With Sorrow, News of Joan Parker's Passing

Alerted by Hank Phillipi Ryan, we have news today that Joan Parker, loyal and loving wife, partner, and teammate of author Robert B. Parker, has died. An obituary from the Boston Globe announced that her death took place Tuesday, and recognizes Joan for her philanthropy. We are thinking of Joan's family and the many friends of this wonderful couple, in this time of loss.

We're also thinking of when we last saw Joan: at the New England Mobile Book Fair, as she initiated the Robert B. Parker Award there. Here are a couple of our photos.

Joan and NEMBF owner Tom Lyons.

Joan reading from a letter written by Robert B. Parker.

Do look at the Boston Globe's online obituary, for a particularly lovely photo of Joan Parker.

Margaret Yorke, British Mystery Author

Margaret Yorke, photo by Jerry Bauer

In all the sweet chaos of the holiday season (which increasingly seems to stretch from the week before Halloween, to the week after New Year's Day), we neglected to mark the November 2012 passing of one of the grande dames of British mystery, Margaret Yorke. Author of more than 40 crime novels, and 1999 winner of the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) Cartier Diamond Dagger for outstanding lifetime contribution to the field, she rarely won as much acclaim as she deserved. Here is a link to her obituary: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/dec/03/margaret-yorke. One of my gifts to myself when life slows down a bit will be a list of her work, and the time to read and re-read all of it.