Spenser is hired by a university president, Bradford Forbes, to locate the Godwulf manuscript, a 14th century tome stolen from the university library. (Interesting note: the same man who reads The Godwulf Manuscript, Michael Pritchard, also read MacDonald’s The Moving Target. The office of the university president looked like the front parlor of a successful Victorian whorehouse.Have to admit I laughed out loud in the car as I listened to the audio. Heck the first line of the book gets you in that particular mood you need to be when you follow Spade, Marlowe, or Archer around on their cases. Having read at least one novel by each of these three authors, I immediately felt at home with Spenser as a character and with Parker’s style. Not surprisingly, Spenser’s creator wrote a PhD dissertation on those three authors and Parker’s first Spenser novel, The Godwulf Manuscript (1973) takes off where the American trio leave off (or, in MacDonald’s case, was still going in 1973). He’s just like you and me, yet slightly different.īoston PI Spenser is the direct heir to the triumvirate of Hammett, Chandler, and Ross MacDonald. Obviously, the word “Spenser” begins with an “S” but the other one is in the middle where most folks put in a “C.” That pretty much says it all for a man created in 1973 and is still going today. Parker’s private investigator from Boston. The letter “S” appears twice in the name of Robert B. (My latest contribution to Patti Abbott's Forgotten Book Fridays.)
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