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Spenser #40
Robert B. Parker's Lullaby
When fourteen-year-old Mattie Sullivan asks Spenser to look into her mother’s murder, he’s not completely convinced by her claim that the police investigation four years ago was botched.
Mattie is gruff, street-smart, and wise beyond her years. She's been left to care for her younger siblings and an alcoholic grandmother in a dilapidated apartment in South Boston. But her need for closure and her determination to make things right hit Spenser where he lives - they’re the very characteristics he abides by.
Mattie believes the man convicted of the crime is innocent and points Spenser to the Southie toughs who she saw carrying her mother away hours before her murder. Neither the Boston PD nor the neighborhood thugs are keen on his dredging up the past, but as Spenser becomes more involved in the case, he starts to realize that Mattie may be onto something. Spenser will need Hawk’s help to find peace for Mattie – a job that’s more dangerous than he ever thought.
Librarian's note: the characters, settings, pub dates, etc. have been done for Ace Atkin's 10 volume 'Robert B. Parker Spenser' series: #40, Lullaby (2012); #48, Someone to Watch Over Me (2019), [work in progress]
Mattie is gruff, street-smart, and wise beyond her years. She's been left to care for her younger siblings and an alcoholic grandmother in a dilapidated apartment in South Boston. But her need for closure and her determination to make things right hit Spenser where he lives - they’re the very characteristics he abides by.
Mattie believes the man convicted of the crime is innocent and points Spenser to the Southie toughs who she saw carrying her mother away hours before her murder. Neither the Boston PD nor the neighborhood thugs are keen on his dredging up the past, but as Spenser becomes more involved in the case, he starts to realize that Mattie may be onto something. Spenser will need Hawk’s help to find peace for Mattie – a job that’s more dangerous than he ever thought.
Librarian's note: the characters, settings, pub dates, etc. have been done for Ace Atkin's 10 volume 'Robert B. Parker Spenser' series: #40, Lullaby (2012); #48, Someone to Watch Over Me (2019), [work in progress]
310 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2012
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2997 people want to read
About the author
Ace Atkins
71 books1,558 followersAce Atkins is the author of twenty-eight books, including eleven Quinn Colson novels, the first two of which, The Ranger and The Lost Ones, were nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel (he has a third Edgar nomination for his short story "Last Fair Deal Gone Down"). He is the author of nine New York Times-bestselling novels in the continuation of Robert B. Parker's Spenser series. Before turning to fiction, he was a correspondent for the St. Petersburg Times and a crime reporter for the Tampa Tribune, and he played defensive end for Auburn University football.
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March 28, 2018
Robert B. Parker is dead! Long live Robert B. Parker!
Here we have the first Spenser novel done by Ace Atkins who was chosen to take over the series after RBP shuffled off this mortal coil. How did Atkins do? Pretty damn well. In fact, he outshines a lot of the later RBP books.
Spenser gets hired by a 14 year old girl named Mattie whose mother was killed when she was 10. Mattie saw her mother pushed into a car by a couple of local thugs, but since her mom was a drug addicted barfly and the cops caught and convicted another likely suspect, no one was interested in listening to her. Spenser is impressed with the tough and stubborn Mattie who is driven to get justice for her mother even as she takes care of her twin younger sisters while living with her drunken grandma so he agrees to help for the princely fee of a dozen doughnuts. Investigating the case puts Spenser up against some old enemies as well as pissing off a volatile FBI agent.
I’m on record with numerous complaints about the Spenser franchise in the latter part of RBP’s career. The guy had gotten pretty lazy with repeated themes and characters types, and it often seemed that even Spenser was bored as he worked through his cases. Atkins does an impressive job of delivering all the familiar Spenser elements while injecting some fresh life into the series.
Spenser is more lively and engaged. Hawk comes across as slightly edgier and angrier, much like his earlier incarnation. Susan seems like a decent girlfriend instead of a bitchy goddess to be worshipped and obeyed, and Atkins wisely limits the amount of time she and Spenser spend together. That alone would probably make most long-time Spenser readers rejoice.
It’s obvious that Atkins was a fan of this series and probably had a helluva lot of fun writing this while adding a few winks-n-nods to Spenser’s past. I had been hoping that we’d get a James Bond Casino Royale style reboot for the series, but Atkins picks up where the last book left off yet still manages to signal that this Spenser reborn.
One tiny tidbit really caught my notice. Very early in the series, RBP had Spenser doing wood carvings as a hobby, but just dropped that with no explanation. Atkins does a nice scene where Spenser is thinking deeply about the case when he notices an old half finished carving on a shelf that he hasn‘t touched in years. He dusts it off and begins working on it again. It was a nice little statement that Atkins is taking the series back to it’s roots without dumping Spenser‘s long history.
And I guess just trying to launch a new phase of a classic detective character wasn’t enough of a challenge for Atkins. He also works in a sly homage to the western True Grit in this. Spenser is helping a spirited young girl named Mattie find the murderer of a parent, and Susan is reading a Charles Portis novel at one point. Plus, there’s a recreation of one of the key scenes from the book and films with a Spenser and Hawk twist to it.
I’m impressed with what Atkins delivered here and excited to see where he takes it next. Spenser appears to be in very good hands.
Next up: Spenser doesn't have much fun even though the case involves an amusement park in Wonderland.
Here we have the first Spenser novel done by Ace Atkins who was chosen to take over the series after RBP shuffled off this mortal coil. How did Atkins do? Pretty damn well. In fact, he outshines a lot of the later RBP books.
Spenser gets hired by a 14 year old girl named Mattie whose mother was killed when she was 10. Mattie saw her mother pushed into a car by a couple of local thugs, but since her mom was a drug addicted barfly and the cops caught and convicted another likely suspect, no one was interested in listening to her. Spenser is impressed with the tough and stubborn Mattie who is driven to get justice for her mother even as she takes care of her twin younger sisters while living with her drunken grandma so he agrees to help for the princely fee of a dozen doughnuts. Investigating the case puts Spenser up against some old enemies as well as pissing off a volatile FBI agent.
I’m on record with numerous complaints about the Spenser franchise in the latter part of RBP’s career. The guy had gotten pretty lazy with repeated themes and characters types, and it often seemed that even Spenser was bored as he worked through his cases. Atkins does an impressive job of delivering all the familiar Spenser elements while injecting some fresh life into the series.
Spenser is more lively and engaged. Hawk comes across as slightly edgier and angrier, much like his earlier incarnation. Susan seems like a decent girlfriend instead of a bitchy goddess to be worshipped and obeyed, and Atkins wisely limits the amount of time she and Spenser spend together. That alone would probably make most long-time Spenser readers rejoice.
It’s obvious that Atkins was a fan of this series and probably had a helluva lot of fun writing this while adding a few winks-n-nods to Spenser’s past. I had been hoping that we’d get a James Bond Casino Royale style reboot for the series, but Atkins picks up where the last book left off yet still manages to signal that this Spenser reborn.
One tiny tidbit really caught my notice. Very early in the series, RBP had Spenser doing wood carvings as a hobby, but just dropped that with no explanation. Atkins does a nice scene where Spenser is thinking deeply about the case when he notices an old half finished carving on a shelf that he hasn‘t touched in years. He dusts it off and begins working on it again. It was a nice little statement that Atkins is taking the series back to it’s roots without dumping Spenser‘s long history.
And I guess just trying to launch a new phase of a classic detective character wasn’t enough of a challenge for Atkins. He also works in a sly homage to the western True Grit in this. Spenser is helping a spirited young girl named Mattie find the murderer of a parent, and Susan is reading a Charles Portis novel at one point. Plus, there’s a recreation of one of the key scenes from the book and films with a Spenser and Hawk twist to it.
I’m impressed with what Atkins delivered here and excited to see where he takes it next. Spenser appears to be in very good hands.
Next up: Spenser doesn't have much fun even though the case involves an amusement park in Wonderland.
March 12, 2019
Robert Parker wrote a Spenser P.I. book almost every year since 1973 until his death in 2010. He was extremely influential on the P.I. genre, but in his later years his quality was sacrificed for cash cow possibilities (he suddenly started publishing two to three books a year after he turned 65). Ace Atkins was tapped by the family/estate to continue the Spenser series, and he succeeds fairly well. I felt like Atkins achieved the Spenser feel, although he’s more of a golden retriever type writer and HE’S GONNA DO IT JUST LIKE PARKER ONLY MOOR BETTER!
Ingredients to a Spenser novel:
-appearance by bestie Hawk, workout buddy, kick-ass, deadly, sharp-dressing black dude. Please ignore the traditional stereotype role.
-Susan, Spenser’s Harvard-educated long-standing life-partner, except they never say, ‘life-partner,’ because that would be lame. Susan has an eating disorder (undiagnosed), occasionally -worries about Spenser and enjoys sexy times.
-Pearl the Wonder dog
-doughnuts (with and without sprinkles)
-cop friends. Atkins gives us all of them: Belson, Quirk, and FBI guy, Epstein
-commentary on Boston. Here, Harvard area and Southie area
-cooking episodes. I think there was something with sausage here
-Boston Red Sox
-random literature references
-bonus friends in this book: the smokin'hot (I hear it as one word) Rita and Vinnie the shooter
Atkins gives many nods to prior incidents in the series, such as the time he and Susan separated, the time he shot Gerry Broz, the cases involving Joe Broz, the cases involving Vinnie, the mentions of his semi-adopted kid Paul. He also ‘updates’ the characters. Slightly. Susan actually eats! (Although it’s mostly egg whites, lettuce and a noodle).
I felt the 14 year-old Mattie, the girl who hires Spenser, was somewhat inappropriately characterized. I finally mentally rewrote her age to upper teens and tried my best to ignore it. Basically, she acts like a contemporary to Spenser and Hawk. Spenser also shows an amazing amount of bad judgement in this book in regards to her. I think Parker would have also given us a more heroic ending without the double climax. This feels movie-scriptish at the end.
Overall, pretty fun. Definitely a step up from the 2000-era Spenser novels when he was clearlyghostwritten/phoning it in nearing the end of his career. Who knows? I may even pick up the next. I liked it better than Atkins' Colson series.
P.S. Richard D.: don’t read this because Spenser winks ALL THE TIME. To everyone: FBI, bartenders, 9 year olds and bad guys. He's an equal-opportunity winker.
Ingredients to a Spenser novel:
-appearance by bestie Hawk, workout buddy, kick-ass, deadly, sharp-dressing black dude. Please ignore the traditional stereotype role.
-Susan, Spenser’s Harvard-educated long-standing life-partner, except they never say, ‘life-partner,’ because that would be lame. Susan has an eating disorder (undiagnosed), occasionally -worries about Spenser and enjoys sexy times.
-Pearl the Wonder dog
-doughnuts (with and without sprinkles)
-cop friends. Atkins gives us all of them: Belson, Quirk, and FBI guy, Epstein
-commentary on Boston. Here, Harvard area and Southie area
-cooking episodes. I think there was something with sausage here
-Boston Red Sox
-random literature references
-bonus friends in this book: the smokin'hot (I hear it as one word) Rita and Vinnie the shooter
Atkins gives many nods to prior incidents in the series, such as the time he and Susan separated, the time he shot Gerry Broz, the cases involving Joe Broz, the cases involving Vinnie, the mentions of his semi-adopted kid Paul. He also ‘updates’ the characters. Slightly. Susan actually eats! (Although it’s mostly egg whites, lettuce and a noodle).
I felt the 14 year-old Mattie, the girl who hires Spenser, was somewhat inappropriately characterized. I finally mentally rewrote her age to upper teens and tried my best to ignore it. Basically, she acts like a contemporary to Spenser and Hawk. Spenser also shows an amazing amount of bad judgement in this book in regards to her. I think Parker would have also given us a more heroic ending without the double climax. This feels movie-scriptish at the end.
Overall, pretty fun. Definitely a step up from the 2000-era Spenser novels when he was clearly
P.S. Richard D.: don’t read this because Spenser winks ALL THE TIME. To everyone: FBI, bartenders, 9 year olds and bad guys. He's an equal-opportunity winker.
August 1, 2019
Spenser has to channel the father instincts that he has less practice with than most men of a certain age. The object is Mattie Sullivan who walks into his office one winter day and sizes him up for the job of finding the real killer of her mother---a crime that took place four years previously. Mattie is a hard-scrabble Southy. (Those unfamiliar with Boston might want to do a little online research.) At age fourteen she is in charge of what remains of her family --- two younger sisters and an alcoholic grandmother. Mattie is stubborn, determined, street-wise, and foul-tongued. This, no surprise, charms Spenser into taking the case.
As Spenser looks into the case (for a fee of a dozen doughnuts) he follows a trail that leads to old adversaries, the Boston drug kingpins, and the FBI.
Atkins does what you would expect from someone writing a story involving another author’s (Robert B. Parker) character. He hits the identifiable style notes including food, clothing, and cultural references. What was surprising was how he handled the rhythm of the dialogue…not an easy thing to do well. The plot is slightly sappy and drawn out, but we get to have time with familiar characters including: Susan, Hawk, Quirk, Belson and Vinnie.
What brought this up close to 4* for me was the reading by Joe Mantegna, who played Spenser several times and has been the reader for most of the audio books.
As Spenser looks into the case (for a fee of a dozen doughnuts) he follows a trail that leads to old adversaries, the Boston drug kingpins, and the FBI.
Atkins does what you would expect from someone writing a story involving another author’s (Robert B. Parker) character. He hits the identifiable style notes including food, clothing, and cultural references. What was surprising was how he handled the rhythm of the dialogue…not an easy thing to do well. The plot is slightly sappy and drawn out, but we get to have time with familiar characters including: Susan, Hawk, Quirk, Belson and Vinnie.
What brought this up close to 4* for me was the reading by Joe Mantegna, who played Spenser several times and has been the reader for most of the audio books.
September 26, 2016
Spenser holds an odd but prominent position in my landscape of beloved characters. Usually, my favorites are a motley collection of the damaged, disreputable, and deadly; Spenser's my exception, the genuinely heroic character I genuinely like, who comes across successfully as both a real character in his own right and a somewhat aspirational figure for the rest of us. (No surprise, then, that my favorite book in the series is the odd Early Autumn, where the plot is feather-light and the focus is all on how Spenser lives his life.) At his best, Spenser's practical idealism, humor, and low-key Renaissance Man-like ability to do a lot of things reasonably but not ridiculously well made him one of the most appealing first-person narrators out there. But later Robert Parker books coasted on Spenser's charms, and I remember them mostly as a handful of one-liners surrounded by a lot of flab, with Spenser's distinctiveness getting buried.
Ace Atkins's Lullaby, on the other hand, reminds me of the finals week where, to cope with exams, I read a Spenser novel every day. It's brisk and funny, but with enough moral weight to give it depth and shadows.
Mattie, a hard-edged fourteen year-old from Southie, hires Spenser--for the steep price of a dozen donuts--to look into her mother's murder from a few years back. She's convinced that the man who was convicted for it was an innocent, hard-luck schmuck in the wrong place at the wrong time, especially since she herself saw her mother being forced into a car by two entirely different men. Spenser is less sure, but he admires the girl's grit (I like to think I would have recognized the True Grit homage, but Kemper got there first, so I'll never know for sure) and wants to help get her some closure, which a surprisingly tolerable Susan warns may be both difficult and temporary.
Spenser's relationship with Mattie is the heart of the novel, and Atkins does some interesting things with it. He takes her under his wing like he did Paul, but he can't give her the same things: if anything, she's too self-reliant. Paul had to make himself grow up; Mattie has to, if she can, grow back into childhood, at least for a little while. It's poignant without being overplayed, and Mattie's combination of vulnerability and toughness makes good use of Susan's psychological skills, as she's able to help Spenser dissect his own feelings about Mattie and it might mean for her to move forward. (All of this gets neatly played in a minor chord with the Broz family--what does it mean to always be "the kid" in contrast to your father?)
There's good material for Hawk here, too, as Atkins trims some of the chumminess away from his partnership with Spenser and fits in a dynamic that crackles rather than comforts. All the supporting cast is in fine form here--I loved Paul sending Spenser a postcard in French, knowing Spenser doesn't read it--but Hawk particularly shines.
In addition to giving us a good rendition of Parker's best, Atkins also provides Parker's Parkerness, the little details that made the Spenser books distinctive: the full wardrobe descriptions, the guided tour of Boston, and the attention to every meal and drink. I was charmed by this, though I can see how someone might not be, and might even think it's the exact thing that should have been trimmed with the authorial transition. (It's not. The cutesy lead-ins to Spenser and Susan's off-the-page sex scenes are.) But to me, they have their own loveliness, and thematically, they're what Spenser is trying to teach Mattie. No matter what else is going on, there are spots of ordinary pleasure to be found and enjoyed.
All of which leaves me with a book that's a great elegy for Parker and a great beginning for Atkins's tenure with the series. I'm glad to feel like "my guy" is finally back.
Ace Atkins's Lullaby, on the other hand, reminds me of the finals week where, to cope with exams, I read a Spenser novel every day. It's brisk and funny, but with enough moral weight to give it depth and shadows.
Mattie, a hard-edged fourteen year-old from Southie, hires Spenser--for the steep price of a dozen donuts--to look into her mother's murder from a few years back. She's convinced that the man who was convicted for it was an innocent, hard-luck schmuck in the wrong place at the wrong time, especially since she herself saw her mother being forced into a car by two entirely different men. Spenser is less sure, but he admires the girl's grit (I like to think I would have recognized the True Grit homage, but Kemper got there first, so I'll never know for sure) and wants to help get her some closure, which a surprisingly tolerable Susan warns may be both difficult and temporary.
Spenser's relationship with Mattie is the heart of the novel, and Atkins does some interesting things with it. He takes her under his wing like he did Paul, but he can't give her the same things: if anything, she's too self-reliant. Paul had to make himself grow up; Mattie has to, if she can, grow back into childhood, at least for a little while. It's poignant without being overplayed, and Mattie's combination of vulnerability and toughness makes good use of Susan's psychological skills, as she's able to help Spenser dissect his own feelings about Mattie and it might mean for her to move forward. (All of this gets neatly played in a minor chord with the Broz family--what does it mean to always be "the kid" in contrast to your father?)
There's good material for Hawk here, too, as Atkins trims some of the chumminess away from his partnership with Spenser and fits in a dynamic that crackles rather than comforts. All the supporting cast is in fine form here--I loved Paul sending Spenser a postcard in French, knowing Spenser doesn't read it--but Hawk particularly shines.
In addition to giving us a good rendition of Parker's best, Atkins also provides Parker's Parkerness, the little details that made the Spenser books distinctive: the full wardrobe descriptions, the guided tour of Boston, and the attention to every meal and drink. I was charmed by this, though I can see how someone might not be, and might even think it's the exact thing that should have been trimmed with the authorial transition. (It's not. The cutesy lead-ins to Spenser and Susan's off-the-page sex scenes are.) But to me, they have their own loveliness, and thematically, they're what Spenser is trying to teach Mattie. No matter what else is going on, there are spots of ordinary pleasure to be found and enjoyed.
All of which leaves me with a book that's a great elegy for Parker and a great beginning for Atkins's tenure with the series. I'm glad to feel like "my guy" is finally back.
April 7, 2023
By chance I got my hands on a few continuation novels on the work of the late Robert B. Parker.
This one is about Spenser the female friendly macho Private investigator who has his heart in the right place. This one is about a 14 year old girl whose mother has been killed 4 years earlier and is very sure that they locked up the wrong person for the deed. Spenser goes out of his way to humour the kid and finds out very soon that she is right and that the forces of evildoer are about to get really nasty on his lovely shaped behind, as Susan Spensers' everlasting love interest would immediately admit.
Enter Hawk, Spensers' best friend, who would be a thug but instead is a force of good to be reckoned with. With Sixkill out on business it is them who take on a return of organised crime covered by some interesting new partners.
The banter is great, the food is great, Susan hot as always, Hawk menacing, Spenser amusing himself until he gets angry, Pearl very much in for some attention. The whole gang is back and it is enjoyable enough. I would dare to say that some of Parkers' own books were less enjoyable than this first attempt at continuation by the talented Ace Atkins.
Well recommended if you enjoyed the Robert B. Parker series. This one is up there quality wise.
Update april 2023-
Sometimes you need something funny to read and the banter by Spenser, hawk and Spenser, Suzan & Spenser or anybody with Spenser is more often wickedly funny and makes comforting reading. Yes sometimes the book is dark but Spenser even by this continuation writer is quite excellent. I picked up a new copy forgotten that I had already read this one before, still I have had a fun time and while my favorite was Jesse Stone Spenser himself was quite a decent fellow, and Hawk is as always brilliant.
This one is about Spenser the female friendly macho Private investigator who has his heart in the right place. This one is about a 14 year old girl whose mother has been killed 4 years earlier and is very sure that they locked up the wrong person for the deed. Spenser goes out of his way to humour the kid and finds out very soon that she is right and that the forces of evildoer are about to get really nasty on his lovely shaped behind, as Susan Spensers' everlasting love interest would immediately admit.
Enter Hawk, Spensers' best friend, who would be a thug but instead is a force of good to be reckoned with. With Sixkill out on business it is them who take on a return of organised crime covered by some interesting new partners.
The banter is great, the food is great, Susan hot as always, Hawk menacing, Spenser amusing himself until he gets angry, Pearl very much in for some attention. The whole gang is back and it is enjoyable enough. I would dare to say that some of Parkers' own books were less enjoyable than this first attempt at continuation by the talented Ace Atkins.
Well recommended if you enjoyed the Robert B. Parker series. This one is up there quality wise.
Update april 2023-
Sometimes you need something funny to read and the banter by Spenser, hawk and Spenser, Suzan & Spenser or anybody with Spenser is more often wickedly funny and makes comforting reading. Yes sometimes the book is dark but Spenser even by this continuation writer is quite excellent. I picked up a new copy forgotten that I had already read this one before, still I have had a fun time and while my favorite was Jesse Stone Spenser himself was quite a decent fellow, and Hawk is as always brilliant.
September 13, 2012
After Robert Parker passed away his estate hired writer Ace Atkins to continue the Spenser series of detective novels. The first one by Mr. Atkins is titled Robert B. Parker’s Lullaby (an awkward name if I ever heard one, but good marketing I guess). At first I wasn’t going to read it; not out of any misplaced loyalty to Mr. Parker, but because when one writer creates and writes a book or a series s/he puts his/her own distinct voice to it which is something almost impossible to duplicate. Since Sherlock Holmes entered the public domain not a single writer who has tried to write new material about him has completely caught Arthur Conan Doyle’s voice. That’s not to say all of the new stories about Holmes are bad, but they do not sound like they were written by Doyle. When Rex Stout passed away and his estate hired Robert Goldsborough (a family friend who’d never written ANYTHING before) to continue Stout’s brilliant series about detectives Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin; Goldsborough’s books were a travesty! I read the first two and could not believe that Goldsborough had ever even read any of the original material by Stout. Even Robert Parker himself had a problem with this. Mr. Parker was authorized to finish the novel Poodle Springs, sequel to one of the most brilliant detective novels of all time; Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, which was left unfinished after Chandler’s death. The part of Poodle Springs that Chandler wrote before his death was pure genius; Chandler elevated detective novels literally into classic literature. The roughly half of the book that Robert Parker wrote to finish the novel was very good in itself, but the two men’s voices were so different you could tell exactly where Chandler left off and Parker picked up. If someone had drawn a line between the chapters it couldn’t have been more obvious who wrote what.
So given this (especially the garbage Goldsborough had made of one of my two favorite series) I had no intention of reading a Spenser novel written by anyone but Robert Parker. Except…my daughter and I made one of our trips to the local bookstore where we’d gather a lapful of books and magazines; get a couple of chairs next to each other, and sit there reading; exchanging comments on what we’d picked up. On a whim I picked up Lullaby; not to read, but just to flip through and see just how bad it was.
Only it wasn’t bad. In fact, the ‘voice’ of the book was dead on sounding exactly like Robert Parker. More, the characters acted precisely like the characters as written by Parker; not once did I feel like I was reading about imposters, this *was* Spenser, Hawk, Susan and all the other wonderful people in this series. I wound up getting caught up in it and read half the novel in the store before my daughter and I had to leave and just like the books written by Parker; it made me laugh and smile. I finally got hold of a copy from my library to finish it and you know what? Not only did Atkins duplicate Parker’s voice; not only did he write the characters of the series true to the way Parker wrote them…Atkins actually wrote a Spenser novel that was *better* than the one or two weaker entries in the series that Parker himself had written. I’m still amazed, but I’m also looking forward to the next Spenser novel as written by Ace Atkins.
Just as a footnote; the first book Parker wrote in the Spenser series is titled The Godwulf Manuscript and is not one of the strongest in the series. It’s not bad, but it felt like Parker was still finding his footing with this new series. It’s the second book, God Save The Child, in which Parker really starts to hit his stride with the series and is the one I’d recommend reading first. After that; the books are a little more fun if read in order as the characters do grow over the course of the series. Raymond Chandler and Rex Stout were better writers then Robert Parker, but for sheer fun Parker even has these two Masters beat.
So given this (especially the garbage Goldsborough had made of one of my two favorite series) I had no intention of reading a Spenser novel written by anyone but Robert Parker. Except…my daughter and I made one of our trips to the local bookstore where we’d gather a lapful of books and magazines; get a couple of chairs next to each other, and sit there reading; exchanging comments on what we’d picked up. On a whim I picked up Lullaby; not to read, but just to flip through and see just how bad it was.
Only it wasn’t bad. In fact, the ‘voice’ of the book was dead on sounding exactly like Robert Parker. More, the characters acted precisely like the characters as written by Parker; not once did I feel like I was reading about imposters, this *was* Spenser, Hawk, Susan and all the other wonderful people in this series. I wound up getting caught up in it and read half the novel in the store before my daughter and I had to leave and just like the books written by Parker; it made me laugh and smile. I finally got hold of a copy from my library to finish it and you know what? Not only did Atkins duplicate Parker’s voice; not only did he write the characters of the series true to the way Parker wrote them…Atkins actually wrote a Spenser novel that was *better* than the one or two weaker entries in the series that Parker himself had written. I’m still amazed, but I’m also looking forward to the next Spenser novel as written by Ace Atkins.
Just as a footnote; the first book Parker wrote in the Spenser series is titled The Godwulf Manuscript and is not one of the strongest in the series. It’s not bad, but it felt like Parker was still finding his footing with this new series. It’s the second book, God Save The Child, in which Parker really starts to hit his stride with the series and is the one I’d recommend reading first. After that; the books are a little more fun if read in order as the characters do grow over the course of the series. Raymond Chandler and Rex Stout were better writers then Robert Parker, but for sheer fun Parker even has these two Masters beat.
June 3, 2012
Ace Atkins isn't Robert B Parker
While the formula is similar, the characters aren't the same. It's hard to pin down, because sometimes he has mannerisms spot on, then they slip away in the next paragraph. Susan isn't Susan. She tries too hard, and in the wrong way, to bring out "feelings" from Matti. She doesn't help the plot along at all. If Parker had her play a part in a story, it's because there was a clear role for her to play. Hawk slips in and out of character. We have always known Hawk would always be there for Spenser; we don't need Hawk to say that he loves Spenser - but we also don't need to hear him say he doesn't. We don't need to harp on Hawk only is there for Hawk.
Maybe it will get better in the next novel. The last paragraph indicates that there will be a a next novel ... something else Parker never needed to do.
While the formula is similar, the characters aren't the same. It's hard to pin down, because sometimes he has mannerisms spot on, then they slip away in the next paragraph. Susan isn't Susan. She tries too hard, and in the wrong way, to bring out "feelings" from Matti. She doesn't help the plot along at all. If Parker had her play a part in a story, it's because there was a clear role for her to play. Hawk slips in and out of character. We have always known Hawk would always be there for Spenser; we don't need Hawk to say that he loves Spenser - but we also don't need to hear him say he doesn't. We don't need to harp on Hawk only is there for Hawk.
Maybe it will get better in the next novel. The last paragraph indicates that there will be a a next novel ... something else Parker never needed to do.
May 6, 2012
When I finished Robert B. Parker's SIxkill last year it was a sad moment as author Parker had died in 2010 and this was billed as the last Spenser novel. I have been a fan of Parker's Boston detective for the life of the series, which began in 1973 and stretched to 40 novels. Like any fan relationship mine had it's ups and downs. Parker wrote to a formula, no denying that, but it was a witty, dialogue driven scenario. The books were sweet confections, not too long and always entertaining. They were, in general, also excellent examples of that aging genre, the private-eye novel. (Parker did a PhD on the detective novel). Late last year I read that the Parker estate had contracted to have the series continued and they had chosen the improbably monikered Ace Atkins. Hope springing eternal I looked up Mr Atkin's credentials and discovered he was the author of some well-reagarded noirish novels. Then I waited for the results. Last week the first fruit of this partnership emerged - the unwieldy title of Robert B. Parker's Lullaby. I understand the promotional need for that so on to the book. The only urgent question is does Mr Atkins succeed in his task and to that I answer yes, with some typical fan quibbles.
Lullaby is a typical (and this is a compliment) Spenser novel. A larger cast of characters than usual show up but they are all members of the long Spenser backstory. Spenser's famous quips and the banter with his friend and partner, Hawk, are in abundance. And for the fans also present is Susan Silverman, Detectives Belsen and Quirk, various Boston low life hoodlums and Pearl the wonder dog. The story is classic and well within the series's theme of justice reclaimed. My quibbles are few: 1) the book goes on a bit longer than necessary, perhaps due to that large cast of characters; 2) Spenser seems to spend more time than usual describing his wardrobe; and 3) some of the dialog, not all, but some, seems a little stilted. One thing I loved is that Boston shows up in more descriptive mode than was usual in Parker's books. Perhaps this was because Parker lived in the city and it was more backdrop for him. Atkins makes some places more important to the plot, particularly Southie, and as an ex-Bostonian I loved that. So, Spenser lives and a fine thing it is.
Lullaby is a typical (and this is a compliment) Spenser novel. A larger cast of characters than usual show up but they are all members of the long Spenser backstory. Spenser's famous quips and the banter with his friend and partner, Hawk, are in abundance. And for the fans also present is Susan Silverman, Detectives Belsen and Quirk, various Boston low life hoodlums and Pearl the wonder dog. The story is classic and well within the series's theme of justice reclaimed. My quibbles are few: 1) the book goes on a bit longer than necessary, perhaps due to that large cast of characters; 2) Spenser seems to spend more time than usual describing his wardrobe; and 3) some of the dialog, not all, but some, seems a little stilted. One thing I loved is that Boston shows up in more descriptive mode than was usual in Parker's books. Perhaps this was because Parker lived in the city and it was more backdrop for him. Atkins makes some places more important to the plot, particularly Southie, and as an ex-Bostonian I loved that. So, Spenser lives and a fine thing it is.
September 7, 2012
Robert Parker died again last night. I had made myself a promise to read each of the first post-Parker Spenser, Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall books. "Lullaby" was the first.
I have every book Mr. Parker wrote. I adored him. Much like Hemingway, his style was spare but never simple. He had wit and charm and panache. His characters were three dimensional and exploded off the page. His writing sparkled and sizzled.
This book is flat. I couldn't recognize the characters - they were strangers. If Spenser and Susan were this dull and uninteresting, they would have never managed a decades long relationship. Hawk was a weak, cardboard version of the original. The dialogue was trite. Everyone sounded like everyone else.
There were also a few incorrect Boston related references and phrases.
I am so disappointed. I will keep my promise and read the new Jesse Stone and then Sunny Randall books. But after that, no more. I would prefer to go back to the beginning and reread all of Mr. Parker's exceptionally fine writing.
Rest in peace.
I have every book Mr. Parker wrote. I adored him. Much like Hemingway, his style was spare but never simple. He had wit and charm and panache. His characters were three dimensional and exploded off the page. His writing sparkled and sizzled.
This book is flat. I couldn't recognize the characters - they were strangers. If Spenser and Susan were this dull and uninteresting, they would have never managed a decades long relationship. Hawk was a weak, cardboard version of the original. The dialogue was trite. Everyone sounded like everyone else.
There were also a few incorrect Boston related references and phrases.
I am so disappointed. I will keep my promise and read the new Jesse Stone and then Sunny Randall books. But after that, no more. I would prefer to go back to the beginning and reread all of Mr. Parker's exceptionally fine writing.
Rest in peace.
April 11, 2020
Pushed off reading this for a long time as I wasn't sure whether I needed any non-Parker Spenser in my life. Truth is that the last 15-20 Spenser books were essentially self-parodies written to a fairly strict template and I pretty much loved them all, so what did I have to lose? Turns out, very little. This reads almost exactly like a late-period Spenser book. All the tropes and in-jokes show up as expected and the jokes are just as cheap and the action is just as sharp. There is absolutely no need for me to read any more of these, but I may anyway because they're fun. Spenser is fun. Hawk is fun. Susan is fun. Weirdly, my favourite thing about this was that it was around 120 pages longer than Parker's last few books. I still read the whole thing in an afternoon, there was just more to enjoy than usual.
August 2, 2024
An excellent continuation of Parker’s Spenser series. 14 year old Mattie makes a great addition to the cast of characters as she hires Spenser (for a dozen donuts) to track down her mother’s killer. The interaction between Spenser and young Mattie is both hilarious and touching as Spenser is forced to become a reluctant father figure.
June 19, 2016
The title says it's "Robert B. Parker's Lullaby," and the copyright belongs to the estate of Robert B. Parker, but this novel, the first without Parker, is all Atkins. The names are the same, but the writing is completely different. Not that this is bad; the writing is adequate, sometimes good. Better than most in the genre, probably. But the benchmarks of Parker's writing--and though the comparison is unfair, it's inescapable when you take over someone else's iconic series--were the sparseness of his prose, and the breeze of his wit and descriptions. In short, Parker made it all look effortless. Atkins simply tries too hard; his wit is sometimes strong and real, and his writing is often funny, but there are obvious instances in which he simply tries too hard to be witty or funny, and, at those specific moments, everything falls flat. I found the writing too self-aware. Characters would often say that now, to fit the genre, the other guy should say or do X, or behave like Y. Even Spenser tries too hard, and the funny thing about his character used to be that he so much didn't give a damn, that that was what partly made his lines so funny. He simply tried to self-amuse; here, he tries to amuse everyone else. Doesn't work most of the time.
And the transition novel also too clearly shows the age of the minor characters (Parker had purposely aged Spenser lately; here there's an odd combination of his world, and the other characters, getting old, but he doesn't. Necessary, of course, for the main character of the series--and Rita Fiore, more than everyone else, clearly hasn't aged a bit--but here it was just a weird juxtaposition.) and the carrying on of the world. Joe Broz is in Hospice care; the Fed who called Spenser Lochinvar is in a Jewish retirement community in Florida. Characters lament about how it all used to be, and frequently. Even a Whitey Bulger-like hood is frowned upon for being with a woman vastly younger than himself--though that's what Hawk does every night. The plot unfolds much like Parker's might; you'll see nothing new here if you've read his stuff. Yet it all does seem new anyway, somehow; Atkins clearly goes out of his way to make it his own, and mostly he does it well, and it's okay and necessary that he does so.
Overall it's a good book, sufficiently nostalgic and new at the same time, old and young at the same time (the main minor character, if you will, is fourteen, and the older guys respect her young toughness), Parker's and Atkins' at the same time. If you liked Parker, you'll like Atkins, and you might like Atkins if you didn't like Parker.
This is because his writing purposely does things that Parker's didn't. There's lots of imagery and extended metaphor here; outside of Crimson Joy, Parker usually stayed away from those. The paragraphs and sentences are longer; none of the action is as tightly written as Parker's was. This last could be worked on. Two scenes in the novel should've been a lot more tense than they were.
But it's a good transition novel. Atkins has now made the series his own; it'll be interesting to see what road he travels with it.
And the transition novel also too clearly shows the age of the minor characters (Parker had purposely aged Spenser lately; here there's an odd combination of his world, and the other characters, getting old, but he doesn't. Necessary, of course, for the main character of the series--and Rita Fiore, more than everyone else, clearly hasn't aged a bit--but here it was just a weird juxtaposition.) and the carrying on of the world. Joe Broz is in Hospice care; the Fed who called Spenser Lochinvar is in a Jewish retirement community in Florida. Characters lament about how it all used to be, and frequently. Even a Whitey Bulger-like hood is frowned upon for being with a woman vastly younger than himself--though that's what Hawk does every night. The plot unfolds much like Parker's might; you'll see nothing new here if you've read his stuff. Yet it all does seem new anyway, somehow; Atkins clearly goes out of his way to make it his own, and mostly he does it well, and it's okay and necessary that he does so.
Overall it's a good book, sufficiently nostalgic and new at the same time, old and young at the same time (the main minor character, if you will, is fourteen, and the older guys respect her young toughness), Parker's and Atkins' at the same time. If you liked Parker, you'll like Atkins, and you might like Atkins if you didn't like Parker.
This is because his writing purposely does things that Parker's didn't. There's lots of imagery and extended metaphor here; outside of Crimson Joy, Parker usually stayed away from those. The paragraphs and sentences are longer; none of the action is as tightly written as Parker's was. This last could be worked on. Two scenes in the novel should've been a lot more tense than they were.
But it's a good transition novel. Atkins has now made the series his own; it'll be interesting to see what road he travels with it.
August 2, 2012
My reaction to this novel is my own fault. I swore early on that I wouldn’t read any of the commissioned-by-Joan-Parker continuations of Robert B. Parker’s two main fiction series. True aficionados couldn’t possibly be satisfied by the puny vegan imitation of Mr. Steak A. Potatoes, right? Right. I have a new appreciation for the subtle stylistic elements of the originals that, toward the tail end of the “Spenser” series, had seemed easy to replicate. Not so easy, as it turns out.
LULLABY reads like a novelization of those dumb “Spenser: For Hire” episodes on TV in the Eighties, or the even lamer Joe Mantegna ones from the late Nineties. The beloved main characters – not to mention the always-welcome secondary ones like Vinnie Morris & Belson & Quirk – are ghosts of their original selves. Like people in video games – they look like people, but they don’t act like them.
I suspect that Ace Atkins, no matter how diligently he may have studied the Spenser opus, moved the portrayal of our favorite Boston p.i. closer to his own series hero. He gets too many little things wrong, which is to be expected – he’s not Robert B. Parker. (I’m trying to imagine the original Spenser telling an organized crime lord he looks “like an Oompa-Loompa” – nope, can’t!) The plot is okay, but the story needs the meat of the real Spenser & Hawk, the sexy smarts of Susan Silverman & Rita Fiore, to make it more than disposable. Like I said, it’s my own fault.
LULLABY reads like a novelization of those dumb “Spenser: For Hire” episodes on TV in the Eighties, or the even lamer Joe Mantegna ones from the late Nineties. The beloved main characters – not to mention the always-welcome secondary ones like Vinnie Morris & Belson & Quirk – are ghosts of their original selves. Like people in video games – they look like people, but they don’t act like them.
I suspect that Ace Atkins, no matter how diligently he may have studied the Spenser opus, moved the portrayal of our favorite Boston p.i. closer to his own series hero. He gets too many little things wrong, which is to be expected – he’s not Robert B. Parker. (I’m trying to imagine the original Spenser telling an organized crime lord he looks “like an Oompa-Loompa” – nope, can’t!) The plot is okay, but the story needs the meat of the real Spenser & Hawk, the sexy smarts of Susan Silverman & Rita Fiore, to make it more than disposable. Like I said, it’s my own fault.
November 7, 2012
I just finished Lullaby by Ace Atkins. I was hesitant to begin the book, and it sat dusty on my bookshelf for months. You see, Lullaby is Ace Atkins' first stab at a Spenser novel. My favorite author, Robert B. Parker, wrote almost 40 of them, but since his death in 2010, fans of the Boston gumshoe have gone without. I'm happy to report that, although Parker may be gone, Spenser is alive and well. Atkins has captured the essence of the smooth-talking, hard-hitting, system-bucking private investigator I came to love.
In this latest case, Spenser is approached by fourteen year-old Mattie Sullivan to investigate the brutal murder of her mother a couple years earlier. The deal is sealed for a box of donuts, and Spenser starts knocking on doors and shaking things up in Southie. The tale weaves in the familiar characters of Susan, Hawk, Pearl the Wonder Dog, Vinnie, and Joe Broz, and it includes plenty of wise-cracking banter, gun fights, good eats, and a dash of shrink talk.
Kudos to Atkins for undertaking the challenge and for remaining true to Parker's classic. It was a joy to read and I hope that there are more to come.
In this latest case, Spenser is approached by fourteen year-old Mattie Sullivan to investigate the brutal murder of her mother a couple years earlier. The deal is sealed for a box of donuts, and Spenser starts knocking on doors and shaking things up in Southie. The tale weaves in the familiar characters of Susan, Hawk, Pearl the Wonder Dog, Vinnie, and Joe Broz, and it includes plenty of wise-cracking banter, gun fights, good eats, and a dash of shrink talk.
Kudos to Atkins for undertaking the challenge and for remaining true to Parker's classic. It was a joy to read and I hope that there are more to come.
April 17, 2025
4 Stars. A nice beginning for Ace Atkins as he picks-up the Spenser series after Robert B. Parker passed away. Mattie Sullivan is the star here - a brash, loud and annoying 14-year-old who believes the man convicted for the murder of her mother is innocent. Annoying? Her favourite word is "bull-shit" which she employs extensively. Spenser and Hawk are nevertheless sympathetic to her plight. Ostensibly the care-giver for Mattie and her younger twin sisters is her grandmother, a lush of the first order, thus Mattie is responsible. The poverty of south Boston is well known so, for a box of doughnuts, Spenser takes her case. He is soon certain that she's got it right. Mattie has a father / daughter friendship, although he is not her father, with the guy convicted of the murder. Spenser can't stand him but it begins to look like a set-up. Is the case connected to organized crime and former crime-boss Joe Broz? How is the FBI involved? No one seems to want to talk. Ace Atkins still needs to work on some characterizations, too many of the Boston Southies sound exactly alike. But it's a good start and you'll enjoy it. Glad to see Spenser carrying on. (Se2018/Ap2025)
February 2, 2017
I enjoyed the great characters in this book and think Ace Atkins really captured RBK's style of writing. When a street tough, young girl asks Spencer to investigate the murder of her mother, he must dig into a five year old murder, which is anything but an open and shut case. I loved how all the characters were so realistic and brought to life by an all around good story. I will definitely be looking for more books in this series. Joe Mantegna is "Spencer" and does a seem less, well paced narrative.
May 2, 2012
After two heavier books, I was ready for a little fun, and this one fit the bill perfectly. If you were a fan of Robert B. Parker, you know he died about a year and a half ago. However, he was one of the publishing world's big sellers. Parker had a style that involved tight dialogue, a little comedy, some violence and an often twisted plot. Ace Atkins has done a good job. In fact, as I was reading it, I thought that it was more of the Parker I liked when I first started reading his stuff.
Toward the end, the books were short. They were published in triple spacing with large fonts. He didn't include Hawk in his last book which I found disappointing. (Of course I expect he didn't think it was going to BE his last book!)
The publisher had the screenwriter who wrote the scripts for the Jesse Stone television movies write a Jesse Stone book. It was disappointing. The writing lacked the tight quality the reader expects from Parker. Also he seemed to be trying to make a happy ending for Jesse so a lot of the angst which makes him such an interesting character was gone.
However in the case of THIS book, we have the Spenser I remember. He's still happily with Susan, they still live apart but that's okay. Hawk was back. There were some shootings and some blood, also some good dialogue and an interesting story with enough turns and twists to keep you guessing.
The story begins with a 14-yr-old girl named Mattie, a "Southie" (the tough Irish part of Boston) who hires Spenser to investigate the death of her mother four years before. She saw two men hustle her mother into a car. The police were sure they found the murderer. Mattie says she knows the accused and it wasn't him, that he was actually good to her mother and her kids. Not that Mattie's mother is anything to brag about - she was a junkie (after an accident), an alcoholic and a prostitute. Mattie and her two little sisters, twins, live with her grandmother, also an alcoholic. There's seldom food in the house, and Mattie is basically raising her sisters. Having just been paid handsomely on another case, Spenser accepts his payment in donuts and coffee. And so the fun begins.....
Complicated? No. A light read. Yes. I'm glad to have Spenser back. Robert B. Parker may have passed, but apparently Ace Atkins is a worthy heir.
Toward the end, the books were short. They were published in triple spacing with large fonts. He didn't include Hawk in his last book which I found disappointing. (Of course I expect he didn't think it was going to BE his last book!)
The publisher had the screenwriter who wrote the scripts for the Jesse Stone television movies write a Jesse Stone book. It was disappointing. The writing lacked the tight quality the reader expects from Parker. Also he seemed to be trying to make a happy ending for Jesse so a lot of the angst which makes him such an interesting character was gone.
However in the case of THIS book, we have the Spenser I remember. He's still happily with Susan, they still live apart but that's okay. Hawk was back. There were some shootings and some blood, also some good dialogue and an interesting story with enough turns and twists to keep you guessing.
The story begins with a 14-yr-old girl named Mattie, a "Southie" (the tough Irish part of Boston) who hires Spenser to investigate the death of her mother four years before. She saw two men hustle her mother into a car. The police were sure they found the murderer. Mattie says she knows the accused and it wasn't him, that he was actually good to her mother and her kids. Not that Mattie's mother is anything to brag about - she was a junkie (after an accident), an alcoholic and a prostitute. Mattie and her two little sisters, twins, live with her grandmother, also an alcoholic. There's seldom food in the house, and Mattie is basically raising her sisters. Having just been paid handsomely on another case, Spenser accepts his payment in donuts and coffee. And so the fun begins.....
Complicated? No. A light read. Yes. I'm glad to have Spenser back. Robert B. Parker may have passed, but apparently Ace Atkins is a worthy heir.
August 8, 2012
When robert B. Parker passed away in 2010 I was crushed. After all his main character, Spenser, and I have been in a relationship since I read my first Parker book in 19??.
He is my secret boyfriend.
So when Parker passed away I thought that was the end of our relationship. Then the Parker estate announced that another author, Ace Atkins, would be taking over the Spenser series.
Woohoo! I thought and promptly checked out an Atkins book to see if I would like his writing style.
Um. He does not write in any way like Parker. Parker had that gloriuos dialogue. Quick, witty and loads of it. Atkins did not.
But I still order Lullaby and hoped ..oh did I hope.
Well, all I can say is well done. The dialogue was there, Spenser was as tough yet sensitive as ever. Hawk as dangerous and sexy as he's always been (there's just something about those bad boys).
The story revolves around 14 year old Mattie's quest to find her mother's killer even though someone had already been jailed for the offense. She hires Spenser for the princely some of a dozen donuts. In true Spenser fashion he becomes attached to the girl, seeing in her bits of himself and his experiences. Even Hawk develops a soft spot for the hard as nails young lady.
Once again, well done. I can sleep easily now that I know my Spenser is still out there someone ready to take on the bad guys.
He is my secret boyfriend.
So when Parker passed away I thought that was the end of our relationship. Then the Parker estate announced that another author, Ace Atkins, would be taking over the Spenser series.
Woohoo! I thought and promptly checked out an Atkins book to see if I would like his writing style.
Um. He does not write in any way like Parker. Parker had that gloriuos dialogue. Quick, witty and loads of it. Atkins did not.
But I still order Lullaby and hoped ..oh did I hope.
Well, all I can say is well done. The dialogue was there, Spenser was as tough yet sensitive as ever. Hawk as dangerous and sexy as he's always been (there's just something about those bad boys).
The story revolves around 14 year old Mattie's quest to find her mother's killer even though someone had already been jailed for the offense. She hires Spenser for the princely some of a dozen donuts. In true Spenser fashion he becomes attached to the girl, seeing in her bits of himself and his experiences. Even Hawk develops a soft spot for the hard as nails young lady.
Once again, well done. I can sleep easily now that I know my Spenser is still out there someone ready to take on the bad guys.
May 20, 2012
Thank you Ace Atkins! Since I've been reading this series for some 30 years and it is the series that got me hooked on this genre (along with John McDonald's Travis McGee series), it is an understatement to say that I was apprehensive about another author continuing to write it. Not only does Atkins succeed, I think that, to some extent, he actually surpasses Parker. The Parker books were uneven, although there was always a chuckle or two. I always viewed them kind of like eating a candy bar - immediate, transitory gratification. Lullaby felt more substantive. There was lots of great dialogue. He worked many of the series regular characters - Susan, Hawk, Rita Fiore, Quirk, Vinnie, Belson. He displayed an excellent grasp of the series history with references to Paul Gianconin. I thought that his use of Mattie was a great touch as it plays so well to Spenser's character. He even stretched it out a little with his reference to Hawk's background. Some might view that as a betrayal of Parker's legacy, but I think that it added just the right touch. I'll look forward to reading the next installment. Now, if someone of Atkins caliber would pick up the Travis McGee mantle.
September 15, 2013
I first read Robert b Parker's work some twenty plus years ago and fell in love with it immediately . I'd grown up watching bogart on tv and thought he was the bees knees until Spenser came along and I felt guilty having a new hero. Well I read everything bob parker published, not always in the right order as I had a lot of Spenser to catch up on but I loved em every one. When bob died a couple of years ago I felt a sadness greater than I felt with the passing of people I knew personally which seemed kind of wrong. However bob Parker made me happy , every year he brought a book out I would savour it and be transported to Boston for a few days. I loved the tv adaptation with Robert Urich and he became my ideal Spenser .I have just finished lullaby after debating for months whether or not to read it. I am so glad I did as ace Atkins has carried on the series magnificently. I was overjoyed that the Parker estate has picked a superb author to continue the Spenser saga. Thank you mr Atkins for a truly inspired debut and long may you continue.
June 27, 2012
It was with trepidation that I cracked the spine of Ace Atkins' book, Lullaby, featuring Robert B. Parker's distinctly Bostonian PI, Spenser. I'd been hanging around with Spenser, Hawk, Susan Silverman, Belson, Quirk, Joe Broz and a host of other assorted heroes and villains since the days of The Godwulf Manuscript, which introduced the world to Spenser in 1973. That's 30 years of the stuff, and not once, in all those years, had Mr. Parker ever disappointed me. I'd raised an eyebrow now and then at a variety of less-than-stellar plot lines, and emitted more than a few groans at some forced witticisms that Spenser was wont to convey, but disappointed? Never.
My approach to Atkins' offering was thus, wary, as I suspect it was for many a Spenser fan. One bad note, whether in a major or minor key, and I'd have put it down. And I was looking for them, too; eyes narrowed, bullshit antennae up and quivering.
So Spenser's sitting in his office as I get underway, and he's spotted his future client before she's even knocked on the door (first sentence). He's got a check from Rita Fiore sitting on his desk, and an open box of donuts. He's listening to Helen Forrest singing with the Harry James Orchestra on his computer. The sun has just poked out, after a "dark, bleak and endless" winter and "life was full of promise."
He opens his door at the knock, staring down at a teenager, wearing a pink Boston Red Sox cap.
"You Spenser?" she asks.
"The one and only," he says.
"People say you're tough," she says.
"Did they mention handsome and witty?"
Spenser!!!! The one and only. I'm still withholding approval because one carefully timed and familiar sort of come-back does not a worthy portrayal make. But I've made it off the launch pad, I'm picking up speed, and I haven't even gotten to page three yet. Sometime later, I laugh out loud.
"Are you charging me with anything?" he asks an FBI agent, who's made the mistake of bringing him in for questioning, "because if not, there's a sale at Filene's basement."
"I'm getting to that," says the agent.
"You know about the sale, too?"
You'd have to be from Boston and vicinity to fully appreciate the Filene's basement part of the quip, but the secondary comment is just so Spenser, it's almost stunning. I had to stop reading for a minute or two, as the moment kept making me laugh. It's around 1 a.m. I'm alone on a comfortable chair, laughing out loud, trying not to wake the family, and I realize that the last author that managed to do that to me was Robert B. Parker.
Atkins is a successful author in his own right, who's just launched a series of his own, featuring an ex-Army Ranger called Quinn Colson. I picked up the first book in that planned series, called The Ranger, because I'd gotten wind of Lullaby and wanted to take this guy out for a test drive, so to speak. I've discovered since, with some Internet research, that he's written a couple of critically successful historical crime novels (White Shadow and Infamous), and that The Ranger was a finalist for the Edgar award this year (won by Mo Hayder for Gone). My local library is already on notice that I'll take the next available copy of White Shadow and Infamous, and I'll be keeping my eye out for the next Quinn Colson novel. These reading plans for the future pale in comparison to my anticipation of his next outing with Spenser.
You have to understand. I thought he was dead, or at least I knew that Parker was, and for all intents and purposes, I thought that I'd read my last Spenser novel. Atkins got the job, after submitting 50 pages to Parker's publisher (G.P. Putnam's Sons) and his wife, Joan, the reported model for Susan Silverman. I'd have given him the job after the first chapter, but no one would have listened to me. Turns out Parker was a major influence on Atkins, and in spite of the downside (millions of Spenser fans potentially hounding him, had he failed), Atkins accepted the challenge. Thank you, Ace. Thank you, G.P. Putnam's Sons and thank you, Mrs. Parker, who reportedly said that in reading those first 50 pages, she heard her husband's voice (thank you, Bruce DeSilva, as well, for your insightful review of the book and its publishing background in the on-line pages of The Nervous Breakdown; www.thenervous breakdown.com).
There's virtually no point in offering a plot outline of Lullaby, any more than there'd be a point offering similar 'help' in regards to any of the other 40 Spenser stories penned by Parker. Who cares, really? None of them are about the story, which sounds odd to me even as I write it. They're about Spenser; his particular and sometimes peculiar way of looking at things, his erudite, well-read wit, and his 'By God' refusal to stand down, regardless of odds, when he knows damn well he's right. There are very few American icons drawn as well; John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee comes to mind (and MacDonald was arguably a much better writer than Parker), as does, most recently, Lee Child's Jack Reacher (same argument).
No one has successfully managed to bring Spenser to the screen, and there's a reason for that. Robert Urich did a credible job on television, but the writing was weak. Joe Mantegna gave him a whirl, and while the writing was better, Mantegna wasn't a very credible Spenser. Someone gave McGee a try, and that failed. Tom Cruise is set for a spin around the block as Reacher, and we'll have to see how that pans out. I suspect, poorly, because at their best (and in order), McGee, Spenser and Reacher do not translate well to the screen. They are creatures of the word, because as a reader, we bring something to the table that can't be replaced with images, and watered-down scripts to accommodate a time frame. Call it imagination, loyalty, a sense in all cases that the character is speaking to us and us alone, not a darkened room of spectators with nothing invested but their eyes, ears and an hour or two.
It's why Atkins succeeds as well as he does, because he speaks to us with Spenser's (Parker's) voice, and we not only recognize it, we embrace it. We're glad to hear it again, when, for a while there, we thought it was lost forever.
To all you Spenser fans out there, who've been holding back, loyal to the memory of Spenser and understandably reluctant to pitch your loyalties into the ring of someone who, no matter how hard he tries, can not be Robert B. Parker, fear not. Atkins has picked up the ball with reverence, and he's pitched it perfectly. Lullaby is worth your time and effort.
My approach to Atkins' offering was thus, wary, as I suspect it was for many a Spenser fan. One bad note, whether in a major or minor key, and I'd have put it down. And I was looking for them, too; eyes narrowed, bullshit antennae up and quivering.
So Spenser's sitting in his office as I get underway, and he's spotted his future client before she's even knocked on the door (first sentence). He's got a check from Rita Fiore sitting on his desk, and an open box of donuts. He's listening to Helen Forrest singing with the Harry James Orchestra on his computer. The sun has just poked out, after a "dark, bleak and endless" winter and "life was full of promise."
He opens his door at the knock, staring down at a teenager, wearing a pink Boston Red Sox cap.
"You Spenser?" she asks.
"The one and only," he says.
"People say you're tough," she says.
"Did they mention handsome and witty?"
Spenser!!!! The one and only. I'm still withholding approval because one carefully timed and familiar sort of come-back does not a worthy portrayal make. But I've made it off the launch pad, I'm picking up speed, and I haven't even gotten to page three yet. Sometime later, I laugh out loud.
"Are you charging me with anything?" he asks an FBI agent, who's made the mistake of bringing him in for questioning, "because if not, there's a sale at Filene's basement."
"I'm getting to that," says the agent.
"You know about the sale, too?"
You'd have to be from Boston and vicinity to fully appreciate the Filene's basement part of the quip, but the secondary comment is just so Spenser, it's almost stunning. I had to stop reading for a minute or two, as the moment kept making me laugh. It's around 1 a.m. I'm alone on a comfortable chair, laughing out loud, trying not to wake the family, and I realize that the last author that managed to do that to me was Robert B. Parker.
Atkins is a successful author in his own right, who's just launched a series of his own, featuring an ex-Army Ranger called Quinn Colson. I picked up the first book in that planned series, called The Ranger, because I'd gotten wind of Lullaby and wanted to take this guy out for a test drive, so to speak. I've discovered since, with some Internet research, that he's written a couple of critically successful historical crime novels (White Shadow and Infamous), and that The Ranger was a finalist for the Edgar award this year (won by Mo Hayder for Gone). My local library is already on notice that I'll take the next available copy of White Shadow and Infamous, and I'll be keeping my eye out for the next Quinn Colson novel. These reading plans for the future pale in comparison to my anticipation of his next outing with Spenser.
You have to understand. I thought he was dead, or at least I knew that Parker was, and for all intents and purposes, I thought that I'd read my last Spenser novel. Atkins got the job, after submitting 50 pages to Parker's publisher (G.P. Putnam's Sons) and his wife, Joan, the reported model for Susan Silverman. I'd have given him the job after the first chapter, but no one would have listened to me. Turns out Parker was a major influence on Atkins, and in spite of the downside (millions of Spenser fans potentially hounding him, had he failed), Atkins accepted the challenge. Thank you, Ace. Thank you, G.P. Putnam's Sons and thank you, Mrs. Parker, who reportedly said that in reading those first 50 pages, she heard her husband's voice (thank you, Bruce DeSilva, as well, for your insightful review of the book and its publishing background in the on-line pages of The Nervous Breakdown; www.thenervous breakdown.com).
There's virtually no point in offering a plot outline of Lullaby, any more than there'd be a point offering similar 'help' in regards to any of the other 40 Spenser stories penned by Parker. Who cares, really? None of them are about the story, which sounds odd to me even as I write it. They're about Spenser; his particular and sometimes peculiar way of looking at things, his erudite, well-read wit, and his 'By God' refusal to stand down, regardless of odds, when he knows damn well he's right. There are very few American icons drawn as well; John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee comes to mind (and MacDonald was arguably a much better writer than Parker), as does, most recently, Lee Child's Jack Reacher (same argument).
No one has successfully managed to bring Spenser to the screen, and there's a reason for that. Robert Urich did a credible job on television, but the writing was weak. Joe Mantegna gave him a whirl, and while the writing was better, Mantegna wasn't a very credible Spenser. Someone gave McGee a try, and that failed. Tom Cruise is set for a spin around the block as Reacher, and we'll have to see how that pans out. I suspect, poorly, because at their best (and in order), McGee, Spenser and Reacher do not translate well to the screen. They are creatures of the word, because as a reader, we bring something to the table that can't be replaced with images, and watered-down scripts to accommodate a time frame. Call it imagination, loyalty, a sense in all cases that the character is speaking to us and us alone, not a darkened room of spectators with nothing invested but their eyes, ears and an hour or two.
It's why Atkins succeeds as well as he does, because he speaks to us with Spenser's (Parker's) voice, and we not only recognize it, we embrace it. We're glad to hear it again, when, for a while there, we thought it was lost forever.
To all you Spenser fans out there, who've been holding back, loyal to the memory of Spenser and understandably reluctant to pitch your loyalties into the ring of someone who, no matter how hard he tries, can not be Robert B. Parker, fear not. Atkins has picked up the ball with reverence, and he's pitched it perfectly. Lullaby is worth your time and effort.
September 26, 2019
There are really only two downsides to reading a Spenser novel, whether written by the original author, Robert B. Parker, or Ace Atkins, who later took up the mantle. One: you develop a hankering for booze, coffee, or one of the many well described mouth-watering meals Spenser is either cooking or ordering; and Two: having to tolerate scenes involving Spenser's annoying girlfriend, Susan.
Ace Atkins has done a masterful job with this, his first Spenser novel, including limiting the Susan-annoyance-factor somewhat. If it were up to me, Spenser would be dating his very tempting attorney, Rita. Oh well, can't have everything. But what we can have is a crackerjack story that moves along with considerable pace while entertaining the reader with the expected wise-cracking Spenser doing his thing, and fortunately, his rather intimidating associate, Hawk helping as needed.
Mattie Sullivan, now 14 years old, has enlisted Spenser (payment to be a box of doughnuts) to investigate her mother’s murder. Mattie is tough, streetwise, and busy caring for her younger twin sibs while living with her alcoholic grandmother in a run-down apartment in "Southie" section of Boston. Mattie is convinced that the man convicted of the crime is innocent and tells Spenser that there was essentially no real investigation, since the cops wouldn't listen to her (she was only 10 at the time) eyewitness account of her mother's abduction prior to her murder.
As another GoodReads reviewer (Kemper) has skillfully noted, there is a fairly transparent similarity within this story to the famous western story, True Grit, by Charles Portis. Atkins goes so far as to throw in a reference to that author by having Susan reading one of his novels. So we have two good-guys helping a young, feisty girl right a wrong done to her parent. Hmm... works for me.
The writing in this novel is entertaining, with Spenser and Hawk working on the various loose ends and figuring out just how deep the muck goes. Pretty deep as it turns out, and there's a few twists along with the action and aforementioned gustatory revelry. Lots of Autumnal Boston rendered very well lets you feel the place as if the chill in the air was nipping at your nose. The characters are engaging, the dialogue crisp and snappy, and well, this is as good as many of the early Parker versions and probably better than some of the later ones. A solid entry worth the time.
Ace Atkins has done a masterful job with this, his first Spenser novel, including limiting the Susan-annoyance-factor somewhat. If it were up to me, Spenser would be dating his very tempting attorney, Rita. Oh well, can't have everything. But what we can have is a crackerjack story that moves along with considerable pace while entertaining the reader with the expected wise-cracking Spenser doing his thing, and fortunately, his rather intimidating associate, Hawk helping as needed.
Mattie Sullivan, now 14 years old, has enlisted Spenser (payment to be a box of doughnuts) to investigate her mother’s murder. Mattie is tough, streetwise, and busy caring for her younger twin sibs while living with her alcoholic grandmother in a run-down apartment in "Southie" section of Boston. Mattie is convinced that the man convicted of the crime is innocent and tells Spenser that there was essentially no real investigation, since the cops wouldn't listen to her (she was only 10 at the time) eyewitness account of her mother's abduction prior to her murder.
As another GoodReads reviewer (Kemper) has skillfully noted, there is a fairly transparent similarity within this story to the famous western story, True Grit, by Charles Portis. Atkins goes so far as to throw in a reference to that author by having Susan reading one of his novels. So we have two good-guys helping a young, feisty girl right a wrong done to her parent. Hmm... works for me.
The writing in this novel is entertaining, with Spenser and Hawk working on the various loose ends and figuring out just how deep the muck goes. Pretty deep as it turns out, and there's a few twists along with the action and aforementioned gustatory revelry. Lots of Autumnal Boston rendered very well lets you feel the place as if the chill in the air was nipping at your nose. The characters are engaging, the dialogue crisp and snappy, and well, this is as good as many of the early Parker versions and probably better than some of the later ones. A solid entry worth the time.
June 26, 2012
It's good to have Spenser and Hawk back (together with Quirk, Belson, and Henry Cimoli). Even Susan and Pearl are welcome, and in a satisfyingly subdued pair of roles. Ace Atkins returns the Spenser books to what they were like a long time ago. He captures the right voices in the right way. Spenser is still a wiseass and a lover of life's small pleasures (Amstell beer, corn muffins, grey goose martinis, and the Red Sox). Hawk is still dangerous, as is Spenser. There's less of Susan's late-series conversations with Spenser about the meaning of manhood, and more of Spenser's walking on the edge of danger. The plot is something of a reversion to the older books, especially "Valediction" (the one in which Spenser taught Paul Giacomin to be a man). In this case, a 14-year-old tough young woman called Mattie Sullivan, heartbreakingly drawn by Atkins, hires Spenser to find the murderer of her prostitute mother, killed four years earlier. The police had been handed a gift-wrapped loser of a suspect at the time, and hadn't bothered to examine the evidence in the case. Spenser does, and carries on with his specialt tactic of annoying people who are dangerous until they come back at him. It's a satisfying case, but the writing and characterization put it over the top.
NOTE: Unlike the last couple of dozen Spenser books, the print size and line spacing of the new book is back to normal size. The later Spensers were really novellas. This book is a novel-sized novel. Its 300 pages are really 300 pages, not 150. Good for Putnam's, always a good publishing house.
NOTE: Unlike the last couple of dozen Spenser books, the print size and line spacing of the new book is back to normal size. The later Spensers were really novellas. This book is a novel-sized novel. Its 300 pages are really 300 pages, not 150. Good for Putnam's, always a good publishing house.
July 22, 2013
My problem with Spenser novels is my ability to do basic math. Spenser has got to be closing in on 80 years old, he fought Sonny Liston and in the Korean war after all. Instead of beating down on the low lives of Boston he should be taking naps and hitting the early bird special at Denny's. Hawk should be somewhere yelling at kids to get off his lawn. The sexy Dr. Silverman doesn't sound so hot when you realize she is old enough to be a great grandmother.
Still, the genius of Robert Parker was when he was at his best all that is forgotten and one ends up enjoying the familiar yet satisfying rhythms that make a Spenser novel.
Ace Atkins is not Robert Parker, but like the age of Spenser and his pals, that was forgotten quickly and in truth this is probably one of the better Spenser novels to come along in awhile.
I have mixed feeling about characters continuing after their creator leaves the world, but I suppose in this case it is only fair since Parker did the same for Chandler, by finishing a Marlowe novel and creating a sequel, and doing a fine job of it. Atkins does the same here and fans of the series should not be disappointed.
And while I'm on the subject if someone wants to take up for Richard Stark and crank out a few Parker novels I'd read them.
Still, the genius of Robert Parker was when he was at his best all that is forgotten and one ends up enjoying the familiar yet satisfying rhythms that make a Spenser novel.
Ace Atkins is not Robert Parker, but like the age of Spenser and his pals, that was forgotten quickly and in truth this is probably one of the better Spenser novels to come along in awhile.
I have mixed feeling about characters continuing after their creator leaves the world, but I suppose in this case it is only fair since Parker did the same for Chandler, by finishing a Marlowe novel and creating a sequel, and doing a fine job of it. Atkins does the same here and fans of the series should not be disappointed.
And while I'm on the subject if someone wants to take up for Richard Stark and crank out a few Parker novels I'd read them.
November 6, 2012
Just a fun, quick read -- an escape into the world created by Robert B. Parker, though this novel was written by Ace Atkins. Throughout the first part of the book I kept looking for (and sometimes finding) little things that seemed different from the way Parker would have written. But soon enough I was sucked into the quick repartee between Spenser and Hawk; the flirting and food shared with Spenser's love, Susan; the danger that Spenser seems to accept and handle with little fear; and the descriptions of Boston. This story was about a girl, Mattie, who hires Spenser to investigate the 4-year-old death of her mother, a woman who will not win the mother-of-the-year award. Mattie has been left to care for her little sisters, and though they have a place to live, it's with her alcoholic and mostly neglectful grandmother. Mattie is tough and can mostly handle things, but Spenser (and Hawk) recognize that she is just a young girl, and that she needs some help -- thus, Spenser taking the case for the price of a dozen doughnuts.
Pick this up if you love the Parker books, and can't stand the idea that his death will lead to the end of a great series. You won't be disappointed.
Pick this up if you love the Parker books, and can't stand the idea that his death will lead to the end of a great series. You won't be disappointed.
October 2, 2012
This would have been a pretty good book if I weren't so used to Parker's style of writing about Spenser. No matter how hard a replacement author tries, they usually just don't have the feel for the character that the original author had.
Nothing negative about Atkins' work, it's just he isn't Parker.
Nothing negative about Atkins' work, it's just he isn't Parker.
May 20, 2012
Considering this wasn't written by Robert Parker, it is pretty good.
February 6, 2013
This is a better version of the late Robert Parker with sensible story connections. 7 of 10 stars
January 2, 2020
This is Ace Atkins first try at writing a Spenser book which is an intimidating experience knowing many loyal Parker fans are poised to see how well he will do. Atkins was chosen by those responsible for R.B. Parker’s estate to continue the franchise, which is like handing someone a money making machine if it works out well. But it is never easy to pick up and continue a series after an author’s death. Loyal Parker/Spenser fans will be hypercritical of whatever lands on paper. Parker had created distinctive characters and wrote in his own style, with spare prose, short chapters and plots driven heavily by dialogue. So many readers will be picking up this book to see exactly what Atkins does with this challenge and if there is any chance of success in keeping it going after Parker’s sudden death.
The story begins when fourteen year old Mattie Sullivan enters Spenser’s office and asks him to find out who killed her Mother Julie four years ago. Julie who was only twenty-six, was raped and stabbed to death, her body discovered at a construction site. The next day the police arrested Mattie Green and he is currently serving a life sentence for the murder but Mattie is convinced he is not the one who did it. She knows Green is a screw up but he is basically a nice guy and would never hurt her mother. They weren’t even together that night. The night of the murder she saw two men grab her mother, shouting and yelling at her and pushing her into the back of a car. Her mother argued and fought back but they overpowered her. As far as Mattie knows no one else saw the men take her Mum. No one will to listen to her side of the story, talk about what happened or help her. She has gone to the police several times to tell them what she saw but they won’t listen to her. They say Maurice Green got what he deserved and they are so tired of her they won’t even return her phone calls. Mattie says the killers are still out there while a family friend is locked up doing time for the murder. She throws a few bills on the table and asks Spenser for help. She wants him to find those evil men and put them in jail.
Mattie does not know the real name of the men who took her mother but they go by the name Pepper and Moon and deal drugs in the project where she lives in Southie with her twin sisters and her grandmother. As Spenser look across his desk he sees a young girl dressed in dirty clothes that are barely held together. She appears strong, determined and tough but he knows underneath she is more fragile than anyone would expect. He hands he back her bills and tells her he will take the job in exchange for a box of donuts.
Spenser begins by perusing the police records. He learns Julie was a well-known crack addict and a prostitute with a long arrest record. Two weeks before her death she was scheduled to enter a treatment program as part of a plea deal on drug charges. He also reads how Maurice Green was arrested at a drive through car wash. There was still blood on his car that matched Julie’s and tire marks left at the scene also matched his vehicle. Mickey has a long arrest record for everything from assault and battery to stealing cars. But the notes in the file are thin. It is clear the murder of a prostitute who had problems with drugs was not a priority for the boys in homicide. What is missing in all of this is a motive. Why was Julie murdered?
As Spenser begins his usual legwork, Mattie insists on tagging along Insisting she knows the neighborhood landscape better than he does. But he knows he has to get her out from under his feet before she gets hurt. And then all the poking around Mattie has done lately gets the attention of those who don’t want her dragging up a case that has already been settled. A car drives to run her down and when she escapes, they double back and try to get her a second time. She runs like hell and gets away but it scares her.
Atkins has created a great character in Mattie, a young girl struggling to hold her family together, helped sometimes by a grandmother who drinks and is unreliable. Spenser wonders how she will ever get through life because she has so much going against her. She has a sassy attitude, a big mouth and acts tough, but he knows it is all an act, part of her survival strategy. In some ways she reminds him of Paul his adopted son. When Spenser first met him he had walled himself in complete apathy and Spenser had to push him to become engaged in life. With Mattie it is different. He has to hold her back to get her to slow down.
Spenser also grew up without a mother but he had a father and uncles who helped raise him and taught him to be self-sufficient. Mattie has no one. She is drifting through life trying to do the best she can. Right now she is determined to get her mother’s killers and to right a wrong that has been done. And she must keep her family together. Spenser sees all this and despite his tough exterior readers know what lies below is a kind and sympathetic heart. He must do what he can to help her.
Atkins has brought all the Parker’s characters back: Susan, Hawk and Pearl the Wonder Dog. He has the banter between Hawk and Spenser down pat, has Spenser finely garbed and cooking up a storm and pays attention to the Boston setting that both Parker and Spenser love, this time focusing on Southie or South Boston.
He has done a good job with this first crack at the series and it looks like Spenser will be able to live on through Atkins’ writing. It will be interesting to see how things evolve from here. Will he find a way to make this series something different and still keep Parker’s loyal readers? Only time will tell, but this is definitely a good beginning.
The story begins when fourteen year old Mattie Sullivan enters Spenser’s office and asks him to find out who killed her Mother Julie four years ago. Julie who was only twenty-six, was raped and stabbed to death, her body discovered at a construction site. The next day the police arrested Mattie Green and he is currently serving a life sentence for the murder but Mattie is convinced he is not the one who did it. She knows Green is a screw up but he is basically a nice guy and would never hurt her mother. They weren’t even together that night. The night of the murder she saw two men grab her mother, shouting and yelling at her and pushing her into the back of a car. Her mother argued and fought back but they overpowered her. As far as Mattie knows no one else saw the men take her Mum. No one will to listen to her side of the story, talk about what happened or help her. She has gone to the police several times to tell them what she saw but they won’t listen to her. They say Maurice Green got what he deserved and they are so tired of her they won’t even return her phone calls. Mattie says the killers are still out there while a family friend is locked up doing time for the murder. She throws a few bills on the table and asks Spenser for help. She wants him to find those evil men and put them in jail.
Mattie does not know the real name of the men who took her mother but they go by the name Pepper and Moon and deal drugs in the project where she lives in Southie with her twin sisters and her grandmother. As Spenser look across his desk he sees a young girl dressed in dirty clothes that are barely held together. She appears strong, determined and tough but he knows underneath she is more fragile than anyone would expect. He hands he back her bills and tells her he will take the job in exchange for a box of donuts.
Spenser begins by perusing the police records. He learns Julie was a well-known crack addict and a prostitute with a long arrest record. Two weeks before her death she was scheduled to enter a treatment program as part of a plea deal on drug charges. He also reads how Maurice Green was arrested at a drive through car wash. There was still blood on his car that matched Julie’s and tire marks left at the scene also matched his vehicle. Mickey has a long arrest record for everything from assault and battery to stealing cars. But the notes in the file are thin. It is clear the murder of a prostitute who had problems with drugs was not a priority for the boys in homicide. What is missing in all of this is a motive. Why was Julie murdered?
As Spenser begins his usual legwork, Mattie insists on tagging along Insisting she knows the neighborhood landscape better than he does. But he knows he has to get her out from under his feet before she gets hurt. And then all the poking around Mattie has done lately gets the attention of those who don’t want her dragging up a case that has already been settled. A car drives to run her down and when she escapes, they double back and try to get her a second time. She runs like hell and gets away but it scares her.
Atkins has created a great character in Mattie, a young girl struggling to hold her family together, helped sometimes by a grandmother who drinks and is unreliable. Spenser wonders how she will ever get through life because she has so much going against her. She has a sassy attitude, a big mouth and acts tough, but he knows it is all an act, part of her survival strategy. In some ways she reminds him of Paul his adopted son. When Spenser first met him he had walled himself in complete apathy and Spenser had to push him to become engaged in life. With Mattie it is different. He has to hold her back to get her to slow down.
Spenser also grew up without a mother but he had a father and uncles who helped raise him and taught him to be self-sufficient. Mattie has no one. She is drifting through life trying to do the best she can. Right now she is determined to get her mother’s killers and to right a wrong that has been done. And she must keep her family together. Spenser sees all this and despite his tough exterior readers know what lies below is a kind and sympathetic heart. He must do what he can to help her.
Atkins has brought all the Parker’s characters back: Susan, Hawk and Pearl the Wonder Dog. He has the banter between Hawk and Spenser down pat, has Spenser finely garbed and cooking up a storm and pays attention to the Boston setting that both Parker and Spenser love, this time focusing on Southie or South Boston.
He has done a good job with this first crack at the series and it looks like Spenser will be able to live on through Atkins’ writing. It will be interesting to see how things evolve from here. Will he find a way to make this series something different and still keep Parker’s loyal readers? Only time will tell, but this is definitely a good beginning.
November 13, 2023
Entertaining mystery listening 🎶🔰
This is a kindle e-book from the local library. Oh how I love 💘 those kindle e-books.
A young girl 👧 appears in Spenser's office with donuts and money 💰 to hire Spenser to find the person who killed her mother. Spenser takes on the case which leads to lots of action for Hawk and Spenser as they investigate the murder. Then the truth comes out leading to the conclusion.
I would recommend this series and authors to 👍 readers of romantic relationships mystery novels 👍🔰. 2023 😀👒😡😮🏡
I love 💘 this series because I lived in Massachusetts and New Hampshire for a number of years and have eaten in most of the restaurants, been to the places, and Fenway Park.
This is a kindle e-book from the local library. Oh how I love 💘 those kindle e-books.
A young girl 👧 appears in Spenser's office with donuts and money 💰 to hire Spenser to find the person who killed her mother. Spenser takes on the case which leads to lots of action for Hawk and Spenser as they investigate the murder. Then the truth comes out leading to the conclusion.
I would recommend this series and authors to 👍 readers of romantic relationships mystery novels 👍🔰. 2023 😀👒😡😮🏡
I love 💘 this series because I lived in Massachusetts and New Hampshire for a number of years and have eaten in most of the restaurants, been to the places, and Fenway Park.
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