New Boston Creative Group

by Lisa Sisley on February 26, 2010

Author Robert Parker died on January 18, and my family has been mourning ever since: Parker’s books are a shared experience among us, especially the books starring his main protagonist, Spenser (no first name), a Boston private detective. We’ve all read many, many Spenser novels, as well as Parker’s Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone series (I’m not so hot on Jesse Stone, but my mom is a big fan because the enduringly gorgeous Tom Selleck plays him in the TV movies).

I love Robert Parker mainly because my husband Ken and I both enjoy his books; there aren’t that many authors that we both relish with equal enthusiasm. I’ve been rereading some of the 25 or so Parker books we own this past couple of weeks. They’re a fast read, particularly those published in the last years of his career — lots of rehashing of old plots, gathering up of old characters and shoving them into a plot together. We’ve occasionally remarked to each other that “he phoned this one in.” Did we care? No.

The Spenser character has a lot of qualities I admire: he’s literate (Parker was a former professor of English), brilliant, funny, loyal. Spenser adheres zealously to his own code of conduct and therefore pays a big price — he gets himself into situations that can’t be resolved without a shoot-out, or at least a fistfight.

Anybody Spenser associates with must adhere to the code, too. In its essence, the code is thus: Keep your promises. Fight your own battles. Help your friends win theirs. Protect the innocent. Do what you’re paid to do.

Spenser’s friends range from contract killers and thugs (Hawk, Chollo, Vinnie) to police officers (Quirk, Healy, Belson, Farrell), who would, sans their association with Spenser, be on opposite sides of any fight. (And of course, there’s the awesome Susan Silverman, psychotherapist and Spenser’s main squeeze.) Because they’re in Spenser’s camp, they often unite to salvage bad situations so something good or honorable or at least halfway decent results.

I really groove on the camaraderie of the Spenser novels — like Spenser, I try to live my life surrounded by interesting people who operate with some sort of compass; as far as I know, I number no contract killers among my friends and acquaintances, although I’ve wondered about Susan a time or two.

Parker always kept Spenser and his world true to the code, even when the plots got a little thin, there at the end. The predictability of Spenser’s decisions has been a great comfort to me. Nice to be able to count on something.

Anyway, Robert Parker, thanks for the great reads…I’ll miss you.