zbecker's review
5.0
Good news: Spenser is alive and well in this, the latest in the Spenser series, and the first by author Ace Atkins. Being truly honest, I can say that I hadn't even noticed the changing of the guard until I was already happily ensconced in the book. This book actually felt a touch sharper? Maybe slightly more descriptive of the environs, in a way that feels, if anything, to be more of a tribute to Parker's world than anything else. Atkins handles the dialogue, the descriptives, and all of the multitude of crooks and cloaks and daggers, but most of all Spenser and Susan and Hawk, with aplomb.
carol26388's review
3.0
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.
brettt's review
3.0
Robert B. Parker's death in 2010 left crime fiction fans seriously lost. Although his quality had deteriorated for much of the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s, it had picked up a little and left his fans missing him a lot more than they might have otherwise. In April of 2011, Parker's estate and his publisher announced that two of his series, the Jesse Stone novels and the mainstay Spenser series, would continue with two new authors writing the novels.
Michael Brandman took his swing at Jesse Stone last fall, and quite frankly he stunk. Killing the Blues wasn't Jesse Stone, wasn't Robert B. Parker and wasn't even very good on its own merits. Putnam hasn't learned its lesson yet; Amazon lists a second Brandman Stone novel scheduled for release this September.
Ace Atkins, a mystery and crime writer with a pretty good track record, was tapped to continue Spenser. His Lullaby hit bookshelves Tuesday and as a Parker homage/continuation, is everything Killing the Blues wasn't. It's still not Parker, but our lead man is recognizable as Spenser, and it's a pretty good story to boot.
Young Mattie Sullivan lives in a housing project and is trying to raise her even younger twin sisters with only minimal help from her alcoholic grandmother. Four years ago, Mattie's mother was murdered and she believes the man arrested didn't do it, because she saw two other men drag her mother off in a car. But no one believed her, and she wants to hire Spenser to find her mother's killer or killers. As Spenser starts trying to revisit those events, he finds that they are part of a much bigger -- and more dangerous -- picture, and he will need to be as tough as he's ever been in order to finish out what seemed at first a simple matter.
Atkins seems to have made the wise choice to write Parker's characters rather than try to write with Parker's voice. Rather than asking, "What would Bob write here?" Lullaby reads as though he asked, "What would Spenser do here?" "What would Spenser say here?" In doing that, he captures enough of that voice to convince a reader he or she really is following along with Spenser, his ladylove Susan Silverman and his frequent partner Hawk, or at the very least Spenser's younger brother (Atkins was born in 1970; Parker in 1932. The generational difference shows through).
The match isn't perfect -- we see the characters as though they were a little blurry even though recognizable. Some of the Spenserisms -- listening to old jazz music, cooking different dishes and so on -- seem a little forced. Atkins doesn't quite have a handle on Hawk yet either, it seems. He should improve with repeated outings and even if he doesn't, this version of Spenser, Hawk and Susan is not nearly as dishwatery dull as is Brandman's of Jesse Stone and Paradise, Mass.
Atkins' Spensers probably won't be keepers on my shelves like Parker's are. I don't really think I'll ever feel a need to reread Lullaby, but then some of the Parker outings occupy their spaces for completeness' sake and aren't likely rereads either. But if Lullaby is an indicator, I won't mind picking these up and I'll probably enjoy them.
Original available here.
Michael Brandman took his swing at Jesse Stone last fall, and quite frankly he stunk. Killing the Blues wasn't Jesse Stone, wasn't Robert B. Parker and wasn't even very good on its own merits. Putnam hasn't learned its lesson yet; Amazon lists a second Brandman Stone novel scheduled for release this September.
Ace Atkins, a mystery and crime writer with a pretty good track record, was tapped to continue Spenser. His Lullaby hit bookshelves Tuesday and as a Parker homage/continuation, is everything Killing the Blues wasn't. It's still not Parker, but our lead man is recognizable as Spenser, and it's a pretty good story to boot.
Young Mattie Sullivan lives in a housing project and is trying to raise her even younger twin sisters with only minimal help from her alcoholic grandmother. Four years ago, Mattie's mother was murdered and she believes the man arrested didn't do it, because she saw two other men drag her mother off in a car. But no one believed her, and she wants to hire Spenser to find her mother's killer or killers. As Spenser starts trying to revisit those events, he finds that they are part of a much bigger -- and more dangerous -- picture, and he will need to be as tough as he's ever been in order to finish out what seemed at first a simple matter.
Atkins seems to have made the wise choice to write Parker's characters rather than try to write with Parker's voice. Rather than asking, "What would Bob write here?" Lullaby reads as though he asked, "What would Spenser do here?" "What would Spenser say here?" In doing that, he captures enough of that voice to convince a reader he or she really is following along with Spenser, his ladylove Susan Silverman and his frequent partner Hawk, or at the very least Spenser's younger brother (Atkins was born in 1970; Parker in 1932. The generational difference shows through).
The match isn't perfect -- we see the characters as though they were a little blurry even though recognizable. Some of the Spenserisms -- listening to old jazz music, cooking different dishes and so on -- seem a little forced. Atkins doesn't quite have a handle on Hawk yet either, it seems. He should improve with repeated outings and even if he doesn't, this version of Spenser, Hawk and Susan is not nearly as dishwatery dull as is Brandman's of Jesse Stone and Paradise, Mass.
Atkins' Spensers probably won't be keepers on my shelves like Parker's are. I don't really think I'll ever feel a need to reread Lullaby, but then some of the Parker outings occupy their spaces for completeness' sake and aren't likely rereads either. But if Lullaby is an indicator, I won't mind picking these up and I'll probably enjoy them.
Original available here.
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