Category: Books

While surfing the web, I came across this great little interview with Robert B. Parker. It’s a brief interview, but packs in a ton of interesting information about Parker; how he writes, the surprisingly little research that he does, and why he and his wife live on different floors in the same house.

Parker has been writing novels for over 30 years and at the age of 72 shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, this year alone, Parker‘s had three books published and each of them hit the best seller list!

Bad Business was the 31st Spenser novel [and if you like to read you owe it to yourself to check out the entire Spenser series].

Melancholy Baby was the fourth to feature female detective Sunny Randall.

And last, and definitely not least was Double Play.

Double Play is one of my all-time favorite books by Robert B. Parker. Set in 1947, the novel focuses on the relationship between Joe Burke [a hardened WWII vet with a death wish who has been hired to bodyguard Jackie Robinson] and Jackie Robinson [the first black man to break into the major leagues]. Along the way there’s gangsters, dames, double-crosses, murders and more. It was truly a great read and I hope that Parker writes more Joe Burke novels.

Knowing how prolific Robert B. Parker is, I’d say that’s a good bet!

Hurricane Jeanne came and went without causing as much damage to our area as initially predicted. Still, I spent most of the last three days helping to run a hurricane relief shelter.

One of the best parts of that whole experience was that in my downtime I had an opportunity to finish Barry Eisler‘s third novel, Rain Storm.

All of Eisler‘s novels feature John Rain, a Japanese-American “struggling with his own divided nature: Japanese / American; soldier / assassin; samurai / ronin.” Rain, as written by Eisler is “a remarkable creation, a multifaceted killer with the soul of a poet.”

Eisler‘s first book, Rain Fall, put him on my favorite author’s list. His second, Hard Rain, proved that the first book wasn’t a fluke. Rain Storm cements Eisler‘s place as one of the best series writers working. Don’t take my word for it, check out what EVERYONE is saying.

Yeah, Eisler‘s that good. [So is John Rain, for that matter!]

Critics have praised Barry Eisler‘s first two novels, Rain Fall and Hard Rain, calling Japanese-American John Rain, the cynical, romantic, conscientious assassin, “one of the most memorable characters in recent thrillers.”

Yeah, I’d go along with that.

In fact Eisler‘s two novels featuring John Rain have been some of the best novels that I’ve read in the last few years.

So you can imagine how much I’m looking forward to his latest, Rain Storm.

And if you’d like to take a look, just click HERE.