Robert B. Parker's Angel Eyes by Ace Atkins (2019) Hmmmmmm......
That's always the tentative reaction we have whenever we approach one of these 'continuation' books........ where Ace Atkins creates new adventures for the late Robert B. Parker's tough, tender and ultra-witty Boston private eye, Spenser.
We dearly love Parker's original Spenser novels and despite all our misgivings, we wouldn't dare miss Atkins' mostly worthy attempts to keep the series going, doing his very best to reproduce Parker's terse, spare, dialogue-driven style.
Atkins achieves varying degrees of success and failure doing this. Reviewing his Spenser books becomes like judging one of the Saturday Night Live cast member's celebrity impressions.
In other words......how close does he come to the real thing.
One thing he definitely overdoes - Spenser's penchant for sharp pungent one line zingers when dealing with clients, suspects, cops, thugs and his long time lady love, the supremely sexy shrink, Susan Silverman.
Parker knew exactly how to calibrate and ration out Spenser's well-timed wisecracks. Atkins floods the book and the character with non-stop gags, as if his version of Spenser is relentlessly trying out his stand-up comedy act. It's wearying after a while and lot of Atkins' stuff is simply not that funny.
Atkins, being a veteran mystery writer of his own original books, does do a fine job of plotting out Spenser's trip to L.A. in search of a disappeared starlet.
Before it's all over, the sardonic gumshoe encounters just about everything you'd expect him to come up against in Tinseltown........egotistical repulsive movie studio moguls using and abusing young actresses, slimy agents, a sinister cult holding its deluded members captive......and as an extra bonus, a pile of murderous, rampaging Armenian gangsters.
Of course, none of the above phase Spenser in the least. With some punching, some shooting and his perpetual stream of verbal bon mots, he eventually gets to the bottom of everything.....even as the bodies pile up all over town.
We realize a pitch perfect imitation of Parker isn't in the cards. Parker was Parker and Atkins is Atkins, a different writer altogether, no matter how hard he struggles to bring Spenser back to life.
In this latest installment, we think Atkins did the best job he could do in that regard......and we freely admit to enjoying Spenser back in action, confounding friends, enemies and frenemies with his trademark, rapid fire repartee.
.....which makes for a fun, super fast read. 3 stars (***)
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