As I mentioned the other day, after Robert B. Parker died I tried one of the Spenser novels by Ace Atkins, and gave up. The voice just didn’t hit me right. I’d always been a fan of Spenser, enjoying his witty, sometimes snarky comments. It’s been a few years, and I finally picked up Robert B. Parker’s Someone to Watch Over Me. Spenser and Hawk are right in this book. I wonder, though, how long the series will continue. Both of them are aware that they’re aging. Of course, they’ve been aging for untold years. Anyone who followed the series knows when Parker started the books, Spenser was a veteran of the Korean War.
In Robert B. Parker’s Lullaby, Mattie Sullivan was a fourteen-year-old who asked Spenser to look into her mother’s murder. Now, Mattie is twenty-two. She’s working as Spenser’s part-time assistant and apprentice. She wants to be a private investigator. She brings him her own case. Chloe Turner, a fifteen-year-old left her backpack and laptop at Blackstone, a private club. She can’t get it back. It turns out Chloe has been promised $500 for giving an old man a massage.
There’s a history in Boston. Chloe was recruited by a high school senior. Debbie Delgado is recruiting girls, fifteen, sixteen, the younger the better, to massage, and do more for powerful, rich men. Poppy Palmer, a forty-three-year old, originally from England, is behind the recruitment, along with Peter Steiner, head of an investment firm. Mattie finds a few other girls who have been recruited, including some that have flown to Steiner’s private island in the Bahamas. There are no rules on Steiner’s island.
It doesn’t take long before Mattie and Spenser attract the attention of Steiner’s private security thugs. Spenser and Hawk can handle that. As they investigate and talk with friends in law enforcement, they discover Steiner has wiggled loose of any charges, as witnesses stop talking. It might take some intervention from Spenser and Hawk to stop Steiner and Poppy Palmer. But, one of Spenser’s old enemies might be standing in the way.
Let’s face it. The procurers of underage girls in this book bear a striking resemblance to the stories told of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. While I enjoyed some of the book, the ending just didn’t work for me, although the voice has gotten better.
I think it’s about time Spenser and Hawk are allowed to enjoy retirement. I think that dead authors should be allowed to rest in peace, and their series should rest in peace with them.
Note: Just wanted to add that my favorite paragraph in the book occurred when Spenser suggested they could go to Hank Phillippi Ryan, investigative reporter for Ch. 7 in Boston, for assistance.
Robert B. Parker’s Someone to Watch Over Me by Ace Atkins. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2020. ISBN 9780525536857 (hardcover), 305p.
FTC Full Disclosure – The publisher sent a copy of the book, hoping I would review it.
I haven’t read Spenser in I don’t even remember how many years, but I think he stopped aging for a while, then started again, then maybe stopped again, before starting to age again about the time Parker died.
The only series characters done well after the creator’s death is Mike Hammer, by Collins, at least in recent times.
I think I’ve read at least a dozen writers doing Sherlock Holmes. Nobody ever seems to complain about that.
I guess I don’t know how I feel about the practice. I know I read some characters done by other authors, so I must not be too opposed to it.
That’s funny, Glen. I never even thought of Sherlock Holmes. And, you’re right. Those stories seem fine. I know I read a couple of the ones done after Rex Stout died, and I didn’t continue. I read only one of Sophie Hannah’s written about Poirot, and I won’t do that again. But, Holmes works for me.
I read the first 10 Spensers but then, as with Stephanie Plum years later, I got tired of the sameness book after book and quit. I totally agree with you. When an author dies, their characters should be allowed to RIP with them. I am not reading any new Hercule Poirots or any other continuations of series.
I think Glen’s right about the Sherlock Holmes. Maybe that’s because so many of the books were out by the time I started reading them. Even so, some of them don’t feel right, either.
It did take him awhile to get the voice right. Hopefully, my library will get the new one. All they have is the audio version right now.
Sherlock does not bother me. The Hammer ones seemed way off to me.
Overall, I think it is best when the estate shuts it down after the author has passed.
I’m sure your library will get it, Kevin. After all, it’s Parker and Atkins. I agree about shutting the books down.