Where to begin

At the end of the Sunny Randall post I suggested that one might want to read 40 Spenser books before reading the most recent Parker offering. After some thought it seems like that wasn't a good suggestion. So, first up, a link of the day:

http://www.spensarium.com/

That's a complete Parker rundown, with all the titles for all the characters. There's good information there too. I just learned that the spark for the Sunny Randall character was Helen Hunt calling Parker and asking him to write a character for her. I wonder why the movie never happened.

So back to the 40 Spenser books. The first book is from way back when and is called "The Godwulf Manuscript." The only thing I can recall about it is that I have read it. Realizing that I thought back to why I became interested in the character to begin with and remembered that it had more to do with Robert Urich than Robert Parker. Urich and Avery Brooks stared in "Spenser for Hire" on ABC when I was in high school. They even spun off Brooks onto his own short lived show "A Man Called Hawk" but it didn't last. The roots of my interest are more from the television show than from the early books I read, and to this day the actors and design choices from the show color what I see in my head when I read the books.

So, for someone just starting the series, I don't think I would begin at the beginning. I think actually that it might be better to start at the beginning of the Sunny Randall books (there are now four). That way you could get the feel for the style and not feel like you're missing all the backstory. The first Sunny book is "Family Honor."

Of the Spenser books, my all time favorite is "A Catskill Eagle." The book puts Susan in danger and shows what Spenser is willing to do to save her. I can still remember specific scenes out of that story and I must have read it over ten years ago. It's not a good first read though, as you want to have an appreciation of Spenser's relationships with Susan and with Hawk before you dive into this story.

The other titles, looking at them I can often remember stories, but not which story goes with which book. "Potshot" is good, but not a good first read as it's a consolidation of all the tough guys from all the other books. I liked "Hugger Mugger" and "Small Vices." "Walking Shadow" is fun because the story centers around a theatre company. Those are all later titles, earlier ones I think I would look at "Mortal Stakes", "Promised Land", "Looking for Rachel Walace", and "Early Autumn."

But really I love them all, and all three characters, and even the Wyatt Earp book "Gunman's Rhapsody." I haven't read the baseball book yet ("Double Play") but I'm sure its good too. In most cases its not the plot that makes the books good, its the details. Its in the personal code that all of his characters define their lives by, and its in the conversations between friends and the internal monologues the character's run while alone. It's in Boston, which is like another character in all the books, and the other people in the background: the friends, the cops, and the crooks. Along with that its in the clothes and the cooking, and the food and the drinks, and the bars and the gym, and in Pearl the wonder dog, the other Pearl the wonder dog, and Rosie Randall.

Just great stuff, all of it.