MY THOUGHTS ON ROBERT B. PARKER

I'm just finishing up the latest Robert B. Parker 'Spenser' novel, ROUGH WEATHER. I like reading a Parker book, for several reasons besides the obvious, he tells a good story, and his books get printed on really heavy elegant paper. His chapters are short, and the story always moves along briskly and if you are of a mind to, you could finish the book in one or two sittings.

His publisher, G.P. Putnam must love the guy. He has three main characters who he writes about with regularity. The star of his stable is a tough private eye named Spenser, who morphed into a television series.

Another character is Jessie Stone, a savvy ex-cop who got canned in LA for drinking on duty and has moved to a small town in Massachusetts to become it's police chief. Another success that has also morphed in a television series starring, in it's irregular showings, Tom Selleck. Not a bad guy to have portraying your made up police chief.

Not to be accused of being anti woman he writes semi-regularly about Sunny Randall, of course another chief of police.

In between he writes about cowboys and other assorted guys and gals. He has written according to the fly leaf of his current book Rough Weather sixty (60) books and I don't know how long he's been doing it, but for the last several years two a year come out regular as clockwork.

I like them all, except for this in his Jessie Stone series. He seems to be hung up on this plot line and won't let it go. The character Jessie is divorced, but he still loves his ex-wife and visa-versa. They spend too much time in each novel critiquing their relationship. It is monotonous and I wish he would move her to the west coast or otherwise dispense with her. The over indulgence and the whining the two do over each other is boring. Please get rid of her.

Otherwise his talent is still in place and I look forward to each new book that comes out, posh paper and all.