Getting the Band Together

Robert B. Parker’s The Hangman’s Sonnet (A Jesse Stone Novel) - Reed Farrel Coleman – (G. P. Putnam)

The history of rock ‘n’ roll is dotted with enduring mysteries and myths; Paul is dead, Bobby Fuller found dead, battered and doused in gasoline in the front seat of his car, Jim Morrison, did he really die in the bath tub and did Kurt Cobain really die from suicide, are among the most legendary tales.

So why not create a mystery around a rock ‘n’ roll tale of a long lost studio session from a Bob Dylan-esque singer songwriter that featured alleged contributions and studio appearances by a cavalcade of star performers rumored to included numerous members of the Rock ‘n’ roll Hall of Fame?

That’s exactly what Reed Farrel Coleman has done as he continues to churn out novels based on the characters created by the late, great Robert B. Parker, with his latest entry in the Jesse Stone series, The Hangman’s Sonnet. This mystery is chock full of all of the elements for a great story; criss-crossed storylines that don’t make sense until you play out the entire storyline; plenty of curveballs and red herrings to throw you off the scent and even a couple of sympathetic characters who turn out to be driven by desperation to do bad things.

Add to the mix the fact that Coleman, in the great music tradition even takes a stab at putting the band together by spicing the storyline to include a visit with Parker’s most famous creation, Boston-based private investigator Spenser, who tosses a clue to Chief Stone that puts him on the scent of a long lost audio engineer who was a prime suspect in the case of the missing recordings, and who just happen to be related to the book’s first victim.

This is entertaining stuff all the way. Parker fans will always find something to quibble about, but for my money Coleman does a nice job of keeping on point, serving up a good read and breathing not just life, but new life into Parker’s creations. Heck he even makes mention of long lost Sunny Randall, who is long overdue for a re-visit by a skilled fiction hand.

Big Shoes Filled

Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins – A Jesse Stone Novel – Reed Farrell Coleman (Putnam)

Not sure it was that started the publishing trend toward franchising, but has often times met with middling results. Franchising is when a beloved author or creator of a beloved character passes away and a hired gun writer is selected to pick up the reigns and either complete a partial manuscript or completely take over the character in an attempt to carry on the publishing franchise.

Such is the case with a variety of characters created by the late Robert B. Parker including Boston P.I., Spenser, the western series featuring Cole and Hitch and that of Paradise, MA police chief Jesse Stone. Parker was tapped to complete a manuscript started by the legendary Raymond Chandler, so he was an early progenitor of the form.

Many skilled practitioners have taken a swing at carrying on Parker’s timeless characters; some with greater success than others. While I have enjoyed many of these franchise outings, they all seemed to be missing a little something. Clearly then weren’t Bob Parker. With Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins, veteran author Reed Farrell Coleman comes closest to nailing down Parker’s Jesse Stone from beginning to end.

Once again Paradise gets rocked by a murder, but this one has ties leading straight back to this small town’s past; the discovery of a new murder victim also reveals a pair of older corpses that turn out to be two long missing and seemingly forgotten victims which shakes the town to foundation.

Coleman uses a practiced eye and a master’s skill to construct not only the crime, but to build in the backdrop of what could be Any Small Town, USA. While the cast of others have done Parker small justice, Coleman finds the right voice Jesse Stone and succeeds in making it his own. They are big shoes, properly filled.

Santa’s Bookshelf

Books have always been one of my favorite holiday gifts to both give and receive. Here are a small selection some books on Santa’s bookshelf that could find their way under your Christmas tree.
 

Silent Night – A Spenser Holiday Novel – Robert B. Parker with Helen Brann (Putnam Publishing)

 

At the time of his unexpected passing 2010, author Robert B. Parker was hard at work on writing his first Christmas themed book in the form of a Spenser holiday novel, Silent Night.

 

It’s December in Boston and Parker’s original hero, Spenser is doing what he does second best; carefully crafting the menu for a holiday celebration, when his turducken plans are interrupted by a young visitor that sets the story in motion.

Parker’s long time literary agent, Helen Brann was well equipped after working side by side with the author for 32 years to pick up the reins and finish the tale. Like many holiday themed novels, the story line is light and makes for easy reading; if you’re looking for deep thinking, you’ll have to look elsewhere. This one is all about fun and adventure Spenser style.

 

White Fire – Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Grand Central Publishing)

I’ve been writing for over 30 years and I have always been intrigued by what the dynamic is between writing teams. One of the most successful duos in fiction writing, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child is out with another Pendergast story, White Fire.

 

Eccentric, intriguing, and intelligent; Pendergast could be one of the most entertaining, quirky characters in fiction. As controlled and meticulous as Pendergast is, the wildcard that is Corrie Swanson seems to be the perfect fictional foil. Their interactions often serve to ratchet up the tension of the story.

Add to this winning mix a legendary tale featuring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde, a historical serial killer and a current psychotic killer and the story is bound to take some interesting twists and turns before reaching it’s exciting conclusion.

 

King and Maxwell – David Baldacci (Grand Central Publishing)

From the time he took the literary world by storm with his debut novel Absolute Power, author David Baldacci has become one of the most reliably entertaining writers out there. He has literally created a shelf chock full of memorable characters over a span of great book series.

The list includes; John Puller, Will Robie, The Camel Club and of course King and Maxwell. The last duo, is the name sake of Baldacci’s latest book, King and Maxwell. Former Secret Service agents turned private investigators, Sean King and Michelle Maxwell are thrust into an investigation involving a teenager who’s Dad was killed in Afghanistan…in true Baldacci style…or was he?

 

In receipt of a carefully crafted, coded email, sent after his father supposedly died, Tyler Wingo turns to King and Maxwell for a helping hand and from there the story is off to the races.

Adding to the storyline is the built in tension, often between the lines, between King and Maxwell. The whole male, female partner tension thing certainly isn’t new, but Baldacci does a masterful job of balancing it in the mix without overwhelming the story.

 

Identical – Scott Turow (Grand Central Publishing)

Long before Kindle became the e-reader of choice for millions, it was better known for being the county that was home to attorney/bestselling author Scott Turow’s collection of colorful denizens of an equally colorful community.

 

With Identical Turow once again posits an intriguing concept and develops a story that will most likely keeping you guessing right to the end. I pride myself on more often than not being able to figure out where the story will wind up, but this one left me scratching my head.

 

While Turow has often displayed the ability to weave intricate, character laden plot lines, at times in Identical the reader may be left flapping their arms to keep their head above the character waterline. While he tries mightily to pull all of the loose strings together, Turow may have bitten off more than the average reader can chew.

With a bit of patience, this one is still worth the read, it may just take a bit of extra focus to keep things straight.

 

Newsflash!: Brandman is Not Parker

Robert D. Parker’s Damned If You Do – Michael Brandman (Putnam)

I have said it here many times; I am a huge fan of author Robert B. Parker. The Spenser series is what got me reading for fun way back when I was in college. When Parker served up the Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall books; I was all in. Heck I even grabbed the Cole and Hitch books despite not being a fan of westerns. In short, Parker was my favorite writer and news of his passing certainly had an impact on me.

Since that time there have been a steady stream of Spenser, Cole and Hitch and Jesse Stone books that have been penned by authors selected by the Parker estate to carry on these series. I have read most of the new books and been entertained and generally happy that these characters will continue. While I am not surprised by the reaction, I really don’t get the vitriol that has been directed at the brave writers who have been asked to pick up the reins and carry on these stories.

 

Michael Brandman is the producer that worked with actor Tom Selleck to bring the movie adaptations of the Jesse Stone books to television so he seemed a natural choice to carry on the Stone books; the latest of which is Robert D. Parker’s Damned If You Do. Based on the reactions from fans, it’s certainly a fitting title! Here’s a newsflash…Michael Brandman is not Robert B. Parker! And quite frankly, there is nothing wrong with that! Brandman clearly knows the characters and knows the storylines from prior books and does a nice job of threading the two together.

I find the complaints about thin plotlines and how quickly this story can be knocked out more than a little disingenuous from Parker fans. Anyone who is honest would have to admit that over the years even Parker leaned a little bit heavier on the formula that he had developed for plotting his storylines; overcoming shortfalls with great characters and his ability to write great action sequences.

Brandman does a nice job of serving up just enough of the usual suspects and mixing in some new players to keep the storyline moving forward and keep things entertaining. And in the end, isn’t that what Jesse Stone, Spenser, Sunny Randall and Cole and Hitch are really all about?  

 

In the Footsteps of a Legend

Ace Atkins – Robert B. Parker’s Wonderland (Putnam)

In a career that spanned nearly four decades, author Robert B. Parker created some of the most iconic and memorable characters in print. His passing in 2010 has left a legion of fans with a huge hole carved neatly in the center of their literary hearts. Like the author, the larger than life characters and snappy dialogue will never be replaced; so it’s easy to understand some reticence on the part of fans when new writers, interlopers to some, have been tasked with picking up the Parker mantle and continuing the legacy of his characters.

Perhaps the most difficult task was placed in the hands of Ace Atkins, who was given the challenge of carrying on Parker’s scar tissue laden, wisecracking P.I., Spenser. Since his introduction in 1974, Spenser has been a staple for many readers who have fallen into an almost fan-boy thrall with the tough guy character who haunts the streets of Boston. When TV came calling in the form of the short-lived series Spenser of Hire, I am certain most thought actor Robert Urich; “just wasn’t quite right” in the lead role. (Although Avery Brooks darn near embodied Hawk!) Later in the made for TV movie series, Joe Montagna wasn’t even close!

It is from that perspective that many fans approach Atkins continuation of the series. Not an enviable task. Since his passing, I have undertaken the Herculean task of re-collecting the Parker catalog, one book at a time in hardcover and along the way I have revisited many of the Spenser novels. And while I am still a diehard fan, I am honest enough to admit that some the later books in the series where not quite up to the level that I had come to expect from Robert B. Parker’s legendary status.

So it is from that perspective that I approached Atkins latest effort, Wonderland. While at the time of its release it escaped me, I started out by tracking down a copy of Atkins first Spenser outing Lullaby before diving into the new book. While Lullaby trod on familiar ground and with familiar characters, Wonderland looks to add depth and development to Parker’s last character creation Zebulon Sixkill. While I am certain that Parker had plans to carry on the Sixkill character as mentored by Spenser, this had to be the most difficult challenge for Atkins given the relative lack of detail on this new player in the mix. Like so many of Parker’s characters, there is a peeling back of the layers as new wrinkles are revealed in the Sixkill persona.

Has for the story in Wonderland, having witnessed firsthand the slimey underbelly of gambling enterprises and real estate dealings when gaming expanded in Pennsylvania, the story Atkins lays out rings true and Spenser finds himself right where he feels most comfortable; right in the middle of the action.

Is it Robert B. Parker good? No. but it is pretty darn good! And for the doubtless legion of doubters, I might remind them of Parker’s efforts to pick up where the equally legendary Raymond Chandler left off with Poodle Springs and Perchance to Dream, it isn’t an easy task to fill big shoes.

Robert B. Parker’s Ironhorse – Robert Knott

How do you replace a legend?

How do you replace a legend who created not one, not two, not three, but five incredibly memorable lead characters, each one distinctly cut from a unique cloth?

The legend in question is author Robert B. Parker and those characters are Spencer, Jesse Stone, Sunny Randall, and Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch. Like many estates/publishers looking to continue a literary franchise The Parker Family has hand selected authors to pick up the mantle of these memorable characters.

The latest to take up the task is Robert Knott who is charged with carrying on the western series featuring Cole and Hitch, the itinerant lawmen who work the mean streets of Appaloosa. Knott was selected based upon his ties to TV adaptation of Parker’s first book in this series Appaloosa, for which Knott helped to co-write the screenplay with the film’s star, Ed Harris.

 

It is that familiarity with not only the characters, but also with the easy-going, Parker style that help Ironhorse to work. One of the things that make Cole and Hitch so good is their comfortable, well-worn banter that fits just like a perfectly broken in saddle. Knott does a nice job shoehorning together the duos, completing the other guys thought chatter.

After depositing prisoners south of the border in Mexico, the pair board the St. Louis/San Francisco train to head back to Appaloosa. What should have been an easy trip home turns in a very different direction. Add to the mix the Governor of Texas along with his wife and daughters, $500,000 in cash and train car full of familiar bad guys including Bloody Bob Brandice and Cole and Hitch are off on a wild ride.

 
Knott does well to not only carrying on the characters but weaves in era correct historical artifacts throughout Ironhorse. While some purist Parker fans might quibble, overall I would bet most will be happy that Cole and Hitch will continue and not ride off into the sunset.

Review: Robert B. Parker - Sixkill

For me, it was bittersweet to read Sixkill by Robert B. Parker. Since his passing in January of 2010, a handful of books that he had in the pipeline have been released, but Sixkill will be the final book in the series of novels featuring hardboiled, but tender, Boston P I, Spenser.

A friend introduced me to Parker/Spenser and I was hooked from the start. I quickly worked my way through the back catalog and continued to voraciously gobble up each new edition to the series. Along the way Parker added a couple of new denizens to the Boston ‘burbs, in the form of Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall, who joined the long list of colorful, quirky characters that filled the pages of his books.

Parker was a master at drawing compelling characters who while often habitually flawed; they almost uniformly do the right thing and make the honorable thing. Sixkill adds the character Zebulon Sixkill, a Cree Indian, who works as a body guard and ends up under Spenser’s sizable wing.

Parker does a masterful job of drawing Sixkill’s background from a child on the res, to the college football field and into the seedier side of Hollywood celebrity body guarding.

Along the way Spenser hones Sixkill’s skills and prepares him for the final showdown and crossing swords, or in this case a Bowie knife and .40 Smith and Wesson, with a sadistic hit man out to kill them.
It makes Parker’s passing all the more sad; Sixkill is a good fit to join the long list of hard men, skilled with hands and weapons, like: Hawk, Vinnie Morris, Chollo, Bobby Horse, Ty Bop, and Junior.

While I see that Michael Brandman, the television producer responsible for the Tom Selleck movie’s featuring Jesse Stone, is set to continue that series with the new book, Killing The Blues set for release this September, I’m not sure Parker’s estate should strike a similar deal to continue the Spenser series. Some things are better left the way they are.