Spenser (character)


Spenser—his first name is never officially revealed—until season 2 episode 16 when he introduced himself as "David Spenser" to a cop sitting at the diner. Spenser is a fictional character in a series of detective novels initially by the American mystery writer Robert B. Parker and later by Ace Atkins. He is also featured in a television series and a series of TV movies based on the novels. In March 2020 he was featured in the Netflix thriller film Spenser Confidential.

Fictional biography

Spenser was born and grew up in Laramie, Wyoming and is a Boston private eye in the mold of Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, a smart-mouthed tough guy with a heart of gold. Unlike Marlowe, Spenser maintains a committed relationship with one woman. Although he is an ex-boxer and lifts weights to stay in shape, he also is quite well educated, cooks, and lives by a code of honor he and Susan discuss occasionally—though as infrequently as he can manage.
Spenser bears more than a passing resemblance to his creator, Robert B. Parker. Both are Bostonians, and both spent time in Korea with the U.S. Army. Spenser served as an infantryman in the 1st Infantry Division during the Korean War.
Spenser is a former State trooper assigned to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, and regularly seeks help from Martin Quirk. Quirk is originally a police lieutenant, later a captain, and he rises to an assistant superintendent of the Boston Police Department. Among his other police contacts are Sergeant Frank Belson and Detective Lee Farrell, both homicide investigators under Quirk's command; Healy, a captain of the Massachusetts State Police; and Mark Samuelson, an LAPD lieutenant. In Massachusetts, each county District Attorney's office has a squad of State Police Detectives assigned to their office to conduct investigations of major crimes committed in their jurisdictions.
Scotch is Spenser's drink of celebration. This is mostly having to do with an encounter with a bear while bird hunting in his teens. Spenser seems to agree with William Faulkner's assessment of Scotch — "that brown liquor which not women, not boys and children, but only hunters drank." He also frequently drinks Irish Whiskey, sometimes just as a nod to his ethnic heritage, saying “The thing I like about Irish whiskey is that the more you drink the smoother it goes down. Of course that's probably true of antifreeze as well, but illusion is nearly all we have.”
After his mother's death, Spenser was raised by his father and two uncles, all of them carpenters, who do not appear in the series. Spenser received a football scholarship to Holy Cross, where he played strong safety. Spenser injured his knee and dropped out because he didn't have the funds to complete his schooling. He took up boxing, and met Hawk, a tough man skilled with firearms and Henry Cimoli, the owner of a gym where Spenser and Hawk still work out. His family unit beyond his near-fraternal relationship with Hawk is essentially Susan Silverman, an unofficial foster son named Paul Giacomin, and a series of dogs all named Pearl after Spenser's childhood dog of the same breed, a German Shorthaired Pointer. Silverman, originally a high school guidance counselor, continues to assist Spenser in his cases after becoming a Harvard-trained Ph.D. psychologist. Giacomin, initially an awkward, unsocialized teenager, becomes a professional actor and dancer.

Hawk

The other major character in the Spenser novels is his close friend Hawk, originally introduced in the fourth novel Promised Land. An African American, Hawk is an equally tough but somewhat shady echo of Spenser himself. Hawk served in the French Foreign Legion and in combat operations overseas. Hawk is a "Gun for Hire" who lives by his own personal code. Spenser and Hawk met as boxing opponents during a preliminary bout in the Boston Arena. Each man believes he was the victor. Hawk may be modeled on the sidekick in Book Five of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene; Artegal, the knight of justice, has a helper named Talus, an invincible man of iron. Spenser and Hawk respect each other and are friends who each understand the other's philosophy of how to conduct themselves in life.

Maternal mystery

One of the inconsistencies within the Spenser series surrounds his mother. In some of the early books he refers to his mother and, in 1981's A Savage Place, for example, he even quotes advice his mother gave him. However, by the time of the novel Pastime, Spenser states that his mother died during labor and he was delivered via Caesarean section, i.e. "not of woman born" as Parker has Spenser put it; he was raised by his father and his two maternal uncles. Parker never explained the inconsistencies.

Young Spenser

Released in 2009, a young adult novel, Chasing the Bear, discusses some of Spenser's childhood, and further complicates the continuity issue with his family. At the end of the novel, Spenser leaves his father and uncles behind in Wyoming to attend college in Boston. No information was released as to whether this would commence a fourth regular series for Parker before his death in January 2010.

Spenser's firearms

In the 1970s and 1980s, Spenser usually carried a Smith & Wesson Model 36,.38 Special caliber, "Chief's Special" revolver. He would sometimes carry a.357 Magnum revolver that he usually kept in the top drawer of his office desk, for "just in case" situations. Spenser also had a small.32 caliber revolver that he carried as a "back up" weapon in the 1970s and early 1980s. In the novel The Widening Gyre, Spenser carried a.25 caliber semiautomatic as a back up, and had it in his hand when confronted by two assassins - killing both. In 1992, Spenser started regularly carrying a Browning Hi-Power 9mm semi-automatic pistol. In 2010, Spenser replaces the Browning with a Smith & Wesson.40 caliber semi-automatic pistol. In 2012, he starts carrying the Chief's Special again while working, but also carries the.357 Magnum or the.40 caliber Smith & Wesson, in addition to the.38 Special, when anticipating a possible gunfight. On rare occasions, Spenser would use a rifle or shotgun when the situation required them. Spenser of the TV show carried a Beretta 92 9mm semi-automatic pistol. He also used a revolver, mostly in the first season.

Novels

By Robert B. Parker:
  1. The Godwulf Manuscript
  2. God Save the Child
  3. Mortal Stakes
  4. Promised Land
  5. The Judas Goat
  6. Looking for Rachel Wallace
  7. Early Autumn
  8. A Savage Place
  9. Ceremony
  10. The Widening Gyre
  11. Valediction
  12. A Catskill Eagle
  13. Taming a Sea-Horse
  14. Pale Kings and Princes
  15. Crimson Joy
  16. Playmates
  17. Stardust
  18. Pastime
  19. Double Deuce
  20. Paper Doll
  21. Walking Shadow
  22. Thin Air
  23. Chance
  24. Small Vices
  25. Sudden Mischief
  26. Hush Money
  27. Hugger Mugger
  28. Potshot
  29. Widow's Walk
  30. Back Story
  31. Bad Business
  32. Cold Service
  33. School Days
  34. Hundred-Dollar Baby
  35. Now and Then
  36. Rough Weather
  37. Chasing the Bear: A Young Spenser Novel
  38. The Professional
  39. Painted Ladies
  40. Sixkill
;By Ace Atkins:
  1. Lullaby
  2. Wonderland
  3. Cheap Shot
  4. Kickback
  5. Slow Burn
  6. Little White Lies
  7. Old Black Magic
  8. Angel Eyes
;With Helen Brann:
  1. Silent Night

    Adaptations

The universe depicted in the TV episodes and movies diverges from that in the novels, though many of the filmed presentations are based on, and named after, novels in the series.

Spenser TV series

The Spenser books were the inspiration for the 1985-1988 ABC TV series starring Robert Urich as Spenser, Barbara Stock as Susan, and Avery Brooks as Hawk. All three seasons of the series have been released on DVD by the Warner Archive Collection.
Avery Brooks starred in a spin-off series entitled A Man Called Hawk.

First Spenser film series

Four made-for-TV movies based upon the series were produced by the Lifetime cable network between 1993 and 1995, again starring Robert Urich and Avery Brooks. The movies were based on four of Parker's novels: Ceremony, Pale Kings and Princes, The Judas Goat and A Savage Place. Parker and his wife Joan co-wrote the first two screenplays. Barbara Stock was replaced as Susan Silverman in the first two movies by Barbara Williams and in the last two by veteran actress Wendy Crewson. Frank Belson was played by J. Winston Carroll. Parker's son Daniel appears in all four movies as a waiter in Spenser's favorite restaurant. Unlike the series, which was filmed in Boston, the new movies were filmed in Toronto. The first two movies retained the novels' Boston setting, while the second two were re-written to take place in Toronto.

Second Spenser film series

Beginning in 1999, Joe Mantegna played Spenser in three TV movies on the A&E cable network: Small Vices, Thin Air, Walking Shadow.
Marcia Gay Harden played Susan, while Shiek Mahmud-Bey and, later, Ernie Hudson played Hawk.

Spenser Netflix movie

Spenser Confidential is a mystery film directed by Peter Berg and written by Sean O'Keefe. The film is very loosely based on the 2013 novel by Ace Atkins. It uses the names of characters from the series of novels, but changes them completely from the original source material. The film stars Mark Wahlberg as Spenser, Winston Duke as Hawk and Alan Arkin as Henry Cimoli. Post Malone, Iliza Shlesinger, Bokeem Woodbine and Donald Cerrone also appear. It was released by Netflix in March, 2020.

Shared universe

Spenser and Hawk live in the same Boston literary universe as Parker's other, newer series characters: private investigator Sunny Randall and small town police chief Jesse Stone, the former of whom was possibly mentioned in passing as a blonde jogging with an English bull terrier while the latter had a much larger role in Back Story. Susan Silverman is Sunny Randall's psychologist in Melancholy Baby.
The fictional Taft University, where Susan teaches, was also a primary setting for the Spenser novel Playmates and the non-Spenser novel Love and Glory.