Still in Thrall to Spenser

I’d forgotten about this anniversary, but freelancer L. Wayne Hicks reminds us in CrimeReads that 2023 marks the 50th year since Boston writer Robert B. Parker introduced his now-famous private-eye protagonist, Spenser, in The Goldwulf Manuscript (1973). Hicks’ piece recalls the Spenser series’ history, critical reactions to it, television adaptations of the stories, and the other authors who have kept Parker’s characters alive since his death in 2010.

He concludes with a theory advanced by Mike Lupica—a Parker pal whose own first Spenser continuation novel, Broken Trust, is due out in November—as to “why Spenser has lasted so long”:

The characters, the humor, the back-and-forth interplay between Spenser and Hawk are part of the reason. “I think it was Raymond Chandler who said when things slow down, you have somebody come to the door with a gun. We all know how to do that. But Bob’s dialogue and Bob’s sense of humor and on top of all that his literate approach to all of this is what has made it work for half a century.”

Parker’s legacy is rooted in the characters he created. He lived long enough to see his books on the best-seller lists. Unfortunately, his death meant he never had the chance to meet his grandson. His name? Spenser, of course.

Click here to read the entirety of Hicks’ CrimeReads essay.

Criminals on the Crossing

It was 111 years ago today, on April 14, 1912, that the British luxury passenger liner Titanic struck an iceberg while sailing west across the North Atlantic. “She brushed the berg so gently,” wrote Walter Lord in The Light Lives On, his 1986 sequel to the classic A Night to Remember, “that many on board didn’t notice it, but so lethally that she was instantly doomed.” Within three hours, on the morning of April 15, that mammoth pride of the White Star Line disappeared beneath the frigid waters, causing the deaths of more than 1,500 passengers and crew, and settling on the seabed 2.5 miles below.

To mark this anniversary, CrimeReads has posted an article by journalist James T. Bartlett, which looks back at felons among the crew and passengers on board that “unsinkable” maritime wonder.

Snoops Site Thrives at 25

You’ve gotta give the guy credit for longevity! April 2023 marks 25 years—a full quarter-century—that Kevin Burton Smith has been writing, editing, expanding, and forever tinkering with his indispensable online resource, The Thrilling Detective Web Site. Taking its name from a crime-fiction pulp magazine popular on newsstands between 1931 and 1953, Smith’s Thrilling Detective is an encyclopedia of information, primarily about fictional private eyes (those appearing in books and journals, as well as on radio, television, and in other electronic media), but occasionally he slips in a character who acts just like a gumshoe without officially being one.

The results, despite Smith’s persistent modesty about them, are outstanding. Now, I may be a particularly receptive audience for this sort of intelligence, but I can’t tell you how many times each week I refer to The Thrilling Detective, whether it’s to investigate the background of a vintage shamus, search for details on a forgotten scribbler, examine the editor’s periodic (and often delightfully snarky) news bits, sample the evolving “This Day in P.I. History” listings, or check out the site’s intermittent presentations of short fiction. And I’m quite chuffed to see that Smith has resumed updating his “Dick of the Day” page, on which he directs readers to fresh and updated entries to his rogue’s gallery of pertinacious peepers.

Specifically for this 25th anniversary, Smith has posted “The Autobiography of Matthew Scudder,” an excerpted work of fiction from Lawrence Block. He also provides author-screenwriter Lee Goldberg’s blunt assessment of the Magnum, P.I. TV reboot. And he introduces the whole package with cover art by Oregon artist Leslie Peterson Sapp, who he says, “does these simply amazing paintings inspired by noir. The one I’ve chosen was the most ‘private-eyish’ one I could find, but Leslie’s noir visions go far beyond that. You can read all about her and her work in ‘Leslie Peterson Sapp: I Paint What I Feel—And I Feel Noir.’ And be sure to check out some of her other work in ‘My Scrapbook.’”

As much delight as I find in Smith’s ongoing project, he’s caused me some definite headaches over the last couple of years, as he’s gone through the fitful process of transferring The Thrilling Detective’s pages to a new, apparently more reliable cyberspace address, causing multitudes of links from The Rap Sheet to become inoperable. (Those connections are still being fixed.) But I can forgive him that irksome move, so long as he persists in enhancing the Web’s foremost compendium of knowledge regarding invented sleuths.

Here’s to many more years behind your keyboard, Kevin!

By the way, if you’d like to help The Thrilling Detective Web Site grow, pitch a few bucks toward the cause. Click here to learn how.