Alabama joins Mississippi as fertile Deep South soil for the Noir Series

**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. ### Review “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* (starred) “It's great to see Spenser tackle a social evil with its roots in real life.”— *Kirkus* “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* ### 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

Tampa Bay joins Miami in representing the (alleged) Sunshine State in the Noir Series arena

Армейский рейнджер Квин Колсон приезжает в родной город в штате Миссисипи, где не был вот уже шесть лет. Привел его на родину печальный повод: смерть дяди. Квин собирается отдать родственнику последний долг, разобраться с наследством и возвратиться на службу. Но прошедший горячие точки солдат понимает, что в родном городке слишком многое изменилось: власть вершат преступники. По официальной версии, его дядя, шериф округа, покончил жизнь самоубийством, но некоторые факты позволяют предположить убийство. Квин стремится узнать правду о дяде, своей семье, друзьях детства. И как только истина приоткрывается, понимает, что для него теперь нет пути назад. Он не может позволить плохим парням и дальше устанавливать свои законы