Wilderness: A Novel

By Robert B. Parker

Book Overview

"A novel of violence, crisp dialogue, and suspense . . . the reader is immediately caught up in the ambience of danger." -- "The Boston Globe" This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0440193281
• Release Date: October 1983
• Publisher: Dell
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 0.7" x 4.2"

Customer Reviews

A stand-alone novel by Robert B. Parker and is not part of his Spenser/Jesse Stone universe.

Published in 1979 this novel is influenced by what I call the Deliverance genre, hard boiled crime genre as well as the "Men's Movement" and how it was interacting with the "Women's Movement". It's a rather odd novel due to such disparate influences. The plot isn't a complicated one. Aaron Newman is a successful writer of novels. We never learn much about his novels other than the themes of honor, courage and doing the right thing feature prominently in them. One day while out on a run he witnesses a man execute a woman. It turns out that the man is a Boston based mobster. While he is meeting with the police his wife is assaulted in their house, and he is ordered to forget what he saw. He recants his statement to the police (earning the scorn of the older detective as a result) and concludes the only way to ensure that he and his family will ever be safe is to murder the gangster. The first half of the novel takes place in Boston and the second half in the woods of Northern Maine (hence the title and the Deliverance influence).An odd and rather unbalanced novel. It moves along at a brisk pace and the last half (more or less) when the modern world is replaced by the life and death struggle in the forest (primeval?) is engrossing.

Not a Spencer novel

When I first picked up this book I was disappointed that this was not a Spencer novel, as I read it my disappointment soon ended, a great read and probably one of his finest written books spencer or no spencer.It will not dissapoint.

Best of the Non-Spensers

Easily Parker's best non-Spenser work, and possibly his best overall. More suspense than you might think Parker capable of delivering. Written at the peak of his talents. A shame he hasn't come back to this genre.

A good read -- but where is the rest of it?

This is by far the best of Parker's non-Spenser novels. I enjoyed reading it tremendously. It is too bad Parker hasn't seen fit to follow it up with sequels. This book doesn't deserve the obscurity it has been forced to endure.

Wilderness is Parkers Best

I have just finished Wilderness and thought it is Parkers best. I have read 17 Parkers and my wife gave me 14 more for Christmas. I really enjoy Spensers dialog and detailed descriptions of everything. I frequently read excerpts to my wife. I started Wilderness slowly and was disappointed to find it wasn't a Spenser. By the time I got to the Maine woods, I couldn't put it down and finished in a sitting. I have tromped the Alaska wilderness for 33 years and felt right at home in Parkers Maine. It's almost a shame Spenser has been so successful, if it hadn't been, Parker might have written more great suspence novels.