March 6, 2017
A taut, suspenseful story line drives Edgar-finalist Atkins’s sixth Spenser novel (after 2016’s Slow Burn), which deepens the relationship between the Boston PI and his significant other, therapist Susan Silverman. Susan refers patient Connie Kelly to Spenser after learning that Connie was victimized by a con man calling himself M. Brook Welles. A popular cable news talking head on national security issues, he told her he worked for the CIA. While professing his undying love for Connie, Welles scammed her out of almost $300,000 in a bogus real estate deal. Spenser quickly ascertains that most of what Welles has presented as his biography, including a Harvard education, is fabricated. After following the trail to a shady gun dealer, the detective finds it necessary to enlist his deadly sidekick, Hawk, to help track down the truth. Some interesting tension arises because Susan feels responsible for Spenser’s involvement in the increasingly perilous case, while her professional ethics constrain her from giving him important information. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM.