Robert B. Parker Archives

05.12.19 A Hardman is Good To Find

Paul Bishop is a huge Hardman fan and in this essay, from our reissue of Pimp For The Dead, he talks about the cultural forces that shaped the creation of the series...and the market forces that doomed it to obscurity. Paul is 35-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department. His career included a three year tour with his department's Anti-Terrorist Division and over twenty-five years' experience in the investigation of sex crimes. He currently conducts law enforcement related seminars for city, state, and private agencies. In 1974, Atlanta Deathwatch, the first Hardman novel by Ralph Dennis, debuted as a paperback original from Popular Library. It was done... more

12.27.16 Max Allan Collins on Being a Grand Master

Written by Max Allan Collins

The announcement of my Edgar award as a Grand Master from the Mystery Writers of America has garnered congratulations and praise from all over the place. I’m very grateful. It’s particularly fun or, in Facebook terms, to be “liked” (you like me, you really really like me) by old friends, some of whom I haven’t heard from in decades. The world at once seems bigger and smaller. I thank you all for the congratulations about the Grand Master award, which won’t be presented till next April, by the way. I’ve been reflecting on the Grand Master , the only troubling aspect of which is that it’s a reminder that a long career preceded it, and that the... more

05.03.15 Ripley Reads: Thrilling Books for Your Summer

Written by W.L. Ripley

Brash Books Author W.L. Ripley (Storme Warning, Hail Storme, etc) shares the thrilling books he's been reading lately...and that you might want to add to your summer reading list. Crush (Phoef Sutton) – Phoef is an Emmy award winning writer for such luminaries as “Cheers,” “Newhart” and “Boston Legal.” His protagonist Caleb Rush (AKA: Crush) is a titanic hero who can do anything and everything and does it with panache and rollicking humor in a story that takes the reader on a wild carnival ride through the mean streets of the L.A. underworld. There is tension, black humor, pathos, quirky dialogue along with the humorous on every page. Sutton hits every note as Crush never... more

12.29.14 W.L. Ripley: How To Create a Series Character

Written by W.L. Ripley

W.L. Ripley is the author of two critically-acclaimed series of crime novels -- four books featuring ex-professional football player Wyatt Storme and four books about ex-Secret Service agent Cole Springer. His latest novel is Storme Warning, a stunning new mystery/thriller that we're publishing in February. We will also be re-releasing Ripley's other books through 2015 and early 2016. Wyatt Storme evolved from a love of mystery characters like Travis McGee, Spenser, and the protagonists of Elmore Leonard’s many novels. But in shaping Storme as a series lead, I wanted a neo-classic mystery/thriller hero who would seem familiar and yet would be uniquely his own person and uniquely my... more

05.27.14 Robert B. Parker’s Spenser Series And Others That Ended Too Soon

Written by Brash Admin

Low End Of Nowhere by author Michael Stone

For fans of crime fiction, it’s both satisfying and slightly surreal to see a new book in Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series on the New York Times Bestseller List. More than four years after Parker’s death, his private eye lives on through the talents of Ace Atkins. Seeing the latest Spenser thriller, Cheap Shot, on the bestseller list made us think of how lucky readers are to get a little more of Spenser– and think of some of the other fantastic thriller series’ that ended too soon.... more

Posts Tagged: Robert B. Parker