the godwulf manuscript by robert b parker

If truth be told, this very long series of some 40 novels and a young adult installment too (now being continued after Parker’s death by Ace Atkins) probably peaked early, circa 1980, with Looking for Rachel Wallace.

The only thing that would have scared him more would have been if I had threatened to flog him with a dandelion.” “I could tell he was impressed with the gun in my hand. But who is putting pressure on the police to get Terry convicted, and what is involvement of mobster of Joe Broz in the theft? Then her old roommate is found dead in a bathtub, and the police are a little too anxious to call it an accident … Was she having an affair with one of her tutors? The dialogue is polished, the plotting solid enough if unremarkable – but the less said about Spenser’s sleeping with both Terry and her mother, on the same day, the better! Spenser can only rely on himself here as he is hired to find an ancient manuscript and then fired again when news of his investigation leaks, and then hired by the super-rich parents of Terry Orchard, who is framed for killing her boyfriend, who may have been involved with the theft. It wouldn’t be until the next book that Spenser would cross paths with his eventual soul mate Susan Silverman and another two more before the introduction of Hawk, his amoral but indispensable sidekick. For starters, Spenser is pretty much flying solo here – yes, the friendly Sergeant Frank Belson is present and Spenser also meets Lieutenant Martin Quirk for the first time – they don’t get on to start with but a thaw sets in when Quick is muscled out by his captain due to political pressure. In many ways though this is an anomalous entry in terms of what would make the rest of the series stand out.

It is perhaps not a surprise therefore that in this introductory story (it was also Parker’s first novel), the debt to Chandler is very visible indeed (especially The Big Sleep, as per that very recognisable line of dialogue quoted above). Parker’s doctoral thesis, ‘The Violent Hero, Wilderness Heritage and Urban Reality,’ examined the work of Hammett, Chandler and Ross Macdonald. I offer this review for Bev’s Vintage Silver Age Mystery Challenge and Patti Abbott’s Friday’s Forgotten Books meme over at her fab Pattinase blog. A tough guy with a sensitive side, he is also something of a gourmet … Dewey’s ‘Mac’ (and Columbo on TV) our protagonist is known only by a single name (he usually has to remind people it’s spelled with an ‘s’ in the middle, “like the English poet”). Robert B Parker’s Boston private eye Spenser made his debut with this campus investigation, first into the theft of the eponymous precious artefact (he never does find it) before looking into several murders linked to a student revolutionary group.

The godwulf manuscript by robert b parker