Wednesday – 14 January 2015
Day 14: Write a review of some form of entertainment you recently took in. Whether book or movie or TV show or Broadway play, write out what you liked and didn’t like about it. Was the acting/writing good? Could you follow the story? Is there anything you can take from it about life, or was it purely entertainment? This is often one of the most enjoyable entries to write, as it’s especially fun (and quite nostalgic) to go back and read these in the future. I can imagine that 10 years from now I will thoroughly appreciate my thoughts from this week on Roy Baumeister’s Is There Anything Good About Men?.

I’m going to try this again, since I just. wrote. this. post. and WordPress apparently decided to eat it… and not save a draft. (I may have accidentally moved it to the trash – which is more like “the incinerator.”) Either way: Take Two…

Lullaby by Ace Atkins

Spenser is back. This time he’s been hired by fourteen-year-old Mattie Sullivan to solve her mother’s murder. The only problems are: The case has already been solved and it happened four years ago.

The story returns readers to Spenser’s Boston and reintroduces a few familiar faces. It also introduces new characters, like Mattie, who at first seems as though she will fulfill the same role as Paul Giacommin in Early Autumn. Readers soon discover that Mattie is more self-aware and self-sufficient than Paul at that age.

This book is the first Spenser novel not written by Robert B. Parker. I was initially a bit leery about reading it, concerned with how much the tone of the Spenser series might change under someone else’s pen. I was pleasantly surprised. As I’ve described it:

It was a little fuzzy around the edges, but not totally out-of-focus.

Meaning: Ace Atkins’ writing style emulated Parker’s well, but there were a few places where it felt a little “off.” This didn’t really detract from my enjoyment of the story. (For refernce: I am currently reading Wonderland, the next book in the series, and it feels a little closer to what I’ve come to expect in a Spenser book.)

As a fan of the Spenser character and series, I would happily recommend this book.

Namaste.