Supported by
The Writing Dead
The mystery novelist Reed Farrel Coleman was watching TV in May 2013 when his agent called and asked him, “How would you like to be Robert B. Parker?”
“It took me about a nanosecond to say yes,” Coleman wrote on his website. “We all dream about unexpected magical moments — chance encounters, phone calls, emails — that will transform us, but do we ever believe they will happen?”
These days, when a popular author dies, financially savvy heirs often commission someone to keep writing his or her books. (There’s even a term for this: “continuation literature.”) Sophie Hannah writes Agatha Christie novels; David Lagercrantz channels Stieg Larsson; Anthony Horowitz has taken on Ian Fleming. That’s what Robert B. Parker’s family decided to do when the crime novelist died in 2010. “Spenser was a cash cow,” Parker’s wife, Joan, told The Boston Globe in 2012, referring to her husband’s most beloved character, a Boston private eye. “And we felt that Bob would want to see Spenser live on.” In 2011, they hired Ace Atkins to write more Spenser novels, and in 2013 they asked Coleman to take on a different series, the one starring the Massachusetts cop Jesse Stone.
For Coleman, saying yes was the easy part. “It’s one thing to be offered to step into a great man’s shoes. It is quite another to stare at the blank screen and figure out what to do,” he says ruefully. So he called Atkins. “He gave me some tips on how my life was about to change,” Coleman says. “He suggested that I never go to the fan sites. Of course, that was the first thing I did.”
The best advice came from a close friend. “He said, ‘Reed, I’m a huge Elvis fan and I’ve seen the greatest Elvis impersonators in the world. And sadly, there’s two things they cannot escape. First, no matter how good their act, I always know it’s not really Elvis. Second, they can never do anything new.’
“When he said that, I knew in my bones that I wouldn’t try to imitate Bob’s style for fear of being seen as a cheap impersonator,” Coleman says. His Jesse Stone books have the same flavor and feel as his own novels, which are suffused with details from his Brooklyn upbringing. (The Times once called Coleman’s books “gritty little postcards from his childhood home.”)
[ When he was 15, Reed Farrel Coleman saw a man get murdered. It changed his life. ]
Writing style aside, Coleman has remained true to Jesse Stone. “I like to say that Bob and I use the same camera, but attach different lenses,” he says. His latest Stone book, “Robert B. Parker’s Colorblind,” debuts this week at No. 11.
Follow Tina Jordan on Twitter: @TinaJordanNYT
Follow New York Times Books on Facebook and Twitter, sign up for our newsletter or our literary calendar. And listen to us on the Book Review podcast.
Explore More in Books
Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news? Start here.
James McBride’s novel sold a million copies, and he isn’t sure how he feels about that, as he considers the critical and commercial success of “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.”
How did gender become a scary word? Judith Butler, the theorist who got us talking about the subject, has answers.
You never know what’s going to go wrong in these graphic novels, where Circus tigers, giant spiders, shifting borders and motherhood all threaten to end life as we know it.
When the author Tommy Orange received an impassioned email from a teacher in the Bronx, he dropped everything to visit the students who inspired it.
Do you want to be a better reader? Here’s some helpful advice to show you how to get the most out of your literary endeavor.
Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here.
Advertisement