Joan Parker Dies

Spenser's Sneakers member Fred Gillis posted today that Joan Parker, widow of author Robert B. Parker, has died. She was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer in August 2011, but did not slow her activities. Unmistakably her husband's inspiration, she reminds me to make the most of life.

The Continuing Mission

William Thomas, a member of Spenser's Sneakers, posted today that he had read Ace Atkins' first Spenser continuation novel, ROBERT B. PARKER'S LULLABY. Though he enjoyed it, he thought Atkins fell short of imbuing the characters with the particular attitude Parker seemed to bring to his fiction and his life. William called it "sincere nonchalance". Others might call it amused disinterest.

I replied:

I often wonder how much of his attitude was a face he showed the world. I've heard he was the same person privately and publicly. But his son David's eulogy mentioned that he was like three men: the caricaturish "Ace", Robert B. Parker the author, and Bob the family man.

One way or another, Atkins will fall short of Parker. The only one who wouldn't fall short is Parker himself. Each of us is inimitably different, making it so special to get to know and befriend anyone. When that person is gone, he's gone. But Atkins knows this and doesn't psych himself out trying too hard to imitate Parker.

He's doing what John Gardner did with Ian Fleming's James Bond, bringing Spenser and friends somewhat up to date, picturing how their lives might have continued, because readers want great characters to live on. When I read a Travis McGee book, for example, I imagine what Travis would think of 2013. Part of me wants to believe he's still out there.

ROBERT B. PARKER'S WONDERLAND by Ace Atkins

Atkins' ambitious second Spenser novel is out today. Here's my Amazon review.

UPDATE (May 8, 2013): The sun broke out on an otherwise rainy day just before Ace Atkins signed WONDERLAND at New York City's Mysterious Bookshop. My friend and fellow Spenser fan, John Ricotta, and I attended along with Joe Guglielmelli of the East Side's dearly-missed Black Orchid Bookshop, and noir "queenpin" Megan Abbott.

Though this is the first we've met in person, I interviewed Ace for Crimespree Magazine on April 29, 2011, two days after Putnam and Parker's estate announced him as the choice to continue the Spenser novels. In his answers, I saw true knowledge of Spenser and respect for Parker. There's nothing like chatting with people who've read what you've read, watched or listened with the same fervor, but have perspectives you're hearing for the first time.

SIXKILL by Robert B. Parker

For several years before his passing, Robert B. Parker wrote three books per year. While his consistency is to be applauded, for me, it caused many of those books to seem alike, mass-produced. Parker fell into repetitive dialogue and aimless chapters. If Spenser needed months to solve a case or a year to recover from injury, he got it. I was glad to see Ace Atkins emulate Parker at his best in last year's LULLABY, and hearing this year's WONDERLAND featured Spenser's apprentice, Zebulon Sixkill, I had reason to read Parker's final Spenser novel.

Spenser's training Sixkill seems a nod to his mortality, but Mel Farman of the Parker estate tells me Parker created Sixkill to replace Hawk in a proposed new TV series because the TV rights to Hawk were still owned by the developers of the SPENSER: FOR HIRE spinoff A MAN CALLED HAWK. Spenser does come up against a sadistic killer whose competence he compares to Hawk's, and he does say confronting the killer is his appointment in Samarra, yet he survives. It's Parker's death that gives every word inescapable resonance.

Love the Writing, Hate the Writer

I commented on Steve Weddle's weekly post at Do Some Damage.

Crimespree Magazine at 50

I received my copy of Crimespree #50 today, including many contributors' remembrances how they came to be involved with the magazine. I wasn't asked, but allow me to gush here on my blog.

Jon Jordan, a.k.a. "NoDoze", a.k.a. "makemenachos", was a longtime and enthusiastic member of my P.I. fiction discussion DetecToday when Dave White encouraged me to pitch Jon a DVD review of Veronica Mars Season One. Jon referred me to Entertainment Editor Jeremy Lynch, and countless words later, I still love working with them any chance I get.

Over the years, I've had the thrills of turning Jon on to NCIS, of turning Jeremy on to The Middleman, of interviewing Ace Atkins for Crimespree two days after the announcement he was continuing Robert B. Parker's Spenser...

And yet, more than any piece I've done for the magazine, I've enjoyed the people behind it. Before my first Bouchercon in 2008, I blogged about whether I should use a backpack. Jon not only phoned me with luggage advice, but we chatted a good while longer. Jon and Ruth were also kind enough to do an ad exchange so I could spread the word about The Lineup in Crimespree.

I wish them continued success and look forward to many more memories.

The Good, The Bad, and Robert B. Parker

Thanks to discussion on Spenser's Sneakers, I've finally hit on why I object to Spenser's calling killers for backup. Not that it reflects badly on Spenser—he has never asked anyone to kill because he couldn't do it himself—but it lets Parker skirt serious moral dilemmas.

In MORTAL STAKES (1975), which directly precedes Hawk's debut in PROMISED LAND, Parker has Spenser make the tough decision to commit premeditated murder. It's possible Parker thought, "I can't have him go that dark again. Let me bring back Hawk to help with the terrorists in THE JUDAS GOAT."

Spenser remains committed to good. "Good", to him, isn't necessarily the cops or the courts, but more a streetwise sense of what's right. He respects Hawk and various ersatz Hawks because he sees some good in them. They all keep their word. Their use of violence is well controlled. If they're killing bad guys to protect the main good guy, they're on the side of the angels. If they ever killed randomly while working for Spenser, as they say on Firefly, that would be an interesting day. But Spenser calls them precisely because they don't kill indiscriminately. He couldn't continually call cops for backup; they might not have the free time or the jurisdiction to kill if it were necessary.

Parker evidently became so comfortable with the trope of deadly friends watching a hero's back, he carried it over to his Sunny Randall female P.I. series, turning Spike—a smartass waiter played by his son Dan in the Lifetime Spenser movies—into Sunny's karate master friend.

2013 MWA Edgar Nominees

I'm happy to see several books and TV episodes I enjoyed among the nominees.

THE LOST ONES by Ace Atkins, second in his Quinn Colson series, is up for Best Novel.

IN PURSUIT OF SPENSER ed. Otto Penzler, the Robert B. Parker tribute collection of essays, is up for Best Critical/Biographical.

And the pilot episode of A&E's LONGMIRE is up against the ELEMENTARY episode "Child Predator" in the Television category.

Congratulations and good luck to all.

Look Again

In posting about violent fiction and Spenser and Hawk, I've caught myself wanting clearer heroes, villains, and messages—forgetting that crime fiction's calling is to challenge our judgment, not answer our questions.

The Flipside

In an entry last week, I cited Robert B. Parker's Spenser series as violent fiction offering positive inspiration. It's only fair I bring up one of the series' negative messages.

I mentioned that Spenser and Hawk have strategies to keep their use of violence in check. Hawk is no less a criminal, a leg-breaker, a killer, yet, after his first appearance in Promised Land (1975), he and Spenser haven’t clashed wills. Their past as young boxers on the same card may explain why Hawk has become Spenser's most trusted backup; it doesn't explain why many of the rest are killers he hasn't known as long. Every one has a code of honor like Spenser's, yet their principles don't prevent them from lives of crime.

Critics point out that working with killers lets Spenser's hands stay comparatively clean. I can only guess his logic for teaming up is, "They may be bad guys, but they're helping me do some good in this case."

I distinguish killers—people who train solely to kill for personal gain—from policemen and soldiers, who may be forced to kill in the line of protective duties. No matter how honorable, killers are killers, and Parker's message of honor would be better delivered if Spenser clashed with them more often.

Still, if we come away from the series questioning the morality of working with killers, it has served a positive purpose.

Don't Judge a Genre by Its Cover

This week's Shortmystery discussion of violence in books, movies, and video games has been thought-provoking and enlightening. More of my comments:

For me, the difference between movie and book violence is the former is fixed imagery determined by a director and presented as such to viewers; the latter is written by an author but must be interpreted and imagined by readers—every one of whom will imagine something slightly different. That's why there is more censorship of movies and TV than of books.

...[W]e as writers should be conscious of how our imagery affects readers. Ideally, we want them to feel certain ways at certain times all through our stories. That said, being overly concerned about how any one reader might react is detrimental to writing overall and does not prevent a delusional reader's misinterpretation.

Even if the worst happens—your story inspires someone to commit a crime—the ultimate responsibility for those actions is the reader's.

And today, fellow Shortmystery member Anita Page carried the discussion on to the Women of Mystery blog. There, I commented:

...It’s wrongheaded to blame violent books, movies, and video games on face value. One must look into the ultimate messages the writers are trying to send. Are these deep or shallow? Right or wrong? Would they give a sane person the wrong idea?

One of the series that hooked me on crime fiction was Robert B. Parker’s Spenser. Spenser and his friend Hawk are former boxers, capable of inflicting pain and forced to do so from time to time, but neither takes pleasure in it. Both have strategies to keep themselves in check. For one thing, Spenser makes a commitment to Susan Silverman, a psychologist who can help him with moral choices. Hawk, on the other hand, commits himself to no one, does not allow himself to feel much emotion of any kind. Parker shows that one is clearly the better path to contentment.

The Spenser series would undoubtedly teach a sane person not only how to keep violent impulses in check, but also how to develop morality and autonomy.

UPDATE: It's only fair I also examine the negative message sent by Spenser's continued association with Hawk and other killers.

THE LONELY SILVER RAIN by John D. MacDonald

I've read several of MacDonald's Travis McGee books, but never this final one until now. I felt like reading it after learning that Robert B. Parker's Cole and Hitch would be continued by actor/screenwriter Robert Knott. I support the continuation plans, but they also remind me that no two authors have the same intangibles. Parker wasn't the first mystery writer I read, but his eloquent, clean prose overshadowed everyone I read after him, John D. included.

I've been an email list moderator for thirteen years and, in that time, have tried to read widely and see writers' strengths and weaknesses. Even so, only now, two years after Parker's passing, do I realize to what extent he colored my opinions of other writing. As flattered as I'd be if someone likened my writing to Parker's or MacDonald's, I want to be appreciated for my intangibles.

Ready to see MacDonald in his own light, I chose The Lonely Silver Rain because I have a soft spot for first and last books. Writers put the most on the line with the first book; it's the one that sells the rest. It's pretty to think writers put the same into a series' last book, but most writers don't know they're writing a last book as they're writing it. In MacDonald's case, there's plenty to suggest he might have known.

Tracking down a friend's stolen yacht, McGee comes across the aftermath of three brutal murders and vows to bring the killer or killers to justice. A couple of close calls and encounters with recurring characters dying from cancer give him plenty of time to ponder, if not his own mortality, when he might give up his crusading lifestyle. The book is a satisfying last adventure in print, but its ending lets readers imagine more, the best of both worlds.

JESSE STONE: BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT

My DVD review of CBS's last Jesse Stone movie has posted to Crimespree Magazine's blog.

Robert B. Parker's Cole and Hitch To Be Continued

Shortly before Ace Atkins's Spenser continuation novel, Lullaby, was released, I asked Mel Farman of the Parker estate if there were plans to continue Parker's Western series starring Marshal Virgil Cole and his friend Everett Hitch. Mel said yes, and they were exploring continuing Sunny Randall as well.

I saw a post on the Robert B. Parker Facebook page from last Thursday that news of the Cole and Hitch continuation novel, Ironhorse, was coming soon. I went on to find Ironhorse's information page at Penguin Putnam. Written by Robert Knott, who co-wrote and produced the Ed Harris movie adaptation of Parker's Appaloosa, Iron Horse will be published January 8, 2013.