"ROBERT B. PARKER'S 'OLD BLACK MAGIC'.....WE DON'T KNOW ART, BUT WE KNOW WHAT WE LIKE....

Robert B. Parker's 'Old Black Magic' by Ace Atkins (2018)     We're kind of iffy on the whole business of a dead author's estate hiring another writer to continue churning out books featuring the dead author's beloved characters.......

                 It comes down to how skillfully the new writer can duplicate the original author's style and successfully breathe new life into the familiar, much loved characters.....

                 This is the 6th time at bat for Ace Atkins in crafting another mystery-adventure for the late Robert B. Parker's big, burly, wisecracking Boston P.I. Spenser.

                 So do his Xerox copies get it right and give us a satisfying Spenser fix?

                  Hmm......sometimes.

                 Atkins way overdoes Spenser's trademark snark. Robert Parker carefully honed all of Spenser's withering wisecracks........Atkins has the character spewing out endless one liners faster than Groucho Marx in "A Night At The Opera".

                 Funny stuff, but there was always more to Spenser than his quick, sharp tongue.

                 Parker's books consisted almost entirely of short, pithy, right-to-the-point dialogue scenes. His pacing was electric......you could polish off one of his books in two hours or less....

                 Atkins maintains a slower pace and contributes more descriptive sequences......but it doesn't improve his imitation Spenser books much......it just makes you very aware that this isn't Parker who's writing them.

                   Oh right....the story.  At a museum's request, Spenser hunts down a priceless El Greco painting stolen from the museum twenty years earlier......

                    His quest eventually leads him into tangling with all the old school Mafia hoods he's come up against in previous books. And the body count commences......

                   We'll admit to laughing out loud a few times at the sheer onslaught of Spencer's jokes.....(Atkins provides him with three worthy foils in two of the museum honchos and the snotty rival Brit investigator they've hired to beat Spenser to the painting.   Basically, they're like "Night At The Opera" stuffed shirts waiting to be verbally eviscerated by Groucho-Spenser......)

                  But the ending left us with an unsatisfied,  indifferent bored shrug. And that's no way to end a Spenser caper, no matter how many zingers you provide him with.....

                  Not quite the real thing, but for all us Spenser-ites who never, never want the big guy to go away......we guess it'll do at 2 & 1/2 stars (**1/2).  Next time, Ace.....more genuine character moments, a few less gags.....and pick up the pace, why don't ya......