#THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT SERIES#

* Yeah, there are other influences afoot in these pages, I realize. Spenser as a Shadow of Philip Marlowe will ebb and flow over the years, but I don’t think it’s ever more pronounced than it is in these pages. to the opening paragraphs and so, so much more this whole book screams Parker’s debt to and affection for Raymond Chandler. From naming his main character after a British poet to Spener’s attitude, demeanor, voice, etc. Why? Because this whole novel is a giant Chandler allusion *. Yeah, that was a purposeful Raymond Chandler allusion.

#THE GODWULF MANUSCRIPT SERIES#

I could probably write lengthy posts on the first twenty novels in this series without reading them again-but where would be the fun in that? Of the twelve Spenser novels I’ll be revisiting this year, this one is in my bottom two and I’ve read it at least fifteen times, and I don’t see me stopping reading it anytime until I start sleeping the big sleep. I’ll hold off on talking more about my background with this series for now, but the fact I’ve been reading, and re-reading, and re-re-reading, and re-re-re-reading these books since 1986 (possibly 1987) probably gives you a pretty good idea what I think of them. I hope he remembers the Klingon proverb, bortaS bIr jablu’DI’ reH QaQqu’ nay’. That excursus down memory lane means nothing to you, but I put it there in case that friend reads this post. I got over it (probably because I didn’t care about things like early editions then) and despite losing that copy, that friend later became my first college roommate, and I didn’t kill him in his sleep for it. A year or two later, I loaned it to a friend who proceeded to lose it.

I did find, I now know, a copy with the original cover (as seen above). The Godwulf Manuscript wasn’t the first novel I read in the series, I’m going to guess I’d read three or four others before I found this in a used book store. I wouldn’t have been able to appreciate Spenser without having spent some time with Leroy Brown, Jupiter Jones/Peter Crenshaw/Bob Andrews, Tabitha-Ruth Wexler and others (as I’ve invoked Brown, I hope I remember to draw a line between Sally Kimball and Spenser’s version when I discuss Promised Land). I came to this series about thirteen (possibly fourteen) years late, but to be fair, I would have been thirteen (possibly fourteen) when I started reading it. On the other hand maybe it would be better to get the tear in my convertible roof fixed. Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!ĭriving back to Boston, I thought about my two retainers in the same week.

Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller.

The godwulf manuscript