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January 19, 2010

Robert B. Parker (1932-2010)

According to his U.K. publisher, Robert B. Parker, the beloved mystery author, has died, "just sitting at his desk."  The creator of the long-running Spenser private eye series (among other bestselling mysteries), Parker kicked off his career as a novelist after completing a 1970 dissertation on the works of the writers who proved to be his literary forbears -- Hammett, Chandler, and Macdonald. 

 

At 72, Parker was still going strong, producing three novels a year; the reported scene of his death at his death has an appropriate, if sad Dickensian echo. 

 

BN Review columnist Sarah Weinman has more at her blog.

 

-BILL TIPPER

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