Trivia / Spenser

• Died During Production: Parker died at age 77 in 2010. He had a sudden heart attack while seated at his desk, writing a novel (which was apparently Silent Night), and many of his colleagues and fans have agreed it was the best possible way for him to go out.
• Fountain of Expies: Hawk has started a low-profile trend in crime fiction. Take a look at any ongoing series that started in the eighties or later, and take note of how many of the protagonists happen to have a borderline-sociopath best friend, ally, and/or partner. The most obvious examples are Mouse, from Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins novels; Joe Pike from Elvis Cole; and Ranger from the Stephanie Plum series (though Ranger isn't really sociopathic, he's still pretty much a carbon copy of Hawk in terms of his mysteriousness and overall badassery). It's even snuck into other genres: witness Thomas Raith's cool car, friendly banter, and habit of whistling odd songs to himself during a fight, or the general relationship between Anita Blake and the assassin Edward.
• Reality Subtext: Parker and his wife's marriage became troubled in the early eighties, and they even separated for a while. This time corresponds to the time between A Savage Place, and A Catskill Eagle, where Spenser and Susan have trouble with their relationship but, as the Parkers did, eventually get back together. The positive experience they had in therapy is the reason There Are No Therapists is averted as much as it is. And Spenser and Susan never getting married and continuing to live separately, though often spending the night together at one or the other's apartment, mirrors how the Parkers dealt with the diametrically opposed ways in how they liked to live their lives (e.g., she loved to entertain, he hated this and preferred to be alone) - they bought a large house that he lived on one floor of, while she lived on the other, so they could live how they liked, but were always visiting and spending time with each other. As he said in an interview, "I never want to sleep with my wife again, but I hope to continue making love to her forever."

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