Robert B. Parkers Kickback, Ace Atkins
Robert B. Parkers Kickback, Ace Atkins
5 Rating(s)
List: $15.00 | Sale: $10.50
Club: $7.50

Robert B. Parker's Kickback

Bestseller

Author: Ace Atkins

Narrator: Joe Mantegna

Unabridged: 7 hr 10 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/19/2015

Synopsis

P.I. Spenser, knight-errant of the Back Bay, returns in this stellar addition to the iconic New York Times–bestselling series from author Ace Atkins.

What started out as a joke landed seventeen-year-old Dillon Yates in a lockdown juvenile facility in Boston Harbor. When he set up a prank Twitter account for his vice principal, he never dreamed he could be brought up on criminal charges, but that’s exactly what happened.
 
This is Blackburn, Massachusetts, where zero tolerance for minors is a way of life.
 
Leading the movement is tough-as-nails Judge Joe Scali, who gives speeches about getting tough on today’s wild youth. But Dillon’s mother, who knows other Blackburn kids who are doing hard time for minor infractions, isn’t buying Scali’s line. She hires Spenser to find the truth behind the draconian sentencing.
 
From the Harbor Islands to a gated Florida community, Spenser and trusted ally Hawk follow a trail through the Boston underworld with links to a shadowy corporation that runs New England’s private prisons. They eventually uncover a culture of corruption and cover-ups in the old mill town, where hundreds of kids are sent off to for-profit juvie jails.

About The Author

Ace Atkins is the Edgar-nominated author of seventeen books, including five books in the Quinn Colson series. Selected by the Robert B. Parker estate to continue the Spenser novels, he has also written Robert. B. Parker’s Lullaby, Robert B. Parker’s Wonderland, and Robert B. Parker’s Cheap Shot, all of which were New York Times bestsellers. Atkins lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

Reviews

Goodreads review by James on September 06, 2016

This may well be the best Spenser novel in a good long time, including many of the last books in the series that were written by Robert B. Parker himself. As most fans of crime fiction know, the series is now being written by Ace Atkins, who currently has an excellent series of his own featuring a M......more

Goodreads review by Barbara on November 16, 2021

Ace Atkins does a good job capturing the feel of Robert B. Parker's Spenser books, with a straightforward plot and characters that feel authentic. In this 43rd book in the series, Spenser looks into 'for profit' jails for juveniles. The book can be read as a standalone. Robert Urich played Spenser on......more

Goodreads review by Jack on January 28, 2024

4 Stars. There's a bit of editorial in this exciting Spenser novel. Ace Atkins, Robert B. Parker's successor in the series, is commenting through "Kickback" on private prisons, a growing phenomenon in the United States. Our P.I. is hired by a woman whose son has been sent to one of these juvenile fa......more

Goodreads review by Bill on August 18, 2024

Spenser takes on a greedy corporation, sleazy judges, and the mob to rescue imprisoned children by exploited for profit. From Boston to Miami, the tension and action doesn’t let up as the wisecracking PI and his partner, Hawk, poke and prod the criminal underworld seeking clues to bust open the corr......more

Goodreads review by Mike on July 25, 2015

Ace Atkins has a great job of filling huge shoes of Robert B Parker in the Spenser series! Very entertaining from the get go. If you have liked the other 42 books in this series, you will enjoy this one!......more

Quotes

Praise for Robert B. Parker’s Kickback

“It’s great to see Spenser tackle a social evil with its roots in real life.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“A topical plot line propels bestseller Atkins’s engrossing fourth Spenser novel...Once again, Atkins has done a splendid job of capturing the voice of the late Robert B. Parker.” —Publishers Weekly

“Atkins does a wonderful job with the characters created by Parker. To loyalists it may be heresy, but a case can be made for the Atkins novels being better than some of the last Spenser mysteries penned by Parker. A top-notch thriller.”—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

“Written in impeccable style by Ace Atkins...Robert B. Parker is smiling down on this brilliant Spenser adventure. It's full of everything we've come to expect from the Boston Private Investigator—action, smart-mouthed sarcasm, the assistance of Hawk and most of all, justice.”—Suspense Magazine

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

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