Robert B. Parker's 'Bye Bye Baby' by Ace Atkins (2022)
I can hardly describe how much I loved and cherished the late Robert B. Parker's crackling, fast and witty mystery-adventures of his Boston private eye Spenser. Usually taking no more than an hour or two to read, these gems featured the noble, stalwart, but ever wise-cracking Spenser deploying his perpetual razor sharp quips on both friends and foes alike. Consisting almost entirely of whip-smart dialogue exchanges, the only bad thing about these books was coming to the end of them...and realizing I'd have to wait awhile for the next one......
I was initially cheered and wary by the idea of Parker's estate commissioning author Ace Atkins to continue the series. Could he really summon up the chops to not only replicate Parker's lean precise storytelling but the priceless extra dry humor of Spenser's patter?
To some extent, he tried his best and results varied from book to book. Sometimes Atkins nailed Parker's unique voice and prose, sometime he grossly overdid it, and a few times, he flat out failed.
'Bye Bye Baby' is problematic on multiple levels........starting with Atkins' idea to plunge Spenser into the boiling cauldron of today's ripped-from-the-headlines toxic political divisions.
Our aging but still formidable P.I. takes on the task of bodyguard to young, progressive Congressperson Carolina Garcia-Ramirez.....or CGR for short. Yes, she's obviously a thinly veiled fictitious stand in for the provocative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. And just like AOC, CGR and her ultra-liberal agenda function as a veritable political lightning rod. Naturally, that puts her in the crosshairs of all the odious, far-right Neo-Nazi goons who hope to take back the country for white Christians.
To Ace Atkins, this must have sounded, on its surface anyway, like a surefire recipe for an incendiary showdown between Spenser and most dangerous, loathsome people in America But he should have summoned up enough self awareness to realize what a no-win situation he put himself in.
Atkins didn't foresee that this country's divisions run so deep, he'd infuriate and outrage a big part of the Spenser fanbase with his depiction of a stand-in for AOC......he must have thought the inclusion of the loathsome Nazi gang was enough to energize and galvanize them. After all, doesn't anybody with a moral compass or at lease 3 or 4 functioning brain cells hate Nazis?
That's what the author no doubt counted on to dissuade any readers from thinking they were being force-fed a 'woke' liberal bill-of-goods. But that's exactly what many readers did feel Atkins struggles to avoid that reaction by compelling the staunchly apolitical Spenser to constantly avoid any opinions on CGR policies......but Atkins couldn't comprehend that the very presence of an AOC type would set off five-alarm bells for some folks, even the ones who despise Nazis.
And here's what I found truly appalling and disingenuous about this book.. Atkins has Federal agents weighing in on the rising tidal wave of Neo-Nazi alt-right domestic terrorists....all of this happening within the last 6 years or so......
Nowhere in the book or in the voice of any character does Atkins speak of WHY this infestation of human cockroaches began to crawl out of the woodwork in record numbers.....WHY they felt suddenly enabled and legitimized. And WHO told this lethal convergence of fascist morons to march on the Capitol building on January 6 of 2020 to overthrow a free and fair election.
Ace Atkins wanted to shoehorn in political villains without any explanation for their existence......kind of like watching a Bond movie where there's lot's of minions running around, but Brlofeld's nowhere in sight. I do realize that if Atkins found the guts and cojones to actually mention Donald Trump as the Neo-Nazis patron saint, (you know, the guy who thinks they're very good people"), he'd anger readers who don't want politics in their thrillers.
But he chose to go down this road to begin with.......and thought he could get away with using the creep brigade as prop bad guys without ever daring to mention who brought them out of their caves in the first place......
Furthermore, in terms of imitating the original style of Parker's Spenser-verse, the book's only a so-so effort in duplicating the beloved rat-a-tat-tat of Parker's beloved characters......enough said.
A mis-fire in every possible way, say bye bye to 'Bye Bye Baby'....1 star (*).
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