Shopping for the Robert B. Parker Fan

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I've asked some folks to help me out on making "If you like this..." recommendations. Often we have a reader on our gift list who has a favorite author, but when he/she has a favorite author, they buy themselves that author's book immediately when it comes out. So what reading alternatives do we have for those folks? How about introducing them to someone new? A writer who's wonderful, but maybe not as well know??

I wanted to kick this off for the start of the big shopping season so you could have some ideas for your gift lists. I hope you'll also point others over (especially those who don't regularly read crime fiction but might want to buy for a crime fiction fan) to take a look at the suggestions for the readers on their lists.

Starting us off is my wonderful friend Lauren. She's an avid reader and a great Robert B. Parker fan. Here's what Lauren has to share:

I still remember, with sorrowful clarity, the morning I woke to learn that Robert B. Parker had died. It may sound silly, but the man, his stories, characters, and words had been a large part of my life for thirty some-odd years. Still, I was taken aback at how deeply his death impacted me. Part of that, I later realized, was the seeming sudden and untimely nature of his passing. Most people, those in our lives, others that entertain us such as actors or sports heroes, we see on a daily or at least somewhat regular basis, we watch them age along with us. Not so much authors. The jacket cover often stays the same for years, many don’t tour often (or at all), and many do not partake in events such as Bouchercon. Robert B. Parker could not be dead, he was still that rakish 60-something posing with Pearl on the jacket of my books. And yet, he was gone. And with him, part of my "family."

 

The impact was also deep because of the literary family Parker had created for me. Picking up a Spenser book to see what Spenser, Hawk, Susan and the remaining cast of regulars was up to felt like pulling into the driveway after a long trip away from home. Yeah, you knew what was coming, especially towards the end of the series when the story might not have been much of a story at all anymore. But that’s not what kept me coming back. I knew those characters, I cared about those characters, I drank up their dialogue, their relationships, their thoughtfulness (and those damn food and cooking descriptions which always left me salivating). There was going to be no filling that void.

 

And yet, there has been, to a certain extent. When I first learned of Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series, centered on law enforcement personnel in Wyoming, I had no desire to read them. Westerns are all well and good, but not particularly in my reading wheelhouse. I had way too many other books on the shelf waiting for my attention. Jen kept insisting to me, "They’re not Westerns!" And in the sense she meant, they’re not. I finally picked up The Cold Dish and was very pleasantly surprised. The dialogue sparked (and feels, to me, very reminiscent of Parker’s dialogue), the characters and relationships were real (to me and to and between each other). The stories, just as in the Spenser series, became something of a backdrop for being able to peer into the lives of smart, interesting, real people dealing with their issues, personal and interpersonal alike. Walt, Vic and Henry, to some extent the Spenser, Susan and Hawk of the Longmire series, had me hooked. The cast of supporting characters is no less important or well-drawn as those in the Spenser series. The void was feeling a little less of a chasm.

 

I was wrong to mentally classify this series as Western. Craig’s books are Westerns the way the Spenser books were about Boston. The atmosphere, the land, the location inform the story. Indeed, Wyoming becomes a character in much the same way Boston was a character in the Spenser books. Ultimately, the Longmire series is about the people, a group of wonderful and wonderfully flawed characters I can’t wait to revisit each time out. It’s almost like I’ve got that driveway home to pull into again, knowing what’s waiting for me at the end, something that feels a bit like going home.

 

As an aside, if you are or have been a fan of the Spenser series, please give Ace Atkins’ continuation of the series a read. I, probably like many, had my doubts, but was really pleased with Ace’s work and will happily pick up the next installment.

 

I can't disagree with any of Lauren's comments! I think these are great recommendations for your Parker fan. Feel free to leave other recs of your own--or questions if you have any--in the comments. With these posts we're here to help you find the perfect books for the readers on your gift list! 

A Trio of Audios

Some audios have been getting away from me and in an effort to acknowledge them, I'm going to do three mini-reviews today.

The first is THE MYSTIC ARTS OF ERASING ALL SIGNS OF DEATH by Charlie Huston. I want to link you back to Craig Johnson's review of this book that he wrote for Detectives Around the World week. My reaction is pretty much "everything Craig said and then some."

FIRST LINE: "I'm not sure where one should expect to find the bereaved daughter of a wealthy Malibu suicide in need of a trauma cleaner long after midnight, but safe to say a trucker motel down the 405 industrial corridor in Carson was not on my list of likely locales."

Huston's tale of a former school teacher recovering from a trauma, taking a job as a crime scene cleaner is unique, funny, moving. I think I experienced every range of emotion possibly while listening to this audiobook. The printed book handles dialogue a little differently, so if you have/had trouble reading this book because of that I'd highly recommend checking out the audiobook. Narrated by Paul Michael Garcia, the genius of Huston's dialogue shines through. And he has some rather challenging areas of dialogue for a narrator since Huston doesn't use much in the way of dialogue tags.

The novel is gritty and Huston isn't afraid to include profanity. So if you're sensitive to that, be forewarned. However, his use of profanity isn't gratuitous. He develops characters and mood and tone. There's a definite reason it's there and it serves its purpose well.

Garcia does an outstanding job as the narrator. He expresses the appropriate level of drama, never going overboard for the given situation. He nails the sarcasm and he's flat when the situation calls for it. The pairing of Garcia with this novel enhanced my experience with the book.

I owe thanks to Michael over at Lazy Thoughts from a Boomer for this audio. It's available from Blackstone Audio (ISBN: 978-1-4332-5753-7) or in print from Ballantine Books: hardcover (ISBN: 978-0-3455-0111-0); trade paper (ISBN: 978-0-3455-0112-7).


Next up I have BLACK ICE by Michael Connelly.

FIRST LINE: "The smoke carried up from the Cahuenga Pass and flattened beneath a layer of cool crossing air."

THE BLACK ICE  is the second book in the Harry Bosch series. Harry's maverick ways have earned him a position in the very undesirable Hollywood Division. When Robbery-Homicide swoops in and takes a case that should have been his call, Harry wheedles his way into the fold and begins investigating on his own. This, of course, does not sit well with the powers that be, so his supervisor dumps a load of unsolved cases in Harry's lap and instructs him to close as many as possible by year-end, a week away. When one of the unsolved cases begins pointing to the case Harry was boxed out of, he uses it as an excuse to head for Mexico and pursue both cases.

The plot is excellent. I commented to a friend while I was listening to the audio that somehow I keep reading a book either simultaneously or right after that somehow echos what Connelly does in his plot I'm reading at that time. I think it's very much a reflection on how he's influenced the genre. I appreciate the way Bosch grows with each book, the way he's affected by the events he experiences. Bosch is no superman; he has to deal physically and emotionally with his exploits.

While I thoroughly enjoyed this Bosch caper, I didn't thorough enjoy the audiobook. The narrator on this one is Dick Hill who also narrates the Jack Reacher series. The only probably is that he read Harry Bosch exactly the same way he read Jack Reacher. That flat tone and mood work for Reacher; Bosch is a far more dimensional character. While I don't think Bosch shows a lot of varying emotion at this point in the series, I think he feels it, experiences it and that didn't come across at all. I read THE BLACK ECHO, the first Harry Bosch, in print and felt my experience was better that way for this series.

THE BLACK ICE is available on audio from Brilliance (ISBN: 978-1-5933-5259-2), in print from Little Brown (ISBN: 978-0-3161-5382-9).

And finally today I have DOUBLE PLAY by Robert B. Parker.

FIRST LINE: "Joseph Burke got it on Guadalcanal, at Bloody Ridge, five .25 caliber slugs from a Jap light machine gun, stitched across him in a neatly punctuated line."

When Joseph Burke returns home wounded physically from the war, his wife inflicts emotional wounds by having left him for another man. Trying to re-enter his life, he attempts to take up boxing. Not really possessing the skill to box professionally, Burke takes a job as a body guard to protect a rich man's daughter. Burke falls for the daughter but is let go after a show of excessive force against a very powerful family. That is when Burke finds his job with the Brooklyn Dodgers protecting Jackie Robinson from the racial violence and threats during his rookie season.

This was a fun audiobook. Burke and Robinson's dialogue exchanges throughout the book are both dryly humerus and moving. The events had a tendency to jar me, and while I tell myself it is because I'm listening to a story set half a century ago, I'd like to hope they would have affected me the same way then. While it's a fictionalized story, the hate still existed and I think Parker did an outstanding job of bringing that through and contrasting it sharply with the loving relationship these two men developed.

DOUBLE PLAY does not deviate from Parker's style of writing. This has a tendency to affect the audiobook versions, however. His dialogue is sharp and intelligent and riddled with dialogue tags. When we read the printed page, we often just gloss over those. Audiobook narrators, however, do not. And so you're constantly reminded of the "he said," "she said," "Burke said," etc. all over the dialogue.

DOUBLE PLAY is narrated by Robert Forster, who I thought did an outstanding job of bringing to life Joseph Burke. He illustrates Burke's emotional scars and subtly lets his emotions peak through the tough-guy image. The narrator is great for this book, the book isn't so great for the audio.

DOUBLE PLAY is available on audio from Phoenix Audio (ISBN: 978-1-5977-7014-9) and in print from Berkley (ISBN: 978-0-4251-9963-3).


Technorati Tags: Audiobook Thursday, Charlie Huston, Michael Connelly, Robert B. Parker