Silent Night
A special gift for the holiday season—a rumination on Christmas as conceived by Robert B. Parker.
“Brann does a seamless job…Diehard Parker fans will be delighted.” —Publishers Weekly
It’s December in Boston, and Spenser is busy planning the menu for Christmas dinner when he’s confronted in his office by a young boy named Slide. Homeless and alone, Slide has found refuge with an organization named Street Business, which gives shelter and seeks job opportunities for the homeless and lost.
Slide’s mentor, Jackie Alvarez, is being threatened, and Street Business is in danger of losing its tenuous foothold in the community, turning Slide and many others like him back on the street. But it’s not a simple case of intimidation—Spenser, aided by Hawk, finds a trail that leads to a dangerous drug kingpin, whose hold on the at-risk community Street Business serves threatens not just the boys’ safety and security, but their lives as well.
Unfinished at the time of his death, Silent Night was completed by Parker’s longtime agent, whose decades-long association with Parker’s work gives her unique insight and perspective to his voice and storytelling style. Her contribution also speaks volumes about their enduring friendship.
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Robert B. Parker
Robert B. Parker's résumé is familiar to most of his readers. Born and raised in Massachusetts, graduated from Colby College in Maine, married Joan Hall, had two sons, earned his Ph.D. at Boston University, taught at Northeastern University, and wrote nearly seventy books.
There are other factoids about him that are less well known. Bob's talent for rhythm was first put to work when the U.S. Army sent him to Korea as a Morse code radio operator. He always wanted to be a writer, but he needed a steady income to support his young wife and, later, his sons. Bob was hired as a technical writer first for Raytheon and then for Curtiss-Wright, which soon laid him off. He next worked as editor of a magazine for Prudential insurance agents and freelanced as a partner in Parker/Farman, the "world's smallest advertising agency."
Unable to take any more of corporate America, and with no interest in advertising, Bob returned to school. The plan was to earn a doctorate, get a job teaching, and have the time to start writing seriously. While going to school, he held down as many as five college teaching jobs at once, often took care of his sons, and did odd jobs for a consulting company. Fortunately for the family, Joan had a job in education that paid well.Spenser
In the layered streets of Boston, where power shifts like the tides and loyalty is the rarest currency, one man has built a career on standing firm when others bend. The Spenser series carves out a world that feels startlingly real—gritty yet sharply human, laced with danger but grounded by heart. At the center of it all is a private investigator whose code of honor is as unshakable as the city’s granite foundations.
Spenser consists of fifty-two primary books, and includes one additional book that complement the series but is not considered mandatory reads and series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
