The Three Best Fiction Books I’ve Read in a While…

The Three Best Fiction Books I’ve Read in a While…

I have gone through a bit of a dry spell lately when it comes to finding fiction reads that have held my attention. I have picked up and put down a pile of books, searching for one that would keep me turning pages. Well that drought has broken…in a big way, with three new books all hitting the mark.

Robert B. Parker’s Slow Burn – Ace Atkins (G. P. Putnam Books)

Veteran writer Ace Atkins continues to helm the ongoing continuation of the Robert B. Parker Boston P I, Spenser series of books. Atkins has steadily honed in on Parker’s timeless characters and continues to not only deliver great stories, but also evolve one of Parker’s final character creations Zebulon Sixkill. It would be easy to see that evolution continue, with Z getting his one stand alone series.

 

In Robert B. Parker’s Slow Burn Atkins has Spenser taking on finding answers for a series of arson fires that is plaguing Boston. The first arson involved an abandoned Catholic church and left three firefighters dead. The torch is part of a trio of near-do-wells who on one hand desperately wannabe firefighters and who think they are “helping” Boston’s bravest to get the assets and appreciation they deserve.

That justification starts to when more firefighters and victims start to get hurt and the torch becomes unglued. Atkins mixes in some of the usual suspects with new players and ends up with another winning effort.

The Second Life of Nick Mason (A Nick Mason Novel) – Steve Hamilton (G. P. Putnam)

Sometimes the concept just isn’t enough; it’s the execution that matters. Multi-award winning novelist Steve Hamilton has launched a new series featuring lead character Nick Mason. In The Second Life of Nick Mason, here is the concept; Mason is five years into knocking down a 25 year sentence the old-fashioned way, one day at a time. Then out of the blue a locked up crime kingpin requests a meeting. After a time, Mason gets an offer he can’t refuse; if he plays along, the kingpin can make things happen and get Mason set free.

It’s a great concept, at what cost freedom? Mason is willing to strike the deal, with strings attached. It doesn’t take long to find out what those strings involve. Mason is forced to confront not only his new “arrangement” but ghosts from his past. The conflict and inner turmoil are compounded by one of the cops who put him behind bars who can’t quite reconcile Mason’s new found freedom and puts him squarely in the crosshairs.

Hamilton executes on the concept and sets the table for the Mason series to be a winner going forward as he ratchets up the tension not only within the lead character, but also with the players he is forced to deal with.

The Fireman: A Novel – Joe Hill (William Morrow)

Award winning, bestselling author Joe Hill serves up a novel, The Fireman that details a devastating, worldwide pandemic of a plague dubbed Dragonscale, that causes it’s victims to self-combust and threatens to reduce the world to a pile of ashes.

While some may draw a comparison to The Walking Dead, but they would be off base. While unlikely heroes emerge during the story, Hill creates an imaginative tale that given his experience writing graphic novels (Locke and Key) are strikingly visual, but wildly different than the Dead. There is a level of desperation that propels the story forward and keeps you locked in.

My only quibble with The Fireman, is Hill’s need to make snarky, off hand comments that don’t seem to fit the story. Conservative, talk show host Glenn Beck self-combusts early on in the book and when a hospital security guard wrestles the Fireman to the ground with a chokehold, Hill references Eric Garner. Okay we get it; Hill, like his father Stephen King, a liberal douche bag. I have never understood why writers and other artists feel the need to turn off potentially half of their audience.

Big Shoes Filled

Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins – A Jesse Stone Novel – Reed Farrell Coleman (Putnam)

Not sure it was that started the publishing trend toward franchising, but has often times met with middling results. Franchising is when a beloved author or creator of a beloved character passes away and a hired gun writer is selected to pick up the reigns and either complete a partial manuscript or completely take over the character in an attempt to carry on the publishing franchise.

Such is the case with a variety of characters created by the late Robert B. Parker including Boston P.I., Spenser, the western series featuring Cole and Hitch and that of Paradise, MA police chief Jesse Stone. Parker was tapped to complete a manuscript started by the legendary Raymond Chandler, so he was an early progenitor of the form.

Many skilled practitioners have taken a swing at carrying on Parker’s timeless characters; some with greater success than others. While I have enjoyed many of these franchise outings, they all seemed to be missing a little something. Clearly then weren’t Bob Parker. With Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins, veteran author Reed Farrell Coleman comes closest to nailing down Parker’s Jesse Stone from beginning to end.

Once again Paradise gets rocked by a murder, but this one has ties leading straight back to this small town’s past; the discovery of a new murder victim also reveals a pair of older corpses that turn out to be two long missing and seemingly forgotten victims which shakes the town to foundation.

Coleman uses a practiced eye and a master’s skill to construct not only the crime, but to build in the backdrop of what could be Any Small Town, USA. While the cast of others have done Parker small justice, Coleman finds the right voice Jesse Stone and succeeds in making it his own. They are big shoes, properly filled.

Ace Hits His Stride

 Robert B. Parker’s - Cheap Shot - Ace Atkins (Putnam Publishing)

Back in 1989 Raymond Chandler’s estate selected with Robert B. Parker to finish he partial manuscript for a book called, Poodle Springs that Chandler left upon his passing. Parker was a solid choice to finish off the book featuring the hardboiled detective Philip Marlowe. At the time fans cried foul, complaining that Parker could never live up to standard Chandler had set.

Flash forward a few decades and now its Parker fans who grouse about the authors selected to continue the stories featuring Parker’s collection of memorable characters. Ace Atkins finds himself firmly in the least enviable position of picking up the reins of the series featuring Parker’s most famous character, Boston private investigator Spenser.

As a confirmed Parker fanatic I always approach these new efforts with a mix of excitement and trepidation that I temper with the clarity that no one can truly replace Parker. With his third outing carrying on the Spenser series entitled Robert B. Parker’s Cheap Shot Atkins really hits his stride. While to two prior efforts were chock full of references to familiar places and faces from Spenser’s world, this one keeps in place that cast while generating an original storyline that has a ripped from the headlines quality.

Take one highly paid NFL superstar, add some nightclub gun play, a dead body, shake with a curvy trophy wife who has substance issues and a checkered porn past and throw in a kidnapped son and the story is off to the races. Spenser is on the case weaving his way through the Boston underground to track down not only the kidnappers, but also the truth.

Rather than exercising his ability to simply name drop, Atkins uses those familiar characters to weave an entertaining tale anchored firmly by Spenser’s do the right thing moral compass.

Review: Robert B. Parker - Sixkill

For me, it was bittersweet to read Sixkill by Robert B. Parker. Since his passing in January of 2010, a handful of books that he had in the pipeline have been released, but Sixkill will be the final book in the series of novels featuring hardboiled, but tender, Boston P I, Spenser.

A friend introduced me to Parker/Spenser and I was hooked from the start. I quickly worked my way through the back catalog and continued to voraciously gobble up each new edition to the series. Along the way Parker added a couple of new denizens to the Boston ‘burbs, in the form of Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall, who joined the long list of colorful, quirky characters that filled the pages of his books.

Parker was a master at drawing compelling characters who while often habitually flawed; they almost uniformly do the right thing and make the honorable thing. Sixkill adds the character Zebulon Sixkill, a Cree Indian, who works as a body guard and ends up under Spenser’s sizable wing.

Parker does a masterful job of drawing Sixkill’s background from a child on the res, to the college football field and into the seedier side of Hollywood celebrity body guarding.

Along the way Spenser hones Sixkill’s skills and prepares him for the final showdown and crossing swords, or in this case a Bowie knife and .40 Smith and Wesson, with a sadistic hit man out to kill them.
It makes Parker’s passing all the more sad; Sixkill is a good fit to join the long list of hard men, skilled with hands and weapons, like: Hawk, Vinnie Morris, Chollo, Bobby Horse, Ty Bop, and Junior.

While I see that Michael Brandman, the television producer responsible for the Tom Selleck movie’s featuring Jesse Stone, is set to continue that series with the new book, Killing The Blues set for release this September, I’m not sure Parker’s estate should strike a similar deal to continue the Spenser series. Some things are better left the way they are.