Robert B. Parker died January 18th. Parker was a crime fiction writer who authored 60 books, and is best known for the Spenser series–a Private-I series set in Boston that became a perfect stage for Parker’s crisp descriptive prose, his sense of humor, his wonderful ear for dialog. He apparently died while at his desk, at work upon another Spenser novel. The Canton Free Library has an excellent collection of books by Parker, and we have this sampling in ODY:
Perchance to Dream is a Philip Marlowe story…Parker took a one chapter fragment of a manuscript left by Raymond Chandler, and developed out a complete plot. Parker was a great admirer of Chandler, and so, with Parker in mind, some other recommendations on Chandler and kindred-crime-writer-spirits:
- Stories and Early Novels by Raymond Chandler
- Later Novels and Other Writings by Raymond Chandler
- Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly
- Crime Novels: American Noir of the 30’s and 40’s
- The Right Madness by James Crumley
- Morse’s Greatest Mystery and Other Stories by Colin Dexter
- Crime Stories and Other Writings Dashiell Hammett
- Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith by Patricia Highsmith
- When the Women Come Out to Dance: Stories by Elmore Leonard
- The Female of the Species: Tales of Mystery and Suspense Ed. Joyce Carol Oates
- Amsterdam Cop Stories by Janwillem van de Wetering
- Outsider in Amsterdam by Janwillem van de Wetering
- Exit Wound by John Westermann
…to suggest a baker’s dozen. Parker left several finished manuscripts that have yet to be published, so we haven’t quite read the last of the man’s work, and anything on this list would be a great mid-winters read, even if prompted by somewhat melancholy circumstances…