Robert B. Parker's Wonderland

Overview

Henry Cimoli and Spenser have been friends for years, yet the old boxing trainer has never asked the private eye for a favor. Until now. A heavy-handed developer is trying to buy up Henry's condo on Revere Beach and sends thugs to move the process along. Soon Spenser and his apprentice, Zebulon Sixkill, find a trail leading to a mysterious and beautiful woman, a megalomaniacal Las Vegas kingpin, and plans to turn to a chunk of land north of Boston into a sprawling casino. Bitter rivals emerge, alliances turn, and...

See more details below
Robert B. Parker's Wonderland

Available on NOOK devices and apps  
  • Nook Devices
  • NOOK HD/HD+ Tablet
  • NOOK
  • NOOK Color
  • NOOK Tablet
  • Tablet/Phone
  • NOOK for Windows 8 Tablet
  • NOOK for iOS
  • NOOK for Android
  • NOOK Kids for iPad
  • PC/Mac
  • NOOK for Windows 8
  • NOOK for PC
  • NOOK for Mac
  • NOOK Study

Want a NOOK? Explore Now

Available for Pre-Order
This item will be available on May 7, 2013.
NOOK Book (eBook)
$12.99
BN.com price

More About This Book

Overview

Henry Cimoli and Spenser have been friends for years, yet the old boxing trainer has never asked the private eye for a favor. Until now. A heavy-handed developer is trying to buy up Henry's condo on Revere Beach and sends thugs to move the process along. Soon Spenser and his apprentice, Zebulon Sixkill, find a trail leading to a mysterious and beautiful woman, a megalomaniacal Las Vegas kingpin, and plans to turn to a chunk of land north of Boston into a sprawling casino. Bitter rivals emerge, alliances turn, and the uglier pieces of the Boston political machine look to put an end to Spenser's investigation.
Aspiration, greed, and twisted dreams all focus on the old Wonderland dog track where the famous amusement park once fronted the ocean. For Spenser and Z, this simple favor to Henry will become the fight of their lives.

Read More Show Less

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
In his solid second estate-authorized Spenser novel (after 2012’s Robert B. Parker’s Lullaby), Atkins explores the plot potential of the Boston PI’s last sidekick—recovering alcoholic Zebulon Sixkill, introduced in 2011’s Sixkill, the final series entry written by MWA Grand Master Parker (1932–2010). An old friend, boxing trainer Henry Cimoli, asks Spenser for help. Thugs are pressuring Cimoli and his Revere Beach neighbors to sell their property, to advance a plan for a casino. It’s easy enough for the detective and Sixkill, his new muscle, to drive the bad guys away, but harder to get to the bottom of the cascading violence that follows. Atkins’s ability to perfectly mimic the originals will please diehard fans hungry for familiar pleasures, but this outing won’t change the minds of those who feel that the lead character should have been retired many books ago. Author tour. Agent: Helen Brann, the Helen Brann Agency. (May)
Kirkus Reviews
Spenser goes to bat for an old friend whose condo in Revere has become a most desirable property for all the wrong reasons. The money bantamweight boxing promoter Henry Cimoli's been offered for his place in the Ocean View Condominium isn't bad, but it isn't great either, and he's too old to move without some inducement; getting beaten up by a pair of goons is not his idea of an inducement. So, although he hates asking Spenser for a favor, he grits his teeth and asks. First, Spenser and his Cree apprentice, Zebulon Sixkill, help even the odds against the goons; then Z gets beaten up himself before Spenser's able to identify Vegas casino mogul Rick Weinberg as the player behind Envolve Development's sexy, brutal Jemma Fraser, who hired the thugs. Armed with knowledge as well as fists and guns, Spenser threatens to go to the newspapers with Weinberg's plans, which will send Ocean View values skyrocketing before he can close the deal, unless he sweetens his offer. Weinberg, perhaps egged on by the conscience of Rachel, his wife of 40 years, obligingly ups the ante, and the condo board votes unanimously to accept his offer. The win-win scenario collapses, however, when someone cuts off Weinberg's head, putting the deal in doubt and forcing Spenser to look deeper into the financials--until he finds himself up against not just two hirelings, but the full majesty of old-time mobster Gino Fish's troops. Since his creator's death, Spenser's dialogue, flippant to start with, has become relentlessly arch, and the tendency must be catching, since several other characters get into verbal jousts with him. Still, it may be unfair to complain that Atkins (Robert B. Parker's Lullaby, 2012) doesn't write exactly like Parker. All in all, an entertaining effort.
Read More Show Less

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780399161575
  • Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
  • Publication date: 5/7/2013
  • Series: Spenser Series
  • Pages: 320
  • Sales rank: 14560
  • Product dimensions: 6.42 (w) x 9.10 (h) x 1.32 (d)

Meet the Author

Ace Atkins

Robert B. Parker was the author of more than fifty books. He died in January 2010.

Ace Atkins is the author of eleven previous books, including two Colson novels, The Ranger—nominated for the 2012 Edgar Award for Best Novel—and The Lost Ones. In addition, he has been selected by the Robert B. Parker Estate to continue the Spenser novels, the first of which, Robert B. Parker's Lullaby, was a New York Times bestseller. He lives on a farm outside Oxford, Mississippi.

Read More Show Less
If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble
Why is this product inappropriate?
Comments (optional)