About the Author
Robert B. Parker was one of contemporary fiction's most popular and most respected detective novelists. Best known for his portrayal of the tough but erudite private investigator Spenser, Parker wrote over twenty five novels over the course of his writing career, beginning with 1973's The Godwulf Manuscript. That novel introduced Spenser, who would be featured in over dozens more novels, including God Save The Child (1974), Mortal Stakes (1975), Promised Land (1976) and Sudden Mischief (1998).

Parker worked in advertising before earning his PhD in English and American literature with a dissertation on Chandler, Hammett and MacDonald. He taught for a time at Northeastern University before launching his career as an author, a career that met with success from the very first submission.

Parker's acclaim and his deep background in classic detective literature helped earn him the somewhat unusual commission of completing a Philip Marlowe novel that the great Chandler had left unfinished. The result, the novel Poodle Springs, was adapted into a film by HBO and starred James Caan as the famous detective. Parker also wrote a sequel to Chandler's classic The Big Sleep entitled Perchance to Dream (1991). Robert B. Parker lived with his wife in Cambridge, Massachusetts.