Robert B. Parker's Cheap Shot (Spenser Series #43)

by Ace Atkins

Overview

“Atkins gives Robert B. Parker’s long-running series one of its best installments to date” (Bookreporter.com) as Spenser investigates the kidnapping of a football player’s son.

Kinjo Heywood is one of the New England Patriots’ marquee players—a hard-nosed linebacker who’s earned his standing as one of the toughest guys in the league. He may be worth millions but his connection to a nightclub shooting two years before is still putting a dangerous spin on his life, and his career.

When Heywood’s nine-year-old son, Akira, is kidnapped, and a winding trail through Boston’s underworld begins, Spenser puts together his own all-star team of toughs. It will take both Hawk and Spenser’s protégé, Zebulon Sixkill, to watch Spenser’s back. Because Heywood’s next unpredictable move puts everyone in jeopardy as the clock winds down on Akira’s future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399171352
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/06/2014
Series:	Spenser Series , #43
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	43,633
File size:	811 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Robert B. Parker was the author of seventy books, including the legendary Spenser detective series, the novels featuring police chief Jesse Stone, and the acclaimed Virgil Cole–Everett Hitch westerns, as well as the Sunny Randall novels. Winner of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award and long considered the undisputed dean of American crime fiction, he died in January 2010.
 
Ace Atkins is the New York Times bestselling author of the Quinn Colson novels, the first two of which—The Ranger and The Lost Ones—were nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel (he also has a third Edgar nomination for his short story, “Last Fair Deal Gone Down”). In addition, he is the author of several New York Times bestselling novels in the continuation of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series. Before turning to fiction, he was a correspondent for the St. Petersburg Times, a crime reporter for the Tampa Tribune, and, in college, played defensive end for the undefeated Auburn University football team (for which he was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated). He lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for ROBERT B. PARKER’S CHEAP SHOT 
“Spenser is as tough and funny as ever, and Atkins has become a worthy successor.”
— Booklist
 
“Assured... Atkins’s gift for mimicking the late Robert B. Parker could lead to a long run, the the delight of Spenser devotees.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A well-conceived adventure that balances Spenser and friends’ experience with Akira’s innocence while drawing on Atkins’ own Auburn football days.”
 —Crimespree Magazine

“Cheap Shot is the best yet, with a whip-crack plot, plenty of intriguing and despicable characters, and the lovable, relentless Spenser at its center….Atkins also has a deft way with Parker's style… Atkins is bringing his own energy and strengths to Parker's series. Cheap Shot is Spenser, by the book.”
—Tampa Bay Times

Praise for ROBERT B. PARKER’S WONDERLAND
“Atkins finds his footing this time, settling into the character and concocting a fairly complex caper with urban development, organized crime, and sex all playing roles….Quite a good crime novel.”—Booklist
 
“Solid… Atkins’s ability to perfectly mimic the originals will please diehard fans hungry for familiar pleasures.”—Publishers Weekly

“An entertaining effort.” — Kirkus Reviews

“These books are real gems…the old Spenser magic is back.”—Aspen Daily News

Praise for ROBERT B. PARKER’S LULLABY
“Handpicked by the Parker estate to be the keeper of the flame for the Spenser franchise, award-winning author Ace Atkins rises flawlessly to the occasion. In addition to the signature dialogue, all the familiars are fully resurrected: Susan, the sexy shrink; Pearl, the wonder dog; Hawk, the wonder sidekick; good cop Quirk, and, of course, Spenser himself, that consummate knight errant for the 21st century.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Even the most fanatical Parker fans would be hard pressed to identify any aspect of this Spenser novel that doesn’t read as if it were penned by Spenser’s late creator.…Atkins hits all the familiar marks – bantering scenes with Spenser’s girlfriend, fisticuffs, heavy-duty backup from the dangerous Hawk – as he offers familiar pleasures.”—Publishers Weekly
 
“A brisk read. Atkins gets the important things right, from Spenser’s dark sarcasm to the gritty attitude of Mattie Sullivan, a 14-year-old Southie girl trying to solve her mother’s murder.”—Boston Magazine

“Atkins succeeds. He doesn’t sound like somebody trying to emulate Parker…. Spenser, thankfully, sounds like Spenser. You also get the vivid sense of place, flexing of muscles and spare plot that were hallmarks of Parker’s 39 Spenser books….It’s a feat when a writer creates characters who live and breathe on the page and make readers care and keep coming back for more. To manage that with someone else’s characters, let alone with an icon like Spenser, is a minor miracle. Ace Atkins pulls it off.”—Chicago Sun-Times

Editorial Reviews

03/10/2014
In Atkins’s assured third Spenser novel (after 2013’s Robert B. Parker’s Wonderland), New England Patriots linebacker Kinjo Heywood, who suspects he’s being followed, hires PI Spenser to look into the perceived threats. Someone may be unhappy that Heywood, who was implicated in a shooting at a Manhattan nightclub, emerged from the investigation with only a weapons violation. The star’s reputation as a dirty player also could be behind the harassment, with opposing teams potentially seeking to rattle him just as the season gets underway. When Heywood’s seven-year-old son, Akira, is kidnapped, Spenser works frantically to bring Akira back safely, despite sometimes working at cross-purposes from the boy’s father. Because the “old Italian and Irish crews” that Spenser used to know are no more, he has to turn to new underworld sources for information. Atkins’s gift for mimicking the late Robert B. Parker could lead to a long run, to the delight of Spenser devotees. Agent: Helen Brann, Helen Brann Agency. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Robert B. Parker’s Cheap Shot

“Robert B. Parker’s Cheap Shot shows why [Ace Atkins] was a perfect choice to continue the Spenser novels.”—West Orlando News

“A stupendous addition to the series.”—MysteryPeople.com

“Atkins is bringing his own energy and strengths to Parker's series. Cheap Shot is Spenser, by the book.”—Tampa Bay Times

“Atkins’s gift...could lead to a long run, to the delight of Spenser devotees.”—Publishers Weekly 

Praise for Ace Atkins and the Spenser Series

“Handpicked by the Parker estate to be the keeper of the flame for the Spenser franchise, award-winning author Ace Atkins rises flawlessly to the occasion. In addition to the signature dialogue, all the familiars are fully resurrected: Susan, the sexy shrink; Pearl, the wonder dog; Hawk, the wonder sidekick; good cop Quirk, and, of course, Spenser himself, that consummate knight errant for the twenty-first century.”—Kirkus Reviews

“It’s a feat when a writer creates characters who live and breathe on the page and make readers care and keep coming back for more. To manage that with someone else’s characters, let alone with an icon like Spenser, is a minor miracle. Ace Atkins pulls it off.”—Chicago Sun-Times

“Atkins does a wonderful job with the characters created by Parker.”—Booklist
 
“Classic Spenser—the Spenser of wry wit, tasty food and drinks, hard workouts and lethal confrontations...Once again, Atkins has delivered a thriller that evokes the best of Parker’s Spenser series, not least the punchy back-and-forth of the dialogue.”—Associated Press

“Atkins has done a splendid job of capturing the voice of the late Robert B. Parker.”—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

2014-04-03
Boston's premier private eye signs on to recover the kidnapped son of one of Boston's sports heroes. Defensive lineman Kinjo Heywood is known for his crushing attacks on opposing quarterbacks. Now that a shadowy someone is following him around his hometown, his agent, Steven Rosen, and Patriots security chief Jeff Barnes are forced to play a different kind of defense. Brought in to find out who's forcing Kinjo to keep looking over his shoulder, Spenser has barely gotten started when Kinjo's second wife, Cristal, reports that his beloved son, Akira, 9, has been grabbed from her car on the way to school. Days pass with no word from the kidnappers, leaving Spenser and his trainee, Zebulon Sixkill, plenty of time to reopen the case of Cape Verde gangbanger Antonio Lima, shot two years ago in a Manhattan nightclub shortly after a scuffle with Kinjo over a waitress—a case Kinjo's brother Ray paid Lima's family handsomely to make go away. When a caller to a popular sports-talk radio show finally phones in a ransom demand for Akira, the $100,000 amount seems suspiciously low, and Spenser soon finds out why. His success puts him in tight with Kinjo but leaves him on the outs with the athlete's handlers and the cops. Then Kinjo takes to the airwaves himself to make a quixotic announcement that seems calculated to push the story, whose tension Atkins (Robert B. Parker's Wonderland, 2013, etc.) has so far managed admirably, over a cliff. And it does, as the tale fizzles out in a shower of forced entries, meetings with conveniently connected mobsters, eleventh-hour twists and bang bang bang. Two-thirds of a perfectly controlled kidnap tale, with Spenser close to his top form, crashes, burns and goes down without a trace in the end.

Kirkus Reviews