Joan Parker Speaks
This week Joan Parker was the guest on NPR’s “Here and Now.” She gives a tour of her home in Cambridge and talks about her relationship with her late husband. Listen until the end of the segment for a teaser on the new Spenser books. This year I’ve had the immense pleasure of getting to […]
Happy Birthday, Andy Griffith
Andy Griffith turns 85 today. A real American icon, I don’t think there is a town in America that doesn’t get reruns of the “Andy Griffith Show.” Like many people my age, there hasn’t been a time I don’t recall Sheriff Andy Taylor and the gang. But my favorite role for Griffith had to be […]
Let’s Talk Ranger
Q&A with Ace Atkins on THE RANGER 1. You’ve spent the last seven years creating crime novels based on true events, with White Shadow, WickedCity, Devil’s Garden and Infamous. What brought you back to contemporary series fiction in The Ranger? The idea of kicking off a new series actually started with my long-time editor, Neil […]
Cigar Retraction
I would like to thank those who pointed out Dash Hammett could not have possibly been smoking a Cohiba cigar in that rare still I shared yesterday. The brand only came into existence in the late 1960s. Since I’ve been to Cuba, you’d think I would’ve known this. The story goes that Cohiba came about […]
Hammett Loved a Good Cigar
My pal Don Herron — one of the foremost experts on Dashiell Hammett — recently uncovered this rare photo of THE MAN himself. He culled it from a clip of a documentary about composer Harold Arlen. What a great find on the occasion on Dash’s 117th birthday.I’m a fan of cigars. Often cigars are regulated […]
Mad Men Will Return — Just Not This Summer
For the last four years, one of the highlights of summer was pouring a tall beverage and watching Mad Men every week. Since it’s one of my all-time favorite shows, I was pretty bummed to learn Season 5 would not be on in 2011. But some good news on this front, I hear — after […]
Burt Could’ve Been The Ranger
My buddy Ted “Train” O’Brien once told me that once your book is published, it ceases being yours. The reader takes it over and fills in your words with their imagination. But sometimes you get a reader who sees your world exactly as you drew it. Below is one of the first reviews out on […]
Author Searches for Suitcase
In two weeks, it’s tour time again. The Ranger — the first book in a series about Army bad-ass Quinn Colson — hits stands from coast to coast on June 9. My book tour — see the link on my Press page — will take me through 13 different cities — from Alabama to Seattle. […]
WICKED CITY — THE BOOK TOO MEAN TO DIE
Last month, my sixth novel was tapped for a nice honor — WICKED CITY was chosen for a Community Wide Read by the Huntsville, Alabama public library system. This meant that every single book club in the city was discussing Lamar and Reuben, Hoyt Shepherd and Fannie Belle.This really terrific honor was supposed to culminate […]
The Long Version
THE ROBERT B. PARKER ESTATE AND LONG-TIME PUBLISHER G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS STRIKE A DEAL TO CONTINUE PUBLICATION OF PARKER’S TOP BEST-SELLING SERIES, SPENSER AND JESSE STONE, WITH NEW AUTHORS Michael Brandman, Producer and Screenwriter of the CBS-TV “Jesse Stone” Movies, to Take Over Jesse Stone Novels in September 2011; Putnam Crime Novelist Ace Atkins […]