Cold Is Hot

by Daisy Maryles -- Publishers Weekly, 3/21/2005

Robert B. Parker's latest bestseller, Cold Service, a Spenser novel, hits our fiction chart at #3, his highest landing ever. Putnam reports that the book's sales were 40% higher than Bad Business, last year's hardcover Parker bestseller (it's #8 on this week's mass market list, with 401,000 copies in print). A recent TV movie of Parker's Jesse Stone novel Stone Cold was one explanation offered by the publisher for the new book's strong out-of-the-gate performance (it debuted in the #1 spot on the national Book Sense list). The CBS-TV adaptation of Stone Cold, starring Tom Selleck, aired to excellent ratings on February 20. Parker began his two-week tour to promote Cold Service (184,000 copies in print) by traveling to New York; Houston, Tex.; Scottsdale, Ariz.; and Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Francisco, driving most of the way, as is his wont. He follows that trip with a week of Boston-area signings. Parker's fans can look forward to two more 2005 books—the western Appaloosa on June 2, and another Spenser novel, School Days, on September 27.