No one can read the Spenser novels without recalling the Hammett/Chandler/Ross Macdonald tradition out of which he works. But, like so many other contemporary crime novelists, Parker plays with the particulars of the form. Spenser, while retaining many of the characteristics of Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, and Lew Archer, does exhibit personal traits at odds with his predecessors. Parker has expanded and updated what was becoming an ail-too predictable genre. In Spenser's relationship with Susan and his friendships within the police force Parker has made him much less of an outsider, more fully an individual. These changes are consistent with the achievements of many modern mystery writers, but Parker must be credited with being among the first to create a character so well rounded. Spenser is still a series figure who maintains a fairly consistent persona, but he is just less programmatically so.