On Tuesday of this week, mystery readers lost one of their most loved and prolific writers when Robert B. Parker died of a sudden heart attack at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A former professor with a PhD in English, Parker wrote over 60 novels and won the Edgar award for best mystery novel in 1977, the Edgar Grand Master Award in 2002, and Mystery Ink’s Gumshoe Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2007. According to the novelist Robert Crais, Parker "opened the doors for everyone who came after. For a long time, the American detective genre was defined by the big three: Dashiel Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Ross McDonald. I would say Robert Parker is the fourth."

Parker admired and was influenced by the writing of those three. In 1973 in The Godwulf Manuscript , he created his best known character—a former police detective and tough guy named for a 16th century English poet—Spenser. With Spenser, Robert Parker is credited with revitalizing and reinventing detective fiction. While his predecessors were loners in a mono-cultural world (and lived in bad apartments), Spenser is devoted to his long-term girlfriend Susan, has the African-American Hawk for a sidekick and best friend, and lives in a great apartment in a nice Boston neighborhood—and he cooks!

Spenser is featured in 37 of Parker’s novels. He also created series around Sunny Randall, a female p.i., and Jesse Stone, a disgraced LAPD detective moved to a small town in Massachusetts, as well as other stand-alone fiction. In the late 1980s Parker was asked by Raymond Chandler’s estate to complete an unfinished Philip Marlow mystery and, as a result, Poodle Springs was published in 1989. In 1991 he wrote Perchance to Dream, a sequel to Chandler’s 1939 classic The Big Sleep.

When asked by a friend if he thought he would ever do any else, if he’d ever stop writing, Parker’s reply was “not until the day I die.” And that is exactly what happened—Parker died sitting at his writing desk, doing what he loved best. Did Parker ever write the Great American Novel? No. That was never his intent but his stories were enjoyed by millions and he will be missed by those millions. Mr. Parker, thanks for years and years of pleasure.