Barbara Parker (1) (1947–2009)
Author of Suspicion of Innocence
For other authors named Barbara Parker, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Barbara Parker was born in Columbia, South Carolina on January 28, 1947. She studied drama at the University of South Florida. Before graduation she switched her major to history and then went to law school at the University of Miami. She worked as a prosecutor in the state attorney's office in show more Miami and then went into private practice. She also received a master's degree in creative writing from Florida International University (Miami). Initially, she began writing stories for her son, but it soon became a hobby and eventually her new career. Her first mystery, Suspicion of Innocence, was published in 1994 and became a CBS Movie of the Week entitled Sisters and Other Strangers. She wrote 12 novels during her lifetime including Blood Relations, Criminal Justice, The Dark of Day, and the Suspicion series. She died on March 7, 2009 at the age of 62. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Barbara Parker
Series
Works by Barbara Parker
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1947-01-28
- Date of death
- 2009-03-07
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Florida International University
University of Miami School of Law
University of South Florida - Occupations
- mystery writer
- Awards and honors
- Romantic Times Career Achievement Award (Mystery Series, 2006)
- Short biography
- Barbara Parker was born in Columbia, South Carolina and grew up in western North Carolina before moving with her family to Florida. She attended the University of South Florida, majoring in theatre arts, then graduated from the University of Miami School of Law. She became a prosecutor in the office of the Florida State Attorney before establishing her own independent legal practice. To spend more time with her son, she quit her law practice and took a job as a paralegal, while developing her writing career. She took courses at Florida International University, where her master's degree thesis became the genesis for her first novel, Suspicion of Innocence (1994). It was a finalist for the Edgar Award for best first mystery novel by an American author and was adapted into a television film called Sisters and Other Strangers. She went on to write a total of 12 novels in her "Suspicion" series revolving around Miami lawyers Gail Connor and Anthony Quintana, some of which became bestsellers. She served on the national board of the Mystery Writers of America and was the chair of its membership committee for two years.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Columbia, South Carolina, USA
- Places of residence
- Florida, USA
- Place of death
- Boca Raton, Florida, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- Florida, USA
Members
Reviews
Yes there were many suspects. At first. Then the author totally gave everything away and made the last part of the book very dull. Which isn’t saying much considering that the first part of the book wasn’t that exciting to begin with. Sure there are the creepy pictures and the weird mechanical voice on the phone, but the tension never really builds. Gail is too unsympathetic a figure, too. Her blind attraction to Anthony Quintana, her leftover attraction to her ex-husband Dave and her show more ‘oh well, things will work out in the end’ attitude are really annoying. For someone who is supposed to be so smart, she sure gets thrown for loop after loop.
At first I thought it might be Dave. Then I thought it might be Anthony, trying to make it look so bad at Gail’s that the court would give Karen to Dave. Then when the old case files are dredged out and we hear about the man who got his house taken away by a bank that Gail represented. He is ruined and then kills his kids and his wife and then himself. Well, almost. The wife lived. About 2 paragraphs after that, Gail’s inept receptionist starts acting nuts, gets fired and then Gail finds out she didn’t have a husband or kids. Bingo. Revenge motive. Deranged widow. The bit framing Gail’s handyman was mildly interesting, but not much was done with it. It was as if the author knew it was a throw-away piece from the beginning.
In the end we learn that although Anthony isn’t behind the harassment or threats, he isn’t as loving and wonderful as portrayed. He deliberately soured a deal between Dave and a major corporation so that Dave would continue to be a loser and wouldn’t stand any chance of winning Gail back. Gail finds out about it and about the fact that Anthony’s grandfather had her client’s husband killed in order to protect his own crimes from being discovered. She breaks it off and Anthony turns into a complete asshole. Thankfully, the book was over by then. show less
At first I thought it might be Dave. Then I thought it might be Anthony, trying to make it look so bad at Gail’s that the court would give Karen to Dave. Then when the old case files are dredged out and we hear about the man who got his house taken away by a bank that Gail represented. He is ruined and then kills his kids and his wife and then himself. Well, almost. The wife lived. About 2 paragraphs after that, Gail’s inept receptionist starts acting nuts, gets fired and then Gail finds out she didn’t have a husband or kids. Bingo. Revenge motive. Deranged widow. The bit framing Gail’s handyman was mildly interesting, but not much was done with it. It was as if the author knew it was a throw-away piece from the beginning.
In the end we learn that although Anthony isn’t behind the harassment or threats, he isn’t as loving and wonderful as portrayed. He deliberately soured a deal between Dave and a major corporation so that Dave would continue to be a loser and wouldn’t stand any chance of winning Gail back. Gail finds out about it and about the fact that Anthony’s grandfather had her client’s husband killed in order to protect his own crimes from being discovered. She breaks it off and Anthony turns into a complete asshole. Thankfully, the book was over by then. show less
I think I have had it with this series.
In this book Gail and Anthony finally travel to Cuba to visit his family -- but the story just blows up and I found myself hating, or at least disliking both main protagonists because they both act like jerks at virtually every opportunity.
In this book Gail and Anthony finally travel to Cuba to visit his family -- but the story just blows up and I found myself hating, or at least disliking both main protagonists because they both act like jerks at virtually every opportunity.
A very good read, I must admit that I hadn't expected that....
It all seemed so logical from the blurp, so straight forward, that I used it as an in between read. I was wrong there however: the book had more to it. It wasn't difficult, but luckily it wasn't all whatit seemed from the beginning.
I must admit to disliking all characters apart from the little girl. After all it isn't her fault, is it? But all the rest... oh please!
It all seemed so logical from the blurp, so straight forward, that I used it as an in between read. I was wrong there however: the book had more to it. It wasn't difficult, but luckily it wasn't all whatit seemed from the beginning.
I must admit to disliking all characters apart from the little girl. After all it isn't her fault, is it? But all the rest... oh please!
The setting for this novel is the glitzy South Beach area, where all the models and high rollers like to come out to play at night. This is where the novel begins, a young model is invited to a high profile party at a club by her on and off again drug dealing boyfriend. He gives her some pills and leads her up to the VIP lounge. Ali the young model is just in awe of the people that she is surrounded by. The next thing she remembers is that she is being gang-raped by three men in the room show more it's pretty brutal and when she tries to fight back she's tossed out of the club like garbage. Two of the men are pretty prominent players in the area. Her friend, Catelyn takes her to the hospital where she is treated and notify the police to what has happened.
The new State Attorney doesn't want to take the case because of the players involved and hands it off to one of one of his prosecutors, Sam Hagen who has been in Felony crimes for eighteen years and knows his way around a courtroom. The State Attorney is convinced that this will amount to nothing that Ali, the victim will realize that it's best to keep quite and the charges against these men will go away. But it only gets bigger until the case blows up in everyone's face.
Ms. Parker's books have a lot of characters each with their own POV. But they are all come together seamlessly. She really goes into detail regarding the court system and how it works. The many cases that the prosecutors are trying at once, she leaves out no details, but they aren't boring at all so you're not stuck in a slow rut with her novels. I think her novels stand out because of the time she spent in the Florida State Attorney's office as a prosecutor. She knows her stuff and that's one of the reasons her novels are so good because she writes about what she knows. Her novels are gritty, believable and she is missed.
This novel was written in the 90's so its fun to go back into time when things weren't so convenient.
But one thing for sure Ms. Parker's writing style is timeless. show less
The new State Attorney doesn't want to take the case because of the players involved and hands it off to one of one of his prosecutors, Sam Hagen who has been in Felony crimes for eighteen years and knows his way around a courtroom. The State Attorney is convinced that this will amount to nothing that Ali, the victim will realize that it's best to keep quite and the charges against these men will go away. But it only gets bigger until the case blows up in everyone's face.
Ms. Parker's books have a lot of characters each with their own POV. But they are all come together seamlessly. She really goes into detail regarding the court system and how it works. The many cases that the prosecutors are trying at once, she leaves out no details, but they aren't boring at all so you're not stuck in a slow rut with her novels. I think her novels stand out because of the time she spent in the Florida State Attorney's office as a prosecutor. She knows her stuff and that's one of the reasons her novels are so good because she writes about what she knows. Her novels are gritty, believable and she is missed.
This novel was written in the 90's so its fun to go back into time when things weren't so convenient.
But one thing for sure Ms. Parker's writing style is timeless. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 16
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 2,152
- Popularity
- #11,949
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 21
- ISBNs
- 160
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- 8
- Favorited
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