The Spenser Books by Robert B. Parker

[Messalina]

Is anybody here a fan of the Spenser books by Robert B. Parker? His writing style is alot like Nelson Demille, so if you're a fan of Demille and John Corey, you'll LOVE Spenser.

I just wrote about this topic in the Lion's Game thread and since I don't feel like writing the same thing twice, I'll just paste what I posted over there right here. Here it is:


Has anyone here read the Spenser books? The author is Robert B. Parker, and if you like Nelson DeMille and John Corey, you'll LOVE Robert Parker and Spenser. The Spenser in the book does not really resemble the Spenser of the TV series, because the Spenser in the book is a total wise guy and even more psycho than John Corey (as hard as that may be to believe). And there are 30 Spenser novels, too, so you won't run out of reading material any time soon. (My advice, though, is to NOT start at the beginning of the series, because the first 3 or 4 books aren't as good as the rest. It 's not that they're bad or anything, they're actually very good, but they don't contain the humor that developed as Robert Parker got more and more used to writing.) So, my advice is to go tothe library, pick any Spenser book, and just dive in.

[marybethp]

I'm a HUGE Spenser fan. Upon advice from this thread, I picked up Plum Island, the first of the DeMille books with John Corey. I did like it - felt it was a bit long and drawn out - some of the storyline could have been chopped, but I did like Corey and plan on reading the next one.

Definitely enjoy Spenser more - just read Hundred Dollar Baby. His wit is unmatchable!

[Boston_Bill]

I love Robert Parker and Spenser. I always love the Boston locations Parker wrote about. I was a fan of the TV show. Ive noticed since the internet my reading of books has go way down.

[Penpoint]

I always welcome reading one of Parker's books after I've finished one of those overblown 600- or 700-pagers that so many other authors feel they have to write. It's such a relief to then pick up a Spenser novel and enjoy the humor and read text that is mostly dialogue. I'm usually such a slow reader that it's a pleasure to finish a book in just a few days.

I also enjoy Parker's other two series: the Jesse Stone novels and the Sunny Randall novels. It's interesting to "hear" some of the same Spencer attitude and cadence creep into both Jesse's and Sunny's "voices."

[MRD]

I'm a huge Robt. Parker and Spenser fan. I especially love Pearl the Wonder Dog and Hawk.


I love how Spenser is such a wise a**.

I'm also a huge Nelson Demille Fan. Very disappointed in the movie The General's Daughter from his book though.

I think my favorite was The Charm School.