I read Robert B. Parker’s The Professional last month and wrote a long review trashing him for ruining Spenser in the last half of his career. Parker died this week, and I feel like a jackass. He had provided me a lot of enjoyment over the years and had a lot to do with turning me into the crime-mystery fan I am today.Plus, while reading the obits his death, and the high praise that was heaped on him by modern mystery writers for reviving the detective genre in the early ‘70, I remembered why I liked him in the first place. Parker did some fantastic crime writing in the ‘70s into the early ‘90s, and damning him for losing his fastball when he aged wasn’t fair. Guy was 77 years old, still wrote 5 pages a day, 6 days a week, and died at his desk working on a new Spenser novel.He started not one, but two new successful series in the ‘90s after he already had made Spenser an icon. He branched out and wrote westerns and some young adult novels and a several stand-alone novels. He was the writer that Raymond Chandler’s estate tapped to finish Poodle Springs, and he did it well. It was far to easy to take him for granted, even if his early brilliance faded into comfortable routine.So as penance for my general assholery, I’m going back and re-reading the early Spenser books and maybe a few of the other ones he did that I liked. Parker claimed he wrote The Godwulf Manuscript because he missed Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe after he had read all the books and short stories, and it’s obvious that he was thinking of Marlowe when he created Spenser, especially in this first novel.There’s no Susan and no Hawk yet. Just the introduction to private detective Spenser who is hired to find a stolen medieval manuscript by the university it was taken from. Published in 1973 when campus radicalization was in full swing, Spenser suspects a fringe group of damn dirty hippies of the theft, but the murder of one them frames a young female member. Since the cops seem willing to accept the frame-up instead of press for the real killer, it’s up to Spenser to clear her.It was very interesting to go back and read the early version of Spenser after obsessing over the weaker recent books. Many of the early themes and characterization are there. Spenser is still a wise-ass who cares nothing for political agendas or institutional loyalty. For Spenser, the only thing that really matters is his own moral code, and it’s definitely situational. Knowing that he can’t save the world, Spenser doesn’t try. His focus will always remain on trying to save the few he deems worthy while not giving a rat’s ass about whatever bigger picture that everyone else is focused on. And once he’s committed, Spenser does whatever he has to in order to help them. In the early books, it often meant taking actions that he had a hard time living with later.This is Spenser 1.0. Still cocky, funny and tough, but somewhat angrier, lonelier and a little ashamed of his own capacity for violence. After having to slap around a college student to get some critical information, Spenser tries to get something to eat:“Halfway through my steak I caught sight of myself in the mirror above the bar. I looked like someone who ought to eat alone. I didn’t look in the mirror again.”And early Spenser is definitely channeling Phillip Marlowe at times:“I could tell he was impressed by the gun in my hand. The only thing that would have scared him more would have been if I threatened to flog him with a dandelion.”This Spenser is more apt to break his own code than the later version, like sleeping with a couple of women related to the case, and he worries that his life is starting to seem a little shabby around the edges. As much as fans, including me, have bitched about later incarnations of Susan and the way their eventually lovey-dovey relationship took something away from the series, I realized while reading this that Parker was smart to eventually incorporate a long-term relationship into the stories. Spenser alone forever would have been a little to much of a Marlowe clone, and it was his relationships that eventually saved him from being a guy that deserved to eat alone.Next up: Spenser goes to a gay bar in God Save the Child.
The Hook - I’m a Robert Parker/Spencer virgin. Ace Atkins, who is the new voice of Spencer, was in my neck of the woods doing an author talk so I decided to begin the series at book one.The Line – ”Insubordination. It’s one of my best things.”The Sinker – This guy’s tough, one I’d call Mr. Spencer if I knew what was good for me. 195 lbs. coming at you with a power-horse of muscle and one whole lot of smart talk to go along with it. On top of this he cooks, delicious offerings, some gourmet, fast food too and eggs. He listens to jazz, can hold his own in discussing books, and is no slouch when it comes to drink; bourbon, brandy, and even has a few bottles of good wine just in case. His city, Boston, gives him a substantial backdrop for crime and mayhem. These characteristics give me a hint of the man who will continue a career as a private eye in several more mysteries.Speaking of mystery this one was ok. It’s really about the man more than the story. Spencer is hired by a Boston University to recover the stolen Godwulf Manuscript, an illuminated rare book. When Spencer asks what an illuminated manuscript is he gets a good description:A handwritten book, done by monks usually, with illustrations in color, often red and gold in the margins. This particular one is in Latin, and contains an allusion of Richard Rolle, the fourteenth-century English mystic. It was discovered forty years ago behind an ornamental façade at Godwulf Abbey, where it is thought to have been secreted during the pillage of the monasteries that followed Henry the Eighth’s break with Rome.”Illuminated books in themselves are an interesting topic but I would have to be satisfied with the above as though it prompts his hiring it is not the real focus of this story. The original cover featured a nice picture of an illuminated book however. The University President thinks a group called SCACE (Student Committee Against Capitalist Exploitation) may be behind the theft and Spencer is off to interview a few. When one radical male student ends up dead, his girlfriend becomes the prime suspect. Spencer doesn’t believe she’s guilty and we’re off and running. Originally published in the early 70’s The Godwulf Manuscript held up pretty well. I couldn’t help but think though how some things have really changed. Half a dozen McDonald’s burgers and a pint of bourbon constituted Spencer’s distracted driving of the day. Of course there are other changes in the 40+ years since the series origins but it really seemed not to matter. Parker has been compared to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Stepping in Chandler’s shoes he finished the last Marlowe book, Poodle Springs. It seems somehow fitting that the Parker’s pen is passed on to Ace Atkins, to keep Spencer, this beloved P.I. alive and ready to fight another day.
What do You think about The Godwulf Manuscript (1992)?
Wow, I can't believe this was published in 1973. I also can't believe how amazing and well-written it is. I had forgotten how much of a womanizer Spenser was before he found Susan. In this book he sleeps with a mother and daughter within the same 24-hour period and sets up a date with a third woman in the end. The daughter that he sleeps with he also saves from some sort of demonic cult rape. They talk a lot about how strong and broad-shouldered he is. But all this doesn't make the book cheesy..
—Carmen
As I write this, it has been 40 years since this book was published and there have probably been thousands of reviews for it over that time. Therefore, this review is aimed at the modern reader, probably born around or after the time that Robert B. Parker began his Spenser series.The modern reader cannot treat this novel as a period piece or as a historical novel. This is not Sue Grafton writing, in 2013, the character of Kinsey Milhone who exists in 1988. This is an author writing in 1973 about the character of Spenser who exists in the 1970’s. Parker did not have to remember or research the mores of that time and try to duplicate them; he was living them as he wrote.The Vietnam War had just been declared over. Drug use and casual, unprotected, sexual liaisons were quite common occurrences among college students, discharged vets and even young professionals in the late Sixties and the 1970’s. The horrors of drug addiction, PTSD, Agent Orange and AIDS were not yet known.However, the crimes that Spenser is hired to investigate are not unique to the 1970’s. In fact, their type is age old – the theft of a centuries-old, hand written manuscript and the murder of a young man with his girl friend framed for the murder.At the time we first encounter Spenser, his character is 37 years old. Parker does not jump in with a backstory, just an allusion here and there to Spenser’s past. He is a private investigator, having been fired from the Boston PD several years earlier for insubordination. He has a quick and sardonic wit that makes the reader wonder just why he doesn’t get his face slapped and his brains beat out more often than he does. But he is smart and he has a well-developed sense of deductive reasoning. He’s a good cook and he keeps himself physically fit. And he is alone.Parker has written a very likable character, one that can be respected by the reader. The action is well paced and the tension, as the book draws to its climax, is tight. The situations in which Spenser finds himself are plausible and the circumstances that evolve from those situations are convincingly handled. The quality of writing is so high that it is hard to believe that this is the debut novel from this prolific author, who wrote 40 books in the Spenser series alone prior to his death.
—Patricia
I've been curious about the Spenser series for a long, long time. I wish I hadn't waited so long to read one. I really liked it. It's set in the 1970's. I smiled a lot at the descriptions of the clothes worn by college students and the dialogue, man! Everyone is "man." Lots of action, a tiny bit of very modestly described sex (which is good by me as I don't like too much sex in books). The plot was compelling and I loved Spenser. I will certainly continue the series and I won't be waiting long to do so.Highly recommended for a nice, quick, retro mystery.
—Rhonda
