Thrillers/Mysteries "The Spenser Series" by Robert B Parker

Spenser (his first name is never revealed) is a fictional character in a series of detective novels initially by the American mystery writer Robert B. Parker and later by Ace Atkins. He is also featured in a television series (Spenser: For Hire) and a series of TV movies (Spenser (TV films)) based on the novels.

Fictional biography

Spenser was born in Laramie, Wyoming and is a Boston private eye in the mold of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, a smart-mouthed tough guy with a heart of gold. Unlike Marlowe, Spenser maintains a committed relationship with one woman (Susan Silverman). Although he is an ex-boxer (who likes to remind readers that he once fought the former heavyweight champ Jersey Joe Walcott) and lifts weights to stay in shape, he also is quite well educated, cooks, and lives by a code of honor he and Susan discuss occasionally—though as infrequently as he can manage. Spenser bears more than a passing resemblance to his creator, Robert B. Parker. Both are Bostonians, and both spent time in Korea with the U.S. Army. Unlike Parker, however, Spenser hardly grows older. He was 37 when introduced in The Godwulf Manuscript and is now (mid-October 2006) some 49½ years old, according to the "Bullets-and-Beer formula", aging 12½ years for about 36 years of real time. This requires some retconning—Spenser stopped making reference to his military service in the Korean War as an eighteen-year-old, as he did in the first novels — although in 2006's Hundred Dollar Baby Spenser mentions being on "R and R" in Japan before going back to the war, although exactly which war is not made clear. The other major character in the Spenser novels is his close friend Hawk, an equally tough but somewhat shady echo of Spenser himself. Spenser and Hawk met as boxing opponents in a preliminary bout in the Boston Arena (now known as Matthews Arena). Each man believes he was the victor." Hawk may be modeled on the sidekick in Book Five of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene; Artegal, the knight of justice, has a helper named Talus who is an invincible man of iron.

Spenser was a former State trooper assigned to the Suffolk County DA's Office (although some novels state that he also worked out of the Middlesex County DA's Office, for example in Walking Shadow and the pilot episode of Spenser: For Hire said he was a Boston Police detective), and regularly seeks help from (or sometimes butts heads with) Martin Quirk (originally a lieutenant, later a captain) of the Boston Police Department. Among his other police contacts are Sgt. Frank Belson and Detective Lee Farrell, both homicide investigators under Quirk's command; Healy, a captain of the Massachusetts State Police; and Samuelson, an LAPD lieutenant (later promoted to captain, as mentioned in Back Story). Scotch is Spenser's drink of celebration. This is mostly having to do with an encounter with a bear while bird hunting in his teens. Spenser seems to agree with William Faulkner's assessment of scotch — "that brown liquor which not women, not boys and children, but only hunters drank." After his mother's death (which occurred prior to Spenser's birth — he was an emergency C-section), Spenser was raised by his father and two uncles (his mother's brothers), all of them carpenters, who do not appear in the series. When Spenser was about "ten or twelve", his father, his uncles and Spenser moved to Boston which Spenser's father considered "the Athens of America." Spenser received a football scholarship to Holy Cross, where he played strong safety. Spenser dropped out because he didn't like being ordered around by the coach. His family unit beyond his near-fraternal relationship with Hawk is essentially Susan Silverman, an unofficial foster son named Paul Giacomin, and a series of dogs named Pearl (who is named after Spenser's childhood dog of the same breed). Silverman, originally a high school guidance counselor, continues to assist Spenser in his cases after becoming a Harvard-trained Ph.D. psychologist. Giacomin, initially an awkward, unsocialized teenager, becomes a professional actor/dancer. Author Parker has been photographed on the Spenser series dustjackets with a dog identical to the Pearls.~wikipedia and Robert B. Parker's Official website

Novels

• The Godwulf Manuscript (1973)
• God Save the Child (1974)
• Mortal Stakes (1975)
• Promised Land (1976)
• The Judas Goat (1978)
• Looking for Rachel Wallace (1980)
• A Savage Place (1981)
• Early Autumn (1981)
• Ceremony (1982)
• The Widening Gyre (1983)
• Valediction (1984)
• A Catskill Eagle (1985)
• Taming a Seahorse (1986)
• Pale Kings and Princes (1987)
• Crimson Joy (1988)
• Playmates (1989)
• Stardust (1990)
• Pastime (1991)
• Double Deuce (1992)
• Paper Doll (1993)
• Walking Shadow (1994)
• Thin Air (1995)
• Chance (1996)
• Small Vices (1997)
• Sudden Mischief (1998)
• Hush Money (1999)
• Hugger Mugger (2000)
• Potshot (2001)
• Widow's Walk (2002)
• Back Story (2003)
• Bad Business (2004)
• Cold Service (2005)
• School Days (2005)
• The Hundred Dollar Baby (2006)
• Now and Then (2007)
• Rough Weather (2008)
• Chasing the Bear: A Young Spenser Novel (2009)
• The Professional (2009)
• Painted Ladies (2010)
• Sixkill (2011)

Each book in the series will eventually be featured on this blog-one at a time.