Mike Lupica

I have said this before but I really can't say it enough, Mike Lupica does an excellent job of challenging Robert B. Parker and yet making Sunny Randall new and fresh and Lupica-ish!  Grudge Match is Sunny Randall #8 and I hope there are many more.  I love the connections with the whole Parker universe!  

It Might Just Be

the time...this time of great uncertainty and worry and fear...it is hard to get sucked into a book.  Maybe had I read Eight Perfect Murders in January or this November or last December, I would feel differently.  It just didn't hold my interest as much as I had hoped. But if you have read a lot of mysteries you might really enjoy this one.  I have not read a lot of "classic" mysteries and this book very creatively refers to them, so it might be really neat if you were already familiar with the titles referred to in the book! 

NOTHING against Mike Lupica

I just don't like Sunny Randall.  Blood Feud is the first Sunny Randall to be written after the death of Robert B. Parker.  So now all of his popular series are being continued.  I had wondered by Sunny wasn't among them from the beginning.  At times I did wish that she was, but now that I have reacquainted myself with her snarky ways, I think it might have been okay to leave Sunny where she was.  I never even liked it when she and Jesse got together. 
Mike Lupica was previously known to me as a YA writer, with a focus on sports so I was excited to see what he might do with Sunny.  And he did a great job of making Sunny Sunny.  So this is NOTHING against him.  I think he is a great writer.  I just don't like her!
Which makes me wonder...am I just like someone who judges a woman politician in a different way from the way in which I judge a man?  Do I not like Sunny for the same reasons why I love Spenser? 
Ashamedly, I THINK SO!  So I will continue to read the Sunny Randall books.  Because Lupica is a great writer and because RBP was, and always will be the Great RBP and I need to figure out why a man can be snarky and arrogant and annoying and I can LOVE him but when a woman is, I can hardly listen through the whole book!

Bottom line:  If you like Sunny, you will like this.  Lupica has done a great job of bringing her back to life.  If you didn't like Sunny, you will have the same issues and if you think you are having those issues because she is a woman, you might want to think about that a little more. 

Ace is Ace

Yes, Ace Atkins has done it again.  Robert B. Parker's Old Black Magic is the forty-sixth Spenser book and I am again very thankful that Parker's family found Mr. Atkins and that Mr. Atkins agreed to carry on the Spenser stories.  My only sadness about this one was that Hawk wasn't there!  Other than that, this was perfection! 

Before and After

The Ethan I was Before has a great cover and a great title and it really is a great book.  I just thought that the end dragged just a wee-wee bit with the fox cubs.  The fox cubs were the only thing that kept this from being a 5 star for me, but I get why they were important.  This was an incredibly powerful book.  If there could have been some other way to work in heroism/sacrifice by Coralee, for me, this would have been one of the best books I read all year.  Highly recommended, but the foxes just took a lot a way for me. 

Another All True Kinda Deal!

Robert B. Parker's Little White Lies by Ace Atkins has a message that is all too true, sadly.  In this case the "bad guy" is a big time fraud and yet has been on countless news shows as an expert, faking his way through it all.  Claiming to be a former Navy SEAL or special forces, serious military hero, all kinds of things.  And one of the reasons he is easily able to defraud the woman who hires Spenser is that the guy has really been on these news shows- the media having never checked his background!   There are a lot of creeps who do this.  Great book, as usual.  Atkins, as I have said before, does a really terrific job with Spenser!  

Burn Baby Burn

Fire is super scary.
I am not a fan of fire.
Of course only nut jobs and criminals are fans of the kinds of fires that are highlighted in Slow Burn, the 44th Spenser installment by Ace Atkins, carrying on the wow, wow, wow of Robert B. Parker in an eerie dude-is-Atkins-channeling-Parker-from-the-grave kind of way.
Spenser is so lovable.  And this book has Hawk and Quirk and Susan, too. And I am really loving the Susan and Spenser parts.  I think they have the best relationship in any book.
I learned what "jakes" are!  And I learned about the Sparks, too!

An Ace from Ace

I have to say, Cheap Shot was a terrific addition to the Spenser series, number forty-two!  I can just see RBP smiling down at Hawk and Spenser, who had a lot of scenes together in this one.  It's the tale of a kidnapping.  The son of a star football player for the New England Patriots has been abducted.  It was great to see Z in here, too. 

Spenser Eternal

Robert B. Parker's Lullaby was extremely satisfying.  Ace Atkins has done a wonderful job of keeping Spenser, Hawk, Vinnie Morris, Susan and all of the RBP folks alive.  I couldn't be more thankful for the witty dialog between Spenser and well, everyone, but especially Hawk.  Dino and Stone used to be that way before Stuart Woods quit trying. 
In this Spenser story, a fourteen year old girl from Southie, Mattie Sullivan, asks Spenser to take down the men she believes murdered her mother four years ago. 
I loved Mattie and wonder if she'll be back around, and I hope so.
Thank you Mr. Atkins.  And as always, thank you Mr. Parker.