GHOST WRITER

         Today my special guest is Larry Cavanaugh who has two blogs:  DiscConnected, which is about music and recordings, and Back in the USSR, which is a blog about politics.   They both have much to offer and are well worth your time, so make sure you stop by to read some of what Larry has to say and follow if you aren't doing so already.  Today Larry poses an interesting question for you.

Ghost Writer

          I did not want to feature this post on my blog, DiscConnected, which is all about music, but thought that the review of this book and the topic of posthumous ghost writers might generate some discussion among regular readers of Tossing It Out due to the writing topic. Thanks to Arlee Bird for giving me the microphone. Or the spotlight. Or the keyboard. You know what I mean.

          Now I suppose technically, this is not a ghost writing situation, as the publisher does not try to conceal the fact that the author who created the characters is dead and that someone else wrote the book.

         I have mixed feelings about the practice of having relatively unknown authors write novels continuing the serialization of a deceased popular author's character.  But since the books of Robert B. Parker were always a guilty pleasure for me, the simple existence of a new Jesse Stone novel piqued my curiosity.   Michael Brandman, who collaborated with Parker on the Jesse Stone TV-Movies, was given the nod to produce the first posthumous novel featuring a Parker character.

         Killing The Blues feels like one of those "tv tie-in" books, since Brandman has made adjustments to settings and characters to make the books more closely resemble the movies. The novel tells an entertaining story of obsession and redemption, touching on all the themes Parker always made resonate so well while weaving a few compelling plot-lines together pretty seamlessly.

        Stone attempts to solve a wave of car thefts that appears to make Paradise a new source for chop-shops, and the Paradise Board of Selectmen do not want the crimes to impact the summer tourism trade, creating opportunities for Jesse to display his aversion to authority.

        In another plot thread, Jesse hears that a man from his past has been released from prison, and word has drifted that Jesse will be his target. The cat-and-mouse between Jesse and the ex-convict form the core of the book's narration. The other threads of Brandman's story weave around it, and provide nice balance.

       Parker wrote dialogue better than almost anyone. The best Brandman could hope for is to suffer by comparison, and he seems to write the dialogue for Tom Selleck, who stars in the films. There were many lines that seemed like they may have been lifted from films that had already aired. While this did not necessarily detract from my enjoyment of the book, dialogue was one of the joys of reading a Parker novel that was somewhat lacking here.

      Brandman also seems to marginalize the supporting characters, where under Parker's hand, while they were often not deeply developed, they were necessary foils to the main character to provide an insight into his behavior. Parker always seemed to have something on his mind, and used his characters to flesh out those thoughts.

       In literature, characters sometimes outlive their creators.   Parker wrote a Philip Marlowe by himself (Perchance To Dream), after finishing Chandler's Poodle Springs, and Jeffrey Deaver just published a James Bond novel. Next spring, Ace Atkins will pick up the Spenser series. The trick is to stay true to what made the characters worth continuing in the first place.

        All that said, how do you feel about characters continuing on after their creator's death? Do you have any favorite series that received this treatment? If so, how did you like the posthumous books?



---