This page created by Mike Loux

Latest Update 21 April 2007 by Bob Ames

Spenser Novels:

Title	Year of Publication
	The Godwulf Manuscript	1973
	God Save the Child	1974
	Mortal Stakes	1975
	Promised Land	1976
	The Judas Goat	1978
	Looking for Rachel Wallace	1979
	Early Autumn	1980
	A Savage Place	1981
	Ceremony	1982
	The Widening Gyre	1983
	Valediction	1984
	A Catskill Eagle	1985
	Taming a Sea Horse	1986
	Pale Kings and Princes	1987
	Crimson Joy	1988
	Playmates	1989
	Stardust	1990
	Pastime	1991
	Double Deuce	1992
	Paper Doll	1993
	Walking Shadow	1994
	Thin Air	1995
	Chance	1996
	Small Vices	1997
	Sudden Mischief	1998
	Hush Money	1999
	Hugger Mugger	2000
	Potshot	2001
	Widow's Walk	2002
	Back Story	2003
	Bad Business	2004
	Cold Service	2005
	School Days	2005
	Hundred-Dollar Baby	2006
	Now and Then	2007

Jesse Stone Novels:

	Title	Year of Publication
	Night Passage	1997
	Trouble in Paradise	1998
	Death in Paradise	2001
	Stone Cold	2003
	Sea Change	2006
	High Profile	2007

Sunny Randall Novels:

	Title	Year of Publication
	Family Honor	1999
	Perish Twice	2000
	Shrink Rap	2002
	Melancholy Baby	2004
	Blue Screen	2006
	Spare Change	2007

Compilations and Miscellaneous Spenser stuff:

Title	Year of Publication	Miscellaneous Info
	Spenser's Boston	1989 (Japan) 1994 (U.S.)	Contains photographs of Boston and the surrounding towns visited by Spenser, as well as a brief story in which Spenser and Susan give Rachel Wallace the famous Spenser Tour. Photographs taken by Kasho Kumagai; introduction and walking tour written by RBP.  See Spenser's Shorts
	Surrogate	1982	Limited Edition run of 300 regular copies and 50 deluxe. Little is known about the story itself.  I put together a page on the details about this story.  See Surrogate
	A Spensarian Sonnet	1988	Limited Edition run of 100 copies signed and numbered put out by St. John's press.  See it here
	The Early Spenser - Three Complete Novels	1989	Hardback compilation of The Godwuf Manuscript, God Save the Child and Mortal Stakes.
	A New Collection of Three Complete Spenser Novels	1996	Hardback compilation of The Judas Goat, Looking for Rachel Wallace and Early Autumn.
	Boston:: History in the Making	1999	A massive coffee table book with hundreds of pictures of Boston area businesses, it includes another walking  tour of the area while Spenser and Hawk follow a suspect.  Much more focused on the subject  than Spenser's Boston mentioned above; see Spenser's Shorts  It was part of an "Urban Tapestry" series put out by Towery Publishing but the link I had here has been abandoned.  Unless you are a serious completionist (like me) the few pages in the front are nowhere near worth the asking price although you might want to hit www.alibris.com every now and then..
	Murderers ' Row	2001	In this collection of baseball themed short stories, Parker contributed "Harlem Nocturn."   See Spenser's Shorts for more details.
	Murderer at the Foul Line	2006	In this collection of basketball themed short stories, Bob and Joan contributed "Galahad, Inc."   See Spenser's Shorts for more details.

Non-Series novels by Robert B. Parker

Title	Year of Publication	Miscellaneous Info
	The Violent Hero, Wilderness Heritage and Urban Reality: a Study of the Private Eye in the Novels of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald	1970	The dissertation which Robert Brown Parker "submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy" at Boston University.  I happen to like reading research papers and found it fascinating.  Find how to get a copy here
	Sports Illustrated Training with Weights, the athlete's free-weight guide.	1974	By Parker and John R. Marsh.  Someone who bought a copy called it short and not very well written.
	Three Weeks in Spring	1978	A collaboration between Robert and Joan Parker dealing with the discovery of her breast cancer and how their family dealt with it.  Note that she has passed the 25 year mark and is still going strong.
	Wilderness	1979	A writer of tough macho books witnesses a murder and is scared into silence by the killer. If he talks, his family will die. If he does nothing he can never face them, or himself, again.
	Love and Glory	1983	Quintessential Parker. It's the story of a man who falls in love with a woman he knows he must love for the rest of his life. She marries another, his life hits rock bottom, and he has to rebuild himself from the ground up to be worthy of her. It's Spenser/Susan, Bob/Joan finely told.
	The Private Eye in Hammett and Chandler	1984	RBP took his doctoral dissertation, trimmed out some of the boring scholarly bits, and had a 350 copy special edition printed by Lord John's Press, numbered and signed.  It goes for over $100 now if you are lucky enough to find one.
	On Writing	1985	Another limited edition by Lord John's press, 300 regular copies and 75 deluxe.  I've never seen one offered for sale but Brian J. Noggle says: "On Writing collects some of his class material, essentially, presenting them as essays."
	Poodle Springs	1989	This is a Philip Marlowe novel which Raymond Chandler started, but never finished. RBP took it up and, with permission from Chandler's estate, finished it.
	Perchance to Dream	1991	This is a sequel, of sorts, to Raymond Chandler's famous novel, The Big Sleep (excerpts of which are used with permission in this novel).
	A Year at the Races	1991	A coffee table book which chronicles the ups and downs of the Dogwood Racing Stable in Aiken, South Carolina, written by Robert and Joan Parker.  Much of the information used in Hugger Mugger was derived from this research.
	All Our Yesterdays	1994	Three generations of an Irish family in Boston, with terrible secrets and obsessive love.  Typical Parker.
	Gunman's Rhapsody	2001	The Wyatt Earp story, including the gunfight at the OK Corral, seen through a Parker shaped filter.
	Double Play	2004	The Jackie Robinson story, including box scores, seen through a Parker shaped filter.
	Appaloosa	2005	A tale of the wild west..
	Edenville Owls	2007	A novel for young adults about a mystery set in 1946.  The  two main characters are Bobbie and Joannie, an inside joke for adult fans.

Where to get the books

Most local bookstores stock the Spenser novels in paperback in the Mystery section (right next to Sara Paretsky, another one of my favorite detective writers). You can also almost always find the latest Spenser in hard-cover on the best-seller list towards the front of most bookstores.  The earlier volumes went away for a while but the entire Spenser series has been reissued and is available in most stores.

Of course, there's always Amazon.com, the largest book store on the internet. I use them for all of my programming books, as well as hard-to-find stuff. They're definitely worth a look, especially since they usually offer a discount on most stuff. It's a complex world. I spend a lot of time in bookstores because they allow me to spend time browsing, picking up titles I would never have known about otherwise. I can read the blurbs, scan a few chapters, and decide if I want to include it in my collection. Then again, if I know that Amazon.com will give me a 30% discount on a title I'm sure of and ship it to me within two days I have to go for it.

Another good site to check out is Murder by the Book, a Houston-based book store with its own web page. You can reach them at <a former address> I am told they often have signed copies of his novels from when he comes around. I searched around and found that they are now located at www.murderbooks.com

I've had my best luck at second hand book stores. In Massachusetts there is a chain called Annie's Book Swap that deals exclusively in second-hand paperbacks. See if there is something like that near you.

For the more obscure titles you can also try:
www.alibris.com
www.bibliofind.com (now a part of Amazon.com, but you get a lot more results coming through this portal)

This Page Created by Mike Loux

Maintained and updated by Bob Ames. Find out why here.