciate just what a huge influence Parker's work was on the genre.

There are some stand-alone novels of his I never got around to reading. I really need to.

4 comments:

beb said...

Aged 77, probably a heart attack. That's a good life, though we've become used to people living so much longer. II hadn't realized how much he revitalized the genre with "The Godwulf Manuscript" I just thought it was damned good. In later years I got a little tired super-man Hawk but he was good.

Matthew P. Mayo said...

Parker's death was unexpected news--he's been one of those writers I've thought of as always there, typing away and sending out solid books year after year. I'll miss him.

-Matt

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

His westerns were great. Sad news. Rest in peace, sir.

Anonymous said...

Very sad. As a reader, I came to Parker's work through the "Chandler connection" and the Spenser books. Coincidentally, I used some ill-founded comment on the movie of Appaloosa and, by extension, the western genre, as the peg for an article that will be appearing in the Black Horse Extra next month.