8 Comments
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Jules's avatar

Very persuasive. I will investigate! Thanks for the recommendation 😀

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Daniel Moran's avatar

Nice appreciation! When I was in college, I wrote Parker a letter, asking him to name his favorite detective novel. He wrote me back, telling me it was, unsurprisingly, The Big Sleep.

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Peter Harkness's avatar

An excellent memento to have! Thanks for the comment. If you felt my piece was worth re-posting that would be an enormous favour.

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What to read if's avatar

Well, you've made me interested in trying the Spenser novels... but the current fashion for treating a writer as a franchise? Horrendous!

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Peter Harkness's avatar

I agree. How can the soul of a character be created by a different author? I was once connected to the world of Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle must be one of the most imitated of authors, yet I don't believe anybody has produced a Holmes novel which has authenticity. Thank you for commenting. It would be an enormous favour if you would restack my post - if you felt it was worthwhile, of course. Peter

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Peter Harkness's avatar

Mission accomplished...

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Megan Moore's avatar

It was absolutely lovely to scroll through my substack this evening and run across your article. What a fun read! I grew up on the Parker novels, as my parents owned dog-eared copies of all of them and had little concern about what I read, so long as I was reading. Amusingly, I am one of the few people that I know, who have read Parker's books, but did not discover him in a beleaguered airport bookstore.

It was wonderful to run across someone else who loves his work! Hopefully it catches on!

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Peter Harkness's avatar

How nice of you to say so. If you have a moment, you could do me a favour. If you restack my post lots of other potential Parker readers will see it. And they might like to follow some of my other posts. Have a good day!

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