http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122731884 Robert B. Parker, the blunt and beloved crime novelist who helped revive and modernize the hard-boiled genre and branded a tough guy of his own through his Spenser series, has died. He was 77. An ambulance was sent to Parker's home in Cambridge on Monday morning for reports of a sudden death, said Alexa Manocchio, spokeswoman for the Cambridge police department. Parker's longtime agent, Helen Brant, said that the author's widow, Joan, called her Monday right after finding him dead at his desk. "They had had breakfast together Monday and he was perfectly fine," Brant said. "She went out to do her running and when she came back about an hour later, he was dead. We were in a complete state of shock and still cannot quite believe it." Well, as several commentors have said, if you're a writer and going to die, at your desk is a way to go.