Cover art for the forthcoming Killing the Blues, Michael Brandman's novel featuring Robert B. Parker's popular Jesse Stone character, is now being posted on various web sites, and is now presented here. Not a bad cover. In fact, it's so business-as-usual looking that it makes me feel like Robert Parker isn't gone at all. Which is probably the point.
Looking at this cover, you just know a new Spenser novel will shortly follow Sixkill, the last Parker-penned Spenser adventure coming out in May. One wonders, though, who is being lined up to write the thing.
Now that it's pretty clear that Dr. Parker's characters will live on in the literary world, do you find the news comforting, disturbing, or a little of both? Stay tuned for my own take on the situation.
I feel it is a disturbing move on the publisher's part -- done, I'm sure, because of the financial incentive. However, Parker's style is deceptively simple. The fact is, Parker's style might be easy to parody, but not to imitate in a novel length work. His themes and prose are complicated beyond what is actually on the page.
ReplyDeleteI live in hope, but am prepared for the worst . . .