Prolific novelist Robert B. Parker died on Tuesday of a sudden heart attack. He was 77. Parker, who wrote over 60 books--45 of which were published by his longtime house, Penguin
--died at his home in Cambridge, Mass. Parker's next novel, Split Image, is coming out on February 23, and Penguin currently has no plans to change its initial publication plans for the novel. Another novel, a western called Blue Eyed Devil, is slated for this spring and, according to Parker's editor, Christine Pepe, the house has "a couple" of other books by him in production now.
Best known for his crime fiction--Parker was often called the dean of American crime fiction--he was named Grand Master of the Edgar Awards in 2002. Parker is probably best known for his Spenser novels, which feature a wise-cracking Boston P.I. and which served as the basis of the 1980s TV series Spencer for Hire. Parker also found success with his series in his books featuring Jesse Stone (other Boston private dick) and Sunny Randall; a number of westerns (including the recently-adapted-for-film Appaloosa); and a number of YA books (published Penguin's Philomel imprint).
In a statement from Penguin, Parker's agent, Helen Brann, said: “Bob wrote five pages a day every day but Sunday (and some holidays or vacations with his wife Joan) every day of his adult life. He was very clear about it. No more and no less than five pages. Bob was ‘one of the ones’ in my life, a friend whose kindness, wit, loyalty and sense of honor, all of which were reflected in his work, I have counted on on a daily basis all these years. I shall miss him deeply.”
A memorial for Parker is being planned in Boston in mid-February.
