Question: Did you always want to be a writer? You had jobs which centered around the written word -- advertising and academia. How did these experiences contribute to your eventual career path?

Answer: Yes, I always wanted to write. And in school I was always above average at it. The jobs I had were the result of the desire and proclivity, and were merely ways to support my family until I could write novels for a living. I think the Ph.D. in English, while it didn’t teach me anything about writing, probably informed my imagination and maybe gave my writing what Chandler said Hammett lacked, “the sound of music from beyond the hill.”

Queston: You read the classic detective stories in your youth, and your doctoral dissertation was on Chandler and Hammett. When Spenser first came to be, how influential were the classic models of the private eye?

Answer: The dissertation took me two weeks and did what it was supposed to do (get me tenure so I’d have time to write). But certainly when I began I was consciously trying to emulate Raymond Chandler.

Question: With Spenser you have very obviously diverged from the classic form of the private eye as a loner. Did you set out to do that from the beginning, or was it something that happened as the character evolved?

Answer: I am a happier man than Chandler was, and the center of my being is Joan and my sons. They are not only context. They are life. It was inevitable, I think, that I would evolve Spenser into a man with a similar center.

Question: One of the themes that seems to emerge consistently from the books is father-and-son relationships, e.g., Spenser’s relationship with Paul Giacomin. This ties into a larger theme, responsibility for those who can’t protect themselves. Would you say that this is perhaps Spenser’s chief “operating principle”?

Answer: Spenser’s operating principle is probably living life on his own terms, happily with Susan, as best he can. But obviously there is a knight-errant dimension about him, which Hawk’s ferocious practicality balances off.

Question: Spenser’s long and loving relationship with Susan Silverman is also markedly different from what we see in the classical form of the private-eye novel. Though they had some troubles in the early days, they now seem beyond that. Why did you make this relationship such a linchpin of the series?

Answer: Given that such a relationship is the linchpin of my life, I probably had little choice.

Question: In other interviews you have said that you don’t worry about the plot, that you focus instead on character and the things you want to say in a book. Yet the plots are often complex and take quite a bit of detective work to unravel (e.g., in Bad Business or in Paper Doll). How much of the story do you know before you start the book? Does the book ever change as you write?

Answer: I begin only with a premise -- i.e., in Bad Business Spenser investigates a corrupt corporation. Then I begin. I write ten pages a day. Chapter two grows out of chapter one, and chapter three grows out of chapter two, etc. I often don’t know who did it until the book lays out and I may not know until nearly the end. Thus my writing and Spenser’s investigation mimic each other. I may plan that a book will be about horse racing or baseball, but it always ends up being about the characters.

Question: In recent years you have published two and often three books a year. Can you tell us about your writing schedule and how you accomplish this?

Answer: I don’t outline. Each weekday I write ten pages. I don’t rewrite, I don’t write a second draft. When I am finished, I don’t reread it. Joan reads it to make sure I haven’t committed a public disgrace, and, if I haven’t, I send it in. Then I begin the next book. I am not obsessive about this, if there are things that interfere occasionally, in which case I may not write some Tuesday. When I have finished my ten pages -- which usually takes from about eight AM to two PM, I work out. I spend three days a week doing Pilates training, I climb twelve flights of stairs two days a week, and take a two-mile walk one day.

Question: A few years ago you started two new series, the Jesse Stone books and the Sunny Randall books. Where did the new series sleuths come from? What different issues can you explore that separate these books from the Spenser novels?

Answer: Some years ago Joan and I decided to no longer hustle Hollywood, and I noticed that writing a Spenser novel took about two months. I invented Jesse Stone so I could try my hand at a third person narration, and a guy who was nowhere near as evolved as Spenser. Jesse has problems with alcohol and his ex-wife. Spenser is complete, Jesse is a life work in progress. I also liked writing about a cop and a small-town police force. Sunny Randall was invented at the behest of Helen Hunt, who wanted me to invent someone for her to play in a series of movies. We agreed that I would write a novel. Putnam would publish. Sony would buy it for Helen, and Helen would star. Everything worked fine up to actually making the movie. That is in limbo (nothing ever dies in Hollywood, though the birth rate is also low). Sunny did well and my publisher urged me to continue, so I did. I lean heavily on Joan for the woman’s point of view here. And I am able to write about things from the perspective of someone of great courage but limited physical strength.

Question: It has long been evident that you’re a baseball fan, and in Double Play you wrote a novel that is both a tribute to Jackie Robinson and an exploration of racial attitudes. It’s also somewhat autobiographical, through the voice of Bobby. What was the genesis of this book? Will we ever see the main character, Burke, again? Or get any more of Bobby’s story?

Answer: The genesis was simply that I wanted to write it. We pitched it around Los Angeles as a movie idea, without success, and, because I wanted to say something about a great man, I turned the idea into a novel. As for seeing Burke, or Bobby, again -- I don’t know. I have no master plan.

Question: In the most recent Spenser novel, Cold Service, Hawk is seriously injured after failing to protect a client. After having Hawk seem invincible for so many years, why did it happen now? It certainly provides some interesting insights into the character.

Answer: I think you answered your own question. I wanted to explore more of Hawk, which I can only do through Spenser’s point of view, and I am glad if you got some insights.

Question: The relationship between Spenser and Hawk is just as important as that between Spenser and Susan, in many ways. Was this something you ever expected when you first introduced Hawk?

Answer: Hawk began as just another worthy opponent in Promised Land, but in the next book, Judas Goat, when I needed someone to back up Spenser, Hawk seemed a logical choice and away we went. He is, racial pun intended, kind of Spenser’s dark side. And he gives me an opportunity to do my small riff on race relations.

Question: There has been a TV series, Spenser: For Hire, as well as TV movies featuring Spenser. How involved in these were you? Were you happy with the way they turned out? Will we see any more of Spenser on the screen? Or any of the other characters, like Jesse Stone or Sunny Randall?

Answer: I was theoretically a consultant on Spenser: For Hire but in fact contributed little. I had a large role in three movies we did for A&E starring Joe Mantegna. In neither case did I think the movies got it right (including the ones in which I had a large role). The reasons would make a book, but the problem is not talent, so much as money. Which is the nature of Hollywood. On February 20, 2005, Tom Selleck will star as Jesse Stone in Stone Cold on CBS. My contributions to that have been modest.

Copyright © 2005 Dean James and Elizabeth Foxwell, authors of The Robert Parker Companion