The Havana Run by Ace Atkins

Published by Amazon Original Stories on March 12, 2024

George and Jay are retired journalists living in Florida. An old man named Navarro offers them $10,000 to travel to Cuba and recover “family valuables” that have been hidden away since the Revolution. They fly to Havanna, where Navarro has arranged for Carmen to act as their guide. Carmen drives them to a hotel and assures them that a driver will take them to Santa Clara on the following day. Whether Carmen is trustworthy may be questionable. Sure, she drives off with their luggage, but maybe she was in a hurry.

Later that day, George and Jay are in fact met by a man named Armando who agrees to drive them to Santa Clara in the morning. Armando tells the men not to trust Carmen. In the hotel bar, George meets an American who tells him not to trust Nararro. They soon learn that they cannot trust Armando. The trip to Santa Clara turns out to be perilous.

In Santa Clara, George and Jay search for the contacts Navarro provided, Rosa and Safia. The two women are widely believed to be witches, but they put George and Jay in touch with a very old man. When George shows the man a map that Navarro made, he knows exactly where to find the valuables. Recovering them, however, will be a hairy experience.

Ace Atkins is high on my list of favorite thriller writers. This story earns points for avoiding the usual thriller themes. George and Jay aren’t tough guys. They don’t have guns. They don’t use their wits to accomplish their mission. Instead, employing journalistic persistence, they muddle their way forward until they get what they came for.

George and Jay have little choice but to place their faith in unsavory characters who routinely betray them. Yet they took the job and they doggedly perform it. Reflecting their uncertainty about their journey, the nature of the “family valuables” Navarro asked them to recover turns out to be ambiguous.

“The Havana Run” is driven by Cuba’s revolutionary history and post-revolutionary corruption. The medium-length story doesn’t waste a word. Atkins tells an offbeat tale at a good pace, creates atmosphere, populates the story with colorful characters, and grounds a plausible plot in an interesting history lesson.

RECOMMENDED

The Heathens by Ace Atkins

Published by ‎ G.P. Putnam's Sons on July 13, 2021

In his usual masterful style, Ace Atkins constructs a story from multiple perspectives, then accelerates the pace in the second half by shifting rapidly among the plot threads, creating the sense of simultaneous action on multiple fronts. He does that without sacrificing characterization. In fact, The Heathens is one of the best installments of the Quinn Colson series, precisely because Atkins develops the personality of a key secondary character in surprising depth while telling an engaging story.

The story’s focus is on a teenage girl named TJ Byrd. TJ has always been a troublemaker, but Atkins makes the reader sympathize with her delinquent nature. There aren’t many roads to a happy life for a girl who needs to raise her younger brother while her mother is making one bad decision after another, typically involving drugs and abusive men. Gina’s latest bad choice is Chester Pratt, who sees Gina (and indirectly TJ) as the solution to his debt problem. Pratt is the last straw for TJ, who takes her little brother and hits the road with her boyfriend, Ladarius McCade, and her best friend, Holly Harkins.

The disreputable sheriff in a neighboring county happens upon a dismembered body that has been soaking in a barrel of bleach. Quinn, the sheriff of Tibbehah County, enlists the help of his former deputy and current US Marshal, Lily Virgil, to identify the remains. As Gina’s lifelong friend, Lily recognizes a tattoo that confirm Gina’s identity as a murder victim.

Since TJ is on the run, she becomes the prime suspect, a suspicion that Pratt does his best to fuel. Quinn isn’t convinced of TJ’s guilt, but Pratt has an alibi. As Quinn conducts his investigation in Tibbehah County, Lily follows TJ’s path into Arkansas and Louisiana. TJ is pretty easy to follow, given the trail of stolen cars and burgled houses she and Ladarius leave in their wake. TJ meets a disgruntled princess named Chastity in one of those houses who turns TJ into an Instagram sensation. Telling your story on Instagram turns out to be a bad way of traveling on the down low.

The series’ recurring villain (the one who is still alive, at any rate) is Johnny Stagg. He plays a role in the unfolding events, but the most villainous characters are a father and son thug team named Daddy and Dusty Flem. Most of Colson’s evil characters are corrupt and violent, but Daddy and Dusty are unthinking and unfeeling monsters. Yet they are just as realistic as more nuanced villains who have bedeviled Quinn in earlier novels.

Quinn’s wife and her son, as well as Quinn's new baby, his mother and his friend Boom Kimbrough play their expected parts, reminding the reader of Quinn’s fundamental decency and the difficult times he has overcome. But the novel’s star is TJ, who fights for her freedom and survival, battles her emotions and forces herself to be brave for her bother’s sake because he has no one else. She’s a strong, sympathetic, but vulnerable character, instantly likeable because she won’t tolerate being abused, even if — as any girl of 16 would — she makes some immature choices along the way.

The reason Gina was killed isn’t necessarily what the reader will expect. There is a bit of a whodunit plot mixed with a fast-moving action story as various characters try to be the first to find TJ — some of whom do not have her best interests at heart. Atkins mixes his characteristic humor into the story with throwaway lines like TJ’s brother’s description of his mother’s death: “She’s up there in heaven with Jesus and Dale Earnhardt.” Atkins continues the noir atmosphere of corruption, degradation, and hypocrisy that he has established throughout the series. All of the novels in this series are good but the effort that Atkins put into TJ makes The Heathens one of his best.

RECOMMENDED

Someone to Watch Over Me by Ace Atkins

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on January 12, 2021

Ace Atkins is the best writer in the Robert B. Parker factory. He’s tasked with churning out the Spenser novels. Parker has been dead for ten years and probably does little writing these days. You wouldn’t know of his death from the book cover, which places Atkins’ name in a much smaller font than Parker’s. Technically, the book’s title is Robert B. Parker’s Someone to Watch Over Me but it should be The Estate of Robert B. Parker’s Someone to Watch Over Me.

I imagine there is a blurb somewhere that says the novel is “torn from the headlines.” Don’t you hate that phrase? The villain is Jeffrey Epstein, except his name in the book is Peter Steiner. The girlfriend who is now facing trial for supplying underage girls to Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, is Poppy Palmer in the book.

Steiner befriends politicians and wealthy men, bringing them to his island in the Bahamas where underage girls can give them massages. Sorting out facts from salacious gossip and smear campaigns (no, John Roberts didn’t visit Epstein’s island) is proving to be difficult in the real world. Fortunately, Atkins stays away from the celebrity sideshow. Alan Dershowitz doesn’t even make a cameo and that guy is everywhere.

Mattie Sullivan is Parker’s “occasional secretary, part-time assistant, and sleuthing apprentice.” She learns about an underage girl who was paid a few hundred dollars to massage a man in an exclusive Boston club. The man dropped his trousers and the girl fled at the sight of his trouser snake, leaving her laptop behind. Spenser offers to help Mattie recover the laptop from the club and, in the process, learns that the man — who turns out to be Peter Steiner — has done similar things or worse with a number of minor females. Mattie makes it her mission to track down other victims (and a lawyer to help them) while Parker makes it his mission to help her whenever things might get dangerous. Inevitably, that happens regularly.

Much of the book explores familiar territory. Spenser hangs out with girlfriend Susan and dog Pearl (the third dog to which he’s given that name). Spenser exchanges witty repartee with his buddy Hawk when they aren’t busy killing people. Spenser also has a run-in with a past nemesis called the Gray Man, which seems to be a popular character name in thrillerworld.

Like a lot of “torn from the headlines” novels, this one just isn’t very interesting. Fiction can be more illuminating than fact, but when a novel hews closely to known events, it tends to sacrifice illumination for titillation. The novel has Spenser chasing Steiner and his thugs around Boston and Miami until its inevitable conclusion in the Bahamas. The outcome is predictable and the story offers too little suspense to sustain interest. Bringing Epstein to justice is much too easy, thanks in part to an implausible, out-of-the-blue twist at the end.

Still, Atkins is a craftsman. He knows how to move a plot along and, for what it’s worth, he has captured the tone of Parker’s Spenser novels (I always enjoyed Spenser for the Boston atmosphere more than the stories). Atkins’ own fiction reveals the depth of his characterization, but Spenser was never a deep guy and Atkins is constrained by the character he inherited. While Someone to Watch Over Me might be a good read for Spenser completists, I’d refer readers to Atkins’ Quinn Colson series for better plots and deeper characters.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

The Revelators by Ace Atkins

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on July 14, 2020

The Revelators is another eventful chapter in the life of Quinn Colson, the (currently suspended) sheriff of Tibbehah County, Mississippi. There is never a shortage of plot in a Colson novel. Ace Atkins doubles the characterization and triples the story that a typical thriller writer manufactures.

If you haven’t read a Colson novel before, this is probably not the place to start. Atkins does a good job of reminding readers of significant events in earlier novels, but keeping track of the plot and all the characters would be difficult without having a working knowledge of the last three or four books. Since this novel brings a continuing storyline to a close, a reader might want to start fresh with the next one — assuming there is a next one (the last chapter leaves open that possibility). Otherwise, a reader with some free time might want to read each of the ten Quinn Colson novels in order to catch up with one of the better series that thrillerworld has to offer.

When we last saw Quinn, he’d gotten himself shot by a fellow named Sam at the instruction of Fannie Hathcock, who has been responsible for a fair amount of killing in the last few novels. Fannie operates an establishment in Tibbehah County that the locals colorfully describe as a titty bar. Fannie also runs guns and engages in other illegal activities under the protection of a corrupt governor named Jimmy Vardaman. Although the governor removed Quinn from his office as sheriff pending an investigation on trumped up charges of misconduct, Fannie decided he was still a threat to her business and decided to remove him. That Fannie has removed several others (one, in this novel, by hammering his face into goo) has won her some enemies. She carries on because she enjoys the protection not only of the governor but of Brock Tanner, an arrogant self-promoter who has been appointed as sheriff pending the outcome of the investigation into Quinn.

Quinn is coping with pain from gunshot wounds and with a worrying need for the opioids that allow him to function in an unofficial law enforcement role. He has a baby on the way, but he’s assisting with a federal investigation of all the corrupt elements in Tibbehah County. He’s also trying to protect his sister, Caddy Colson, who is making enemies by helping undocumented immigrants. Caddy is unsure what to make of a long-time admirer, recently released from prison but apparently working for Fannie. But she is sure that her pre-teen son Jason is in serious trouble when he disappears with a young girl who, with some other girls from immigrant families, has been abducted.

The plot is even more complicated than the elements that I’ve sketched. The characters, as always, change and struggle with change as they respond to adverse circumstances. Following those changes is one of the pleasures of reading this series. Quinn gets emotional assists from series regulars Boom Kimbrough and Lillie Virgil as well as his wife Maggie. Lillie also helps out with her favorite shotgun.

Background elements, always crucial to the series, focus on Mississippi’s enduring corruption and the unrepentant racism of its significant population of Confederate flag waving residents. The drive to deport undocumented immigrants who have been working productively and peacefully in a job that most Americans would shun — replaced, at the governor’s instigation, by private prison labor — adds additional social relevance to a series that always has a timely take on Mississippi’s stubborn refusal to join the present. The 32 children the deportees leave behind become Caddy’s latest cause.

Atkins’ great gift is to showcase the decency that can be found in every corner of society, even when indecency seems overwhelming. Good people who care about others, not just themselves, come in all colors and nationalities. Atkins always tells good stories about good people. He does it again in The Revelators.

RECOMMENDED

Angel Eyes by Ace Atkins

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on November 19, 2019

Angel Eyes was written by Ace Atkins, by far the most capable worker in the Robert B. Parker factory. The full title is Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes, but since Parker is dead, the novel isn’t Parker’s, even if Spenser belongs to his estate. At least Atkins' name isn't dwarfed by Parker's, although Parker's is still displayed in a larger font.

Spenser is hired to find Gabby Leggett, who has gone missing in California. Spenser is Boston-based but LA is a prime setting for noir fiction, given the darkness associated with glitz and glamour and Hollywood money. It is a place Spenser visited when Parker was still penning his adventures.

Gabby hoped to turn her good looks into an acting career. She worked her social media and hired an agent before she dropped out of sight. The agent dated her for a while and became jealous when she moved on, making him a suspect when she disappeared. And then there’s an older movie executive named Jimmy Yamashiro, whose dalliance with Gabby might also have provided a motive for foul play.

Spenser quickly finds other suspects. Gabby didn’t care much for her parents. She did care for a cult leader named Joseph Haldorn, who founded an organization called HELIOS that describes itself as an “executive success program that seeks to free their participants from the shackles of self-doubt and confusion.” It empowers women by freeing them from their money. HELIOS bills itself as a lifestyle while followers view Haldorn as Christlike. He can’t turn water into wine, but one of the characters notes that “he can turn bullshit into money.”

In addition to sorting out all the people who might be responsible for Gabby's disappearance, Spenser encounters trouble with a fellow named Sarkisov, a thug who is affiliated with a gang of thugs called Armenian Power. Sarkisov also has an interest in finding Gabby and is rather impolite when he invites Spenser to return to Boston.

Spenser’s intimate friend Susan Silverman plays a key role in the novel, making use of her skills as a psychotherapist. Other returning characters are Chollo (whose underworld connections and shooting skills are invaluable), Zebulon Sixkill (who is now a PI in LA and views Spenser as a mentor), and Bobby Horse (who teamed with Chollo in Potshot). Sixkill describes Spenser and his three LA friends as “the Three Amigos plus a white guy,” although two of the amigos are Native Americans. Throw hacker Kim Yoon into the mix and Spenser is plainly a fan of workplace diversity.

Ace Atkins has greater opportunity to stretch his creative legs in his excellent Quinn Colson series. When he writes Spenser novels, he is confined to the environment and characterizations that Parker created. He nevertheless does a creditable job of channeling Parker, employing snarky dialog, treating the reader to a good bit of gunplay, and tempering Spenser’s hard-boiled personality with tender feelings for the innocent and abused (as well as Susan).

The plot blends mystery with action and the cast of potential wrongdoers is sufficient to keep the reader guessing. A good chunk of the novel remains after the mystery is solved. Atkins fills it with enough mayhem that Spenser, if a real person, would be permanently banned from California. Yeah, he only shoots bad guys, but he shoots so many of them that one might expect the police to be more wary of his presence, even if he does clean up the dirt that otherwise darkens the City of Angels. That again is true to the Spenser tradition, making Angel Eyes further evidence that Atkins is the right author to keep Spenser alive after his creator’s demise.

RECOMMENDED