Spenser has always had a soft spot for the
underdog. Few have been more underdog
than 14 year old Mattie Sullivan. Four years ago her mother was murdered. A
friend of her mom’s, a man by the name of Mickey Green was arrested, tried, and
convicted. Seems like a certainty he did it since when he was caught he was
cleaning the dead woman’s flesh and blood off his car at a local car wash. With
that kind of evidence, a worthless lawyer, and his history it was no surprise the
police and the courts went through the motions and he is in prison.
Mattie knows her mom did a lot of bad things. She is certain that Mickey Green did not do
it because Mickey Green was always good to her Mom. She also saw two men snatch
her mother in South Boston the night she was murdered. Not only did she see
them grab her Mattie can identify them. She’s tough and trying to take care of
her alcoholic grandmother and her twin sisters. She can’t do it all and needs
Spenser’s help in so many ways. Finding out who killed her Mom and why is one
thing Spenser can do to help her.
Spenser begins to investigate and it does not take
long for him to figure out Mattie may be right. Mattie is also very stubborn
and proud and won’t back down an inch. It is going to take everything Spenser
and Hawk have to keep her and her family alive and find justice for Mattie.
Written by Ace Atkins after the death of Robert B.
Parker, this novel works on all levels. Clearly nobody is going to be pitch
perfect Parker/Spenser and Mr. Atkins, an accomplished author, is not perfect. But,
as the pages pass by and the rhythm of the story develops the subtitle
differences in author technique begin to rapidly fade. A nice touch is the
occasional strategic reference to long ago books and other cases. Also very
nice is the fact that unlike many of the recent books, Susan and Pearl the
Wonder Dog take a very back seat role in novel that is vintage Spenser.
The result is a powerful good read that works at all
levels throughout the book. Yes, this Spenser is different slightly in tone and
style, but this Spenser is a good one too.
Robert
B. Parker’s Lullaby: A Spenser Novel
Ace
Atkins
Thorndike
Press (a part of Gale, Cenage Learning)
2012
ISBN
# 978-14104-4814-9
LARGE
PRINT Hardback (also available in regular Hardback, audio, and Kindle)
$35.99
Material supplied by the good folks
of the Plano Texas Public Library System. Again this year the summer reading
challenge for adults and kids is now underway. For more information go to
Kevin
R. Tipple © 2012
Posts
2 comments:
Finished reading Lullaby last night. Agree it is a good story, also agree it is not quite the original Spenser. I hope that Ace Atkins can mimic Parker a bit better, although he did a nice job on this first effort.
I enjoyed it though it does seem a little off. I think Mr. Atkin's version will be a slightly harder Spenser and a bit less of the lovey-dovey type scenes with Susan.
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