Slow Burn

March 7, 2016
Edgar-finalist Atkins’s solid fifth Spenser novel (after 2015’s Robert B. Parker’s Kickback) finds the Boston PI looking into a year-old blaze at a Catholic church in the South End that claimed the lives of three firefighters. While Spenser’s fire department friend, Capt. Jack McGee, suspects arson, neither the police nor McGee’s investigators have been able to make a case. McGee needs Spenser to keep a low profile, fearful that his pension may be imperiled if word of his unofficial digging reaches the brass. Meanwhile, some firefighter wannabes, who believe that the fire department isn’t getting the respect or resources it deserves, decide that the way to change things is to begin starting fires. Though the story is mostly formulaic—Spenser spars with thugs, crosses a high-level mobster, shares good food, banter, and a bed with his long-time love interest—Atkins tosses in a surprising change to his lead’s status quo, and series fans will be eager to see what he does with it in Spenser’s next outing. Agent: Helen Brann, Helen Brann Agency.

March 1, 2016
Spenser fiddles while Boston burns. It began a year ago with a fire in Holy Innocents, a South End church that burned to the ground with three firefighters trapped in the basement. Despite all the fires that have followed, Capt. Jack McGee, a close friend of Lt. Pat Dougherty, has been stonewalled at every turn by the authorities, who insist they can't even be sure fires were set at two different places, as Dougherty claimed just before becoming one of those victims, and he wants Spenser to ask the tough questions, without of course mentioning McGee's name. Never reluctant to take on the world's troubles, Spenser makes the rounds, and in no time at all he's succeeded in antagonizing members of the police department, the arson squad, and the Sparks Association, whose members devote themselves to providing aid and comfort to Boston's firefighters. More consequentially, the questions he asks Tommy "Tommy Torch" Torccelli, the veteran arsonist doing time for kiddie porn, also bring him up against Jackie DeMarco, a crime lord who's never been a fan of Spenser's. None of which would be a big problem if DeMarco and Tyler King, his designated arsonist, were actually behind the blazes. But they're not; as Atkins (Robert B. Parker's Kickback, 2015, etc.) makes clear from the get-go, the real arsonists are a trio of wannabe firefighters who think they can rally public support and funding for the Boston Fire Department by showing everyone how thinly its resources are stretched. If you think this motive sounds implausible, just consider how much it would explain about the current activities of Congress. Not much energy or conviction in the larger rhythms of this case, but the scene-by-scene, line-by-line pleasures are authentic enough.

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May 1, 2016
A year ago, three Boston firefighters lost their lives battling a blaze in a century-old Southie church. The Boston Fire Department offered no official outcome of its arson investigation, suggesting a tragic accident. Jack McGee, a firefighter who lost his best friend in the incident, refuses to accept that conclusion and hires Boston PI Spenser to investigate. Spenser pursues a couple of theories. In exploring the theory that a turf battle between crime bosses led to the arson, Spenser angers one mobster who decides Spenser should learn a lesson, and, if that doesn't take, he'll have him killed. Meanwhile, author Atkins, who has his own successful series featuring Mississippian Quinn Colson, provides readers with the alternate perspective of the real arsonists, who, worried that Spenser may be getting close, decide to throw him off by setting more fires, targeting Spenser's apartment, prompting the detective to reveal a heretofore unseen but fascinating streak of vulnerability. This is a very suspenseful, cleverly plotted entry in Atkins' extension of the Spenser series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

December 1, 2015

Boston PI Spenser is approached by firefighter Jack McGee, who's convinced that the apartment blaze that took the lives of five residents and two firefighters was arson. Edgar-nominated Atkins's takeover of the late Parker's iconic Spenser character has produced a string of New York Times best sellers.

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