Robert B. Parker's Kickback (Spenser)

Every year, at just about this time, a book arrives at my home. For years, the author of the series of books was Robert B. Parker; for the last few years, it has been Ace Atkins, who picked up Parker's mantle after the iconic writer passed away. That's what happened this week. The book was "Robert B. Parker's Kickback." I opened it lovingly, cracked open a beer, put my feet up, and read the following opening paragraph: <i>On the first day of February, the coldest day of the year so far, I took it as a very good omen that a woman I'd never met brought me a sandwich. I had my pair of steel-toed Red Wings kicked up on the corner of my desk, thawing out, when she arrived. My morning coffee and two corn muffins were a distant memory.</i> It is spring, and all is right with the world because Spenser is on the case yet again. I am happy to report that "Kickback" is the best of Atkins' four Spenser books; they've all been worthy successors to the Parker canon, but with each book he seems to gain confidence and familiarity, adopting the Boston PI's first person narration with increasing ease. "Kickback" has all the elements that one would like from a Spenser novel. Our hero finds himself facing off against authority figures of surpassing arrogance - in this case, corrupt Massachusetts judges who are sending teenagers guilty of minor crimes off to an Alcatraz-like detention center without benefit of counsel or trial. The judges have managed to convince the municipality that this is the kind of requisite tough love that will return the teens to the straight and narrow, but Spenser is smart enough - in part because he probably would've been one of those teenagers - to know exploitation and corruption when he sees it. One of the things that is interesting about "Kickback" is that Atkins is allowing his protagonist to age a bit, to show some vulnerability. He's just come off knee surgery: "A life's work of busting heads and kicking butts could be hard on the joints," he says at one point. And he seems to be comfortable with some level of diminished capacity: "I was still able to leap medium-size buildings in a single bound, but my X-ray vision was a bit iffy." But even slightly diminished Spenser is worth a visit, because in the end, as important as physicality is to the character, his moral center is far more critical to how he approaches his work and environment. One of the great things about the classic American detective novel is that, when it works, it balances two genres. On the one hand, most of them are, at their heart, westerns - the main character is trying to tame a hostile town. But they also are morality plays, as the detective serves as a kind of personification of ethical behavior, trying to put things as they <i>should</i> be. Raymond Chandler put it this way about his detective hero, Philip Marlowe: <i>Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it ... The story is this man’s adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure.</i> The good news about Ace Atkins, and "Kickback," is that he makes it work with a specific sense of the place about which he is writing, the characters who embody this world (especially Hawk, one of the best literary sidekicks ever invented), and a plot that moves forward though the mean streets of Boston (with a side and very entertaining detour to Tampa), relentlessly, compellingly, and with plenty of style and irony. If you're a Spenser fan, you'll enjoy it immensely. If you've yet to crack open one of these entertaining yarns, well, it's time ... because this novel works on its own terms, even without the enormous history of its main characters. Which leads me to the business lesson. (You knew there would be one, right?) I had a chance to sit down with Ace Atkins this week as he started his publicity tour for "Kickback." (This has become a nice little tradition for the past several years. Ace probably doesn't enjoy it as much as I do, but for me, it is a rite of spring.) One of the things we talked about was the nature of writing characters that were invented by another writer, and Ace said that he brings to the table an ability to "find great stories for Spenser and Hawk to star in. It is almost like they are actors who are in my company, and I need a vehicle for these guys that's a damned good story for them to be in ... I'm looking for new, modern stories for them to have something good to do." It wouldn't be hard to find a writer who could simply imitate the rhythms of Parker's prose, find some familiar scenarios, and cash in on the name ... but Ace is after something more profound than that. As a former journalist, he 's looking for fresh ways into the characters and stories, for different angles. He may be playing jazz, just like Parker did, but he's riffing on the melody, creating a unique backbeat, finding chords with a different progression. That's a great business lesson. Companies that think they've found the formula, think they've identified the magic sauce, and try to replicate that over and over, almost certainly are going to lose any sense of authenticity, of discovery, of a unique connection to the customer. I'm impressed by how Atkins is nurturing the tradition without being trapped by it, and I'm already looking forward to his next Spenser novel. Spring 2016 cannot come fast enough.

Since Robert B. Parker's death in 2010, I've sorely missed reading his work, and probably always will. No one can truly replace him or his writing, but I do appreciate Atkins' take on Parker's tough but sensitive Boston private eye. In this novel, Spenser is recovering from knee surgery and almost back to his fighting weight when Sheila Yates from Blackburn, a small town north of Boston, asks Spenser to help her teenage son Dillon who has been incarcerated in a juvenile detention center for a school prank. He's the latest in a long line of kids facing harsh sentences for minor infractions by Judge Joe Scali, a man famous for his stance of zero tolerance for bad behavior. But Sheila suspects Scali's motives are not so noble and hires Spenser to find the truth. Spenser uncovers corrupt judges and a mysterious corporation that runs New England's private prisons, both with links to Boston's criminal underworld. All the while, Dillon befriends a new arrival at the detention center, a young teenager who refuses to bend to the harsh treatment, particularly from one guard known only as "Robocop."As Spenser and Hawk do battle with a variety of criminals, ranging from powerful judges to the latest line of Boston mobsters, the race is on to save the boy, along with countless others languishing on an island purgatory. Atkins keeps the story moving at a brisk clip, with colorful characters old and new, and saucy dialogue throughout the novel. Though Spenser's age has slowed to a crawl (his Army service in the Korean war is no longer mentioned), the shadows of time and mortality pop up again and again in the story, from Spenser's troublesome knee to missing Boston landmarks to once powerful criminal figures like Joe Broz or Tony Marcus either dead or diminished. All in all, a good entertaining read. Ace Atkins isn't quite on Parker's level, but he's probably as close as anyone is likely to get.

Always a pleasure to return to these characters.

Spenser books never disappoint with new plots and lots of suspense along the way. Always wait for more. Keep it up.

If you like this series, if you love to hear about Spenser and Hawk and Susan, and a bit of Vinnie for extras, then this is more of the same. This was the first continuation of the series after Parker died, I think, so obviously Atkins tried hard to stick to the formula. His later books are a bit better, he introduces his own ideas.

All of these Spenser series are great reading

Love all Robert B. Parker books. Love Ace Atkins Robert B. Parker versions. Great sense of humor between characters.