I am usually not a fan of continuing an author's character long after the author has died. You would think I would be as a big fan of comic books where this the norm. I just don't find that many books that can maintain the magic. Capture the voice. I don't know hoe Atkins has done it but reading these books is like reading Robert B. Parker. It is that seemless. With one exception. I think that Parker was slipping towards the end. Atkins has invigorated the series again. Reading these books is like meeting a friend you haven't seen in years. Atkins has a much better hold of the plot.

You are never going to read Spenser to figure out what the world is about. You read Spenser for the characters. They are all here. Hell, I even like Susan again. Great story. Fast read. Leaves you wanting more. A perfect recipe. ( )

Not Robert Parker, but not too shabby ( )

When you are 43 books into a series, surprises are not really expected - you are here to meet the same people you had grown to really like. After Parker died, I was a bit worried about the Spenser series - it relied a lot on the very distinct style of the author which pulled off even the weaker books. But I still wanted to see where the next writer will get the characters - so I just proceeded to work through the series, now written by Atkins. And the previous two installments did not disappoint. And neither did this one.

Hawk is back in town, Susan is there, Pearl makes a brief appearance. Zebulon Sixkill is still around (and almost recovered from the mess he got himself into in the last books), Quirk and Belson are around as always, the new FBI head-agent who replaced Epstein is the usual moron. We are missing some of the usual cast (Rita always makes me smile and we had not seen Lee Farrell or Paul Giacomin or most of the extended character list but we cannot get them every time I guess.

When the book opens, Spenser is hired to protect a pro-ball player - although it is not clear if it is the player that needs protection or he is asked to protect people from the player. Before long things take an ugly turn - the player's 8 years old son Akira disappears and the job changes. And off everyone goes - the state police (no Healy...), FBI, Spenser - everyone seems to be trying to do the same thing - find the child. But the kidnappers refuse to call and everyone seems to be chasing shadows. Add a second wife and the mother of the child, a somewhat checkered past of the first and some back history of the father, Gerry Broz selling fish (nope, not Gino Fish -- real fish) and some more of the rogue gallery suddenly being helpful and things start getting complicated.

When Parker introduced Z, it looked like a repetition - he is too close to Hawk as a character (minus the sleekness of the older man). Atkins chose not just to keep him but also to use him - but he had a bit of a problem - Hawk and Spenser had a third in the face of Vinnie. As last year took care of that (and I suspect that we are still to see all the repercussions), Z slid into the role which Vinnie had played in earlier books, except that Z is around a bit more. And this time, without a third character, the novel would not have worked.

If you had been reading the series so far, this novel is a good addition - it is closer to the middle novels from Spenser, more complex in the plotting than the later books (although I would argue that the seemingly simple plots are what makes this series good). In places it feels as if some of the side stories may have been dropped without harming the book. But if you have never read the series before, I would say not to start here - while you will get the basic introduction to Z, most of the older characters are not even introduced and there are so many allusions to older novels and throwaway phrases that make sense only if you had read the books that I am not sure if the novel won't feel more like a sketch than a real novel if you are not getting them. ( )

"So many shitbags," I said. "So little time." ( )

The Spenser novels by Atkins are every bit as good as the Parker books at the end if the latter' career. Nothing beats the Spenser novels of the 1970s and early 1980s, of course. But this was an exciting read and true to the characters. ( )