I was signing over here at the Mystery Bookstore in Westwood, and a big black kid who was obviously a gangbanger was in line with my book. And, I was somewhat uneasy, but I was signing away, and he came up to the desk and he put the thing down and he looked and he said, "You write this book?"

And I said, "Yes, I did."

And he said, "Well man, you nailed the motherfucker."

And I thought, "That's the best review I ever got." Because the kid had obviously lived the life, and imagination's a wonderful thing.

Hawk is what he is. And I don't if Avery [Brooks] was ever comfortable playing him on the series [Ed. Note: Spenser: For Hire] but I like him and he'll be around. He's not going anywhere.

EB: Talk to me a little bit about Susan Silverman and Spenser's relationship, which leads to my broader question: is there any through-line that you see throughout the Spenser series? Is Spenser going to end up somewhere with Susan, and in general, or are you just kind of taking it as it goes?

RBP: Susan and Spenser will never part. You can count on that. And I plan on writing the series until I can't. I don't plan to kill him off. I don't plan to write a book hidden away that would reveal that his first name is Bruce, and that he and Susan have a child. The last book will be the last book. And when I'm dead or can't write another one for whatever reason, that'll be the end of that. Maybe someone will finish one or write one for me. Who knows? But you can count on Susan and Spenser being together in the way that they are. Will they ever marry? I don't know.

I'm 72-years-old, and the singular event in my life is my marriage to Joan Parker, whom I met 55 years ago, when we were both 17, at the Freshman dance at Colby College. And I swear I fell in love with her when I asked her to dance. She thought I was hideous, and it took her several years to get over that, but I prevailed.

So that relationship is the central one in my life, and I couldn't really spend my life writing about a guy who had no such relationship. So in that sense, very loosely speaking, Susan is like Joan and I'm like Spenser. Joan is not Jewish and hasn't been married before. Joan hasn't children, Susan doesn't. Joan is not a shrink, professionally - I present a heavy case load for her, but... you know, the superficial resemblances are not there. But Joan is beautiful, Joan is smart, and Joan is funny.