Bye Bye Baby

June 1, 2021

Atkins continues to uphold Robert B. Parker's tradition, giving us another spin with the redoubtable PI Spenser. No plot details yet, but the action ranges from Boston to the Bahamas, and the cover's sparkly jewels suggest trouble in high places.

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November 1, 2021
In Atkins’s routine 10th continuation of Parker’s Spenser series (after 2021’s Someone to Watch over Me), the Boston PI takes on a client with certain similarities to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Massachusetts congresswoman Carolina Garcia-Ramirez, generally referred to by just her initials, supports a progressive agenda: “Free college and health care for all, a living and respectable minimum wage, a green Boston with zero carbon emissions, a massive restructuring of law enforcement.” After the politician is splattered with urine by a Southerner off his meds, members of CGR’s staff consult Spenser. They fear that the attack indicates that the threats against her are rising to a more dangerous level, a concern seemingly validated after her offices in Boston are broken into and vandalized. Spenser suspects that someone on the inside is sharing details of CGR’s schedule and placing her in the crosshairs of a group of white supremacists calling themselves the Minutemen. Spenser banters with his significant other, makes wisecracks, and displays unexpected erudition, but there aren’t any genuine plot surprises, and the end result feels stale. Atkins seems just to be going through the motions. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM Partners.

November 1, 2021
The latest of dozens of Boston-based crime novels in the late Robert B. Parker's Spenser series. Spenser is a tough White detective, and his close associate is a tougher Black guy named Hawk. Both are pretty much on the right side of the law, though Hawk has a less-than-heartwarming history with cops. Aides of Congresswoman Carolina Garcia-Ramirez, aka CGR, want to hire Spenser to protect her from troubling death threats as she campaigns for renomination, although she doesn't think it necessary. People seem to think she's either "Joan of Arc or Attila the Hun," but she says she's used to the haters. CGR evokes images of AOC and Ayanna Pressley, mainly in the intensity of hatred toward her. She thinks Spenser looks "like a leg breaker from Southie," but he has more endearing qualities, such as quoting dead White poets: "Faith it does me," he tells her. "Though it discolors the complexion of my greatness to acknowledge it." He's also a renowned wiseass, allowing that he often settles scores with his fists, but "Only when a good hug fails." Sometimes he's a bit too cute: "I smiled, offering half wattage so as not to distract her from her duties." And asked by a receptionist to identify himself, he says, "Fred Flintstone. I'm here about arranging a meeting of the Royal Water Buffalo." But there are good descriptions: "He had the kind of a face that demanded a spiked collar around his neck," and Hawk's pointed social remark, "Sometimes just being born makes you a target." So there's going to be a primary debate, and the word on the street is that someone plans to "make a run" at CGR immediately afterward. The FBI wants CGR to fire Spenser and Hawk, but she wisely has confidence in the local muscle. "You and I are a different breed of thug," says Spenser to Hawk. A crime yarn laced with tension and wit.

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November 1, 2021
Atkins continues his very successful stewardship of the late Robert B. Parker's beloved Spenser series. Iconoclastic Boston PI Spenser's latest case finds him providing security for Congressional candidate Carolina Garcia-Ramirez after she receives unusually explicit death threats. Protecting her is a 24/7 job that the "strong as Superman" Spenser can't quite manage on his own, so he calls in reinforcements: his long-time buddy, Hawk, and Hawk's prot�g�, Zebulon Sixkill. Spenser soon discovers that the danger to Carolina is very real and comes from The Minutemen, a group of white males determined to "take back America" from foreigners, which, in their view, includes women and everyone who isn't a white male. The group's charismatic and dangerous leader counts Hitler as his role model and is good at whipping his followers into a violent frenzy. As Spenser investigates further, he finds links to an arch-enemy of his from the past. This fast-moving and suspenseful thriller is also laced with clever banter between Spenser and Hawk--long a series hallmark--and continues to explore Spenser's complex relationship with his partner, Susan Silverman. Spenser lives and lives well!

COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.