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

by Ace Atkins Narrated by Joe Mantegna

Overview

The iconic, tough-but-tender Boston PI Spenser returns in an outstanding new addition to the*New York Times-bestselling series from author Ace Atkins.

Kinjo Heywood is one of the New England Patriots' marquee players-a hard-nosed linebacker who's earned his reputation as one of the toughest guys in the league. When off-field violence repeatedly lands Heywood in the news,*his slick agent hires Spenser to find the men who he says have been harassing his client.

Heywood's troubles seem to be tied to a nightclub shooting from two years earlier. But when Heywood's nine-year-old son, Akira, is kidnapped, ransom demands are given, 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 and return the child to the football star's sprawling Chestnut Hill mansion. A controversial decision from Heywood only ups the ante as the clock winds down on Akira's future.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

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

Kirkus Reviews

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.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169179521
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	05/06/2014
Series:	Spenser Series , #43
Edition description:	Unabridged

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