What is an author to do with their hard as nails hero of the 70’s who manages to survive until current day? Times change. Robert B Parker is long dead. But his PI hero, Spenser is still fighting the good fight. A new novel is slated to appear in November 2025. How will he fit into the new consciousness? Will Spenser dump Susan, the love of his life? Might we find him setting up light housekeeping with his long-time sidekick Hawk? Who will be the husband and who is the wife in that pairing? What worked at the outset of the series may not slip past today’s editors.

I like cop, private eye, who done it and spy fiction. There are some authors that evoke an era and stay there. Dashiel Hammet created Sam Spade and Sam stayed true to his time. Raymond Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe occupied the decades of the thirties and forties. The characters are timeless and don’t suffer for being locked in the past.

There are several contemporary authors that I have followed over the decades. Three come to mind, Robert B Parker created Spenser, a Boston based Private Investigator. He made his first appearance in the early seventies. He was a Korean war veteran. Robert B Parker is long dead, but Spenser is still fighting crime in 2025. Let’s see that would make him close to ninety years old. I’m gonna guess that his right cross isn’t what it used to be. Kind of hard to swing and hold onto a walker. That’s okay, I’ll buy the book when it comes out.

Michael Connelly created Harry Bosch. He joined LAPD in the early seventies after a stint in the Big Red One (First Infantry Division) during the Viet Nam War. Coincidently Spenser was also in the Big Red One. Bosch is a youngster. Do the math he is probably in his mid-eighties. At least he managed to retire from LAPD.

Both Spenser and Bosch have a sense of right and wrong that is out of step with many of their contemporaries. They are relentless in their pursuit of the truth. Their methods aren’t always by the book. Both Spenser and Bosch have racked up impressive body counts over the course of their novels.

Then there is Daniel Silva. Daniel Silva created Gabriel Allon. Gabriel Allon put in his first appearance in 2000. However, his backstory begins in 1972 when he is recruited by the Mossad to kill Palestinian terrorists. For many of the following books he accomplished the task with great efficiency. Compared to Gabriel Allon Spenser and Bosch are under achievers when it comes to body counts. Silva’s latest Gabriel Allon exploits dropped in July 2025. Allon who should be in his mid-seventies has retired from the Mossad. This is something in mentor Ari Shamron, who must be in his 90’s was never able to do.

As a general rule, I think most authors lean liberal. I base this assertion on the cavalier attitude their characters display towards things like search and seizure, unloading a can of whoop ass on villains and littering the landscape with the bodies of various malefactors. Mickey Spillane and his Mike Hammer are the exception that proves the rule. The only reason Mike Hammer never shot a parking violator is that it never occurred to Mickey Spillane.

From the beginning to present Spenser and Bosch have stayed true to themselves. The mean streets they walked down in the seventies are still mean in 2025. What drove them then is still there. The landscape they occupied may have evolved but is still recognizable. They have not remained static, but their evolution is consistent with who they were. Not so with Gabriel Allon.

Gabriel Allon was also relentless in pursuit of his goals. Oftentimes his goal was murder. He employed operatives and resources with the full support of his masters. In his latest offering Silva has abandoned, Jews, Mossad and fanatical Muslims. The new improved Gabriel Allon has fired all of his Jewish sidekicks. The Mossad is nowhere to be seen. All his new friends are goys.

Allon is openly living in Venice. The Palestinians who spent so many novels trying to kill him aren’t mad at him anymore. Either that or they are truly peace loving as liberals would have us believe. The current crop of villains are Russian or Italian organized crime figures. There is a special guest appearance by the Vatican as both victim and perpetrator. Not a Muslim in sight. Could be worse. He could have made the Palestinians the good guys and Israelis the bad guys. Maybe in his next book.

I haven’t finished the story. But I already know how it ends. Gabriel Allon will visit a clinic that specializes in transsexual surgery. No, he is not going to have a sex change. He’ll be looking to pick up a slightly used foreskin, cheap. Once the foreskin transplant is complete, he will be able to pass as goy. He will then be ready for his next adventure.

I’m not mad at Daniel Silva. Gabriel Allon is his character. He can do with him what he wants. I think it would have been kinder kill Allon off in a spectacular fashion rather than subject him to the slow lingering death that Silva has chosen. I’m done. I guess two out of three ain’t bad.

Given the current climate in publishing, I guess I’m not surprised. Had Mark Twain submitted Huckleberry Finn to a publisher, these days it would never be published.

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