About this item
"Ebullient entertainment." - Time. A hotshot reporter is dead. Hed gone to take a look-see at "Miami North" - little Wheaton, Massachusetts - the biggest cocaine distribution center above the Mason-Dixon line.. Did the kid die for getting too close to the truth . . . or to a sweet lady with a jealous husband?. Spenser will stop at nothing to find out.. Praise for Robert B. Parkers Spenser novels. "Like Philip Marlowe, Spenser is a man of honor in a dishonorable world. When he says he will do something, it is done. The dialogues zings, and there is plenty of action . . . but it is the moral element that sets them above most detective fiction." - Newsweek. "Crackling dialogue, plenty of action and expert writing . . . Unexpectedly literate - [Spenser is] in many respects the very exemplar of the species." - The New York Times "They just dont make private eyes tougher or funnier." - People "Parker has a recorders ear for dialogue, an agile wit . . . and, strangely enough, a soupçon of compassion hidden under that sardonic, flip exterior." - Los Angeles Times "A deft storyteller, a master of pace." - The Philadelphia Inquirer "Spenser probably had more to do with changing the private eye from a coffin-chaser to a full-bodied human being than any other detective hero." - The Chicago Sun-Times "[Spenser is] tough, intelligent, wisecracking, principled, and brave." - The New Yorker
About the Author
Robert B. Parker (1932-2010) has long been acknowledged as the dean of American crime fiction. His novel featuring the wise-cracking, street-smart Boston private-eye Spenser earned him a devoted following and reams of critical acclaim, typified by R.W.B. Lewis' comment, "We are witnessing one of the great series in the history of the American detective story" (The New York Times Book Review) . In June and October of 2005, Parker had national bestsellers with APPALOOSA and SCHOOL DAYS, and continued his winning streak in February of 2006 with his latest Jesse Stone novel, SEA CHANGE. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Parker attended Colby College in Maine, served with the Army in Korea, and then completed a Ph.D. in English at Boston University. He married his wife Joan in 1956; they raised two sons, David and Daniel. Together the Parkers founded Pearl Productions, a Boston-based independent film company named after their short-haired pointer, Pearl, who has also been featured in many of Parker's novels. Parker began writing his Spenser novels in 1971 while teaching at Boston's Northeastern University. Little did he suspect then that his witty, literate prose and psychological insights would make him keeper-of-the-flame of America's rich tradition of detective fiction. Parker's fictional Spenser inspired the ABC-TV series Spenser: For Hire. In February 2005, CBS-TV broadcast its highly-rated adaptation of the Jesse Stone novel Stone Cold, which featured Tom Selleck in the lead role as Parker's small-town police chief. The second CBS movie, Night Passage, also scored high ratings, and the third, Death in Paradise, aired on April 30, 2006. Parker was named Grand Master of the 2002 Edgar Awards by the Mystery Writers of America, an honor shared with earlier masters such as Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen.Parker died on January 19, 2010, at the age of 77.
