Books in Order: A Comprehensive Guide to Robert B. Parker's Works

Robert B. Parker (1932–2010) built a career far bigger than the Spenser novels he's best remembered for, though Spenser remains its backbone — he also wrote the Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall books, continued the Philip Marlowe novels, wrote the Cole & Hitch westerns (adapted into the film Appaloosa, with Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris), and published standalone fiction and nonfiction besides. Spenser For Hire ran on ABC with Robert Urich in the lead, and Tom Selleck starred in a run of Jesse Stone TV movies — rare crossover success for a crime writer.

This guide runs all fifty-one books in the world Parker built, from 1973's The Godwulf Manuscript through 2023's Broken Trust, written by Mike Lupica after Parker's death carried the series into a third decade beyond its creator.