Scan barcode
dantastic's review against another edition
3.0
Otto Penzler and a slew of writers give their thoughts on Robert B. Parker and his ground-breaking detective, Spenser.
I grabbed this off of Netgalley. Thank you, Netgalley!
Penzler and the gang (Ace Atkins
Lawrence Block, Reed Farrel Coleman, Max Allan Collins, Matthew Clemens, Brendan DuBois, Loren D. Estleman, Lyndsay Faye, Ed Gorman, Parnell Hall, Jeremiah Healy, Dennis Lehane, Gary Phillips, and S.J. Rozan) tell stories about Robert B. Parker's and/or Spenser's influence on them and crime fiction in general.
I'm not as big of a fan of Spenser as some reviewers. In fact, I've only made it as far as [b:Looking For Rachel Wallace|69638|Looking For Rachel Wallace (Spenser, #6)|Robert B. Parker|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1320537708s/69638.jpg|1421134] and actually prefer [a:Robert Crais|8944|Robert Crais|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1202587973p2/8944.jpg]'s take on the wise-cracking detective and his deadly partner. Still, I do enjoy Spenser and gave this a try.
It's pretty interesting. It reads like a bunch of eulogies at times. Actually, Lawrence Block's reminds me of Bob Newhart's eulogy of Krusty the Klown in that classic Simpsons's episode where Krusty fakes his own death.
The individual entries range from okay to pretty good. My favorites were Dennis LeHane's story about a rude kid at a party he and Parker were attending and Ace Atkin's story about how reading Spenser taught him how to be a man.
Things got a little repetitive once I passed the halfway mark, however. It seems like everyone talked about Hawk, Spenser's cooking, westerns, and the same few Spenser books. A little more on how earlier detectives influenced Parker and Spenser would have been nice.
Still, it was an interesting read and any fan of Robert Parker and/or Spenser should read it.
I grabbed this off of Netgalley. Thank you, Netgalley!
Penzler and the gang (Ace Atkins
Lawrence Block, Reed Farrel Coleman, Max Allan Collins, Matthew Clemens, Brendan DuBois, Loren D. Estleman, Lyndsay Faye, Ed Gorman, Parnell Hall, Jeremiah Healy, Dennis Lehane, Gary Phillips, and S.J. Rozan) tell stories about Robert B. Parker's and/or Spenser's influence on them and crime fiction in general.
I'm not as big of a fan of Spenser as some reviewers. In fact, I've only made it as far as [b:Looking For Rachel Wallace|69638|Looking For Rachel Wallace (Spenser, #6)|Robert B. Parker|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1320537708s/69638.jpg|1421134] and actually prefer [a:Robert Crais|8944|Robert Crais|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1202587973p2/8944.jpg]'s take on the wise-cracking detective and his deadly partner. Still, I do enjoy Spenser and gave this a try.
It's pretty interesting. It reads like a bunch of eulogies at times. Actually, Lawrence Block's reminds me of Bob Newhart's eulogy of Krusty the Klown in that classic Simpsons's episode where Krusty fakes his own death.
The individual entries range from okay to pretty good. My favorites were Dennis LeHane's story about a rude kid at a party he and Parker were attending and Ace Atkin's story about how reading Spenser taught him how to be a man.
Things got a little repetitive once I passed the halfway mark, however. It seems like everyone talked about Hawk, Spenser's cooking, westerns, and the same few Spenser books. A little more on how earlier detectives influenced Parker and Spenser would have been nice.
Still, it was an interesting read and any fan of Robert Parker and/or Spenser should read it.
lyleblosser's review
4.0
Especially fun was the "profile" of Spenser written by Parker himself, though all essays were interesting. It was also nice to read about the TV series & movies, as well as Jesse Stone and other Parker creations.
csdaley's review against another edition
3.0
There were some great essays in here but the book was a little uneven. I don't think there was enough in depth reviews of his work. Some of the essays felt like they were repeating earlier essays and on a personal note I didn't care about Spenser and cooking. Still enjoyed the books. Brought back a lot offend memories of the earlier Spenser novels.
tartancrusader's review against another edition
3.0
A bit repetitive at times but given the multi-author nature of the work I suppose that's to be expected. A nice little companion piece to Parker's work. Also good to see his lesser-known, but still excellent, Westerns getting some love.
psalmcat's review against another edition
4.0
My main thought as I was reading this was that I can now claim that I've read a festschrif, and for an author I had come to adore well before he died a couple of years ago.
This was a collection of essays on Parker, Spenser, some of the other characters and series Parker wrote, and even the TV show and movies based on his work. Fun. Not difficult reading. If you love the series(es), you'd enjoy the book.
This was a collection of essays on Parker, Spenser, some of the other characters and series Parker wrote, and even the TV show and movies based on his work. Fun. Not difficult reading. If you love the series(es), you'd enjoy the book.
bob_muller's review against another edition
4.0
An eclectic elegy to Robert B. Parker that informs you as much about the state of mystery fiction as it does about Parker and his role in that. I wouldn't say you learn much about Spenser, but you learn a lot about how and why other writers read Parker and learn from him. The essays are a little uneven, but that's something you would expect from having such disparate contributors. Any Parker fan would benefit from reading this book.
More...