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Ace Atkins
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Ace Atkins (born June 28, 1970)[1] is an American journalist and author. He became a full-time novelist at the age of 30.[citation needed]
Key Information
Biography
[edit]Born in 1970, Atkins is the son of NFL player Billy Atkins.[2][3]
Atkins lettered for the Auburn University football team in 1992 and 1993.[4] He was featured on the Sports Illustrated cover commemorating the Tigers' perfect 11-0 season of 1993. The cover shows Atkins celebrating after sacking future Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel of the Florida Gators. Atkins wore number 99 for the Tigers.[citation needed]. He graduated from Auburn University in 1994.[4]
Atkins worked[when?] as a crime reporter in the newsroom of The Tampa Tribune before he published his first novel, Crossroad Blues (1998).[citation needed] While at the Tribune, Atkins earned a Pulitzer Prize nomination for a feature series based on his investigation into a forgotten murder of the 1950s.[5] The story became the core of his critically acclaimed novel, White Shadow, which was commented on positively by noted authors and critics. In his next novels, Wicked City and Devil's Garden, Atkins continued this kind of story-telling, a style that was compared to that of Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos.[5]
White Shadow (2006), Wicked City (2008), and Devil's Garden (2009) are personal books for Atkins, all set in his former homes: San Francisco, where he lived as a child; Alabama, his family's home and where he was born and went to college; and Tampa, where he embarked on his career as a writer. Each novel contains bits of himself – friends and colleagues he once knew, people he respected or admired, family members, and personal heroes.[citation needed]
In Devil's Garden, Atkins explores the early life of one of those heroes: Dashiell Hammett, the originator of the hard-boiled crime novel. As a Pinkerton Agency detective, Hammett investigated the rape and manslaughter case against early Hollywood star Roscoe Arbuckle, one of the most sensational trials of the 20th Century.[5] Atkins' novel Infamous (2010) is based on the 1933 Charles Urschel kidnapping and subsequent misadventures of the gangster couple George "Machine Gun" and Kathryn Kelly.[citation needed]
In 2011, Atkins was selected by the estate of Robert B. Parker to take over writing the Spenser series of novels.[6] The Boston Globe wrote that while some people might have "viewed the move as unseemly, those people didn't know Robert B. Parker, a man who, when asked how his books would be viewed in 50 years, replied: 'Don't know, don't care.' He was proud of his work, but he mainly saw writing as a means of providing a comfortable life for his family."[7] His 2016 Parker novel Slow Burn won a Scribe Award for Best Original Novel.[8]
Personal life
[edit]In a 2023 interview for CrimeReads, Atkins said he’s been living for the past twenty years on a historic farm outside Oxford, Mississippi with his family.[4][9]
Novels
[edit]Nick Travers
[edit]- Crossroad Blues (1998)
- Leavin' Trunk Blues (2000)
- Dark End of the Street (2002)
- Dirty South (2004)
Quinn Colson
[edit]- The Ranger (2011)[10][11][12][13]
- The Lost Ones (2012)[14][15]
- The Broken Places (2013)[16]
- The Forsaken (2014)[17]
- The Redeemers (2015)[18]
- The Innocents (2016)
- The Fallen (2017)[19]
- The Sinners (2018)
- The Shameless (2019)
- The Revelators (2020)
- The Heathens (2021)
- Robert B. Parker's Lullaby (2012)
- Robert B. Parker's Wonderland (2013)
- Robert B. Parker's Cheap Shot (2014)
- Robert B. Parker's Kickback (2015)
- Robert B. Parker's Slow Burn (2016)
- Robert B. Parker's Little White Lies (2017)
- Robert B. Parker's Old Black Magic (2018)
- Robert B. Parker's Angel Eyes (2019)
- Robert B. Parker’s Someone To Watch Over Me (2020)
- Robert B. Parker's Bye Bye Baby (2022)
Stand Alone Novels
[edit]- White Shadow (2006) 400 pages ISBN 0-425-23054-6
- Wicked City (2008) 368 pages ISBN 0-425-22707-3
- Devil's Garden (2009) 368 pages ISBN 0-399-15536-8
- Infamous (2010) 416 pages ISBN 0-399-15630-5
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Official Site of American Writer Ace Atkins | About: Quick Facts". Archived from the original on March 23, 2012. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
- ^ Shearer, Jeff (September 20, 2020). "On the cover: From sacks to books, Auburn's Ace Atkins stands tall". Auburn Tigers. Retrieved October 13, 2021.
- ^ Edgemon, Erin (January 13, 2019). "Alabama native, bestselling author Ace Atkins to be honored". AL.com. Retrieved October 13, 2021.
- ^ a b c Barnes, Brad (April 14, 2008). "A Q and A with author Ace Atkins". Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. Archived from the original on January 27, 2013. Retrieved January 26, 2010.
- ^ a b c DeSilva, Bruce (April 20, 2009). "'Devil's Garden' is a remarkable book". Associated Press. Retrieved May 8, 2013.
- ^ "Parker's series live on" by Mark Shanahan & Meredith Goldstein, Boston Globe April 28, 2011
- ^ Bissonette, Zac (May 12, 2013). "Robert B. Parker is dead. Long live Robert B. Parker!". Boston Globe. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
- ^ "2017 Scribe Award Winners". Locus Online. July 27, 2017. Retrieved August 6, 2025.
- ^ "The Backlist: Revisiting Larry Brown's "Father and Son" with Ace Atkins". CrimeReads. February 2, 2023.
- ^ Anderson, Patrick. "Review of Ace Atkins's 'The Ranger'". Washington Post. Retrieved June 7, 2015.
- ^ MARTINDALE, DAVID. "Author interview: Ace Atkins talks about 'The Ranger'". Dallas News. Retrieved June 7, 2015.
- ^ Kardos, Michael. "Book review: 'The Forsaken' by Ace Atkins". Clarion Ledger. Retrieved June 7, 2015.
- ^ Gill, Leonard (October 3, 2014). "Summer Book Roundup". Memphis Magazine. Retrieved June 7, 2015.
- ^ Weaver, Kendal. "Book review: Second Quinn Colson novel features romance, dark family secret". News Sentinel. Retrieved June 7, 2015.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Bancroft, Colette. "Review: Ace Atkins' 'The Lost Ones' has Quinn Colson searching on the mean streets". Tampa Bay. Retrieved June 7, 2015.
- ^ Noble, Don (July 15, 2013). "Books:The Broken Places: A Quinn Colson Novel and Robert B. Parker's Wonderland". APR. Retrieved June 7, 2015.
- ^ Anderson, Lanie (July 20, 2014). "Atkins pens new novel, signs Wednesday". Oxford Citizen. Retrieved June 7, 2015.
- ^ "Review: 'The Redeemers' by Ace Atkins". October Country. July 17, 2015. Retrieved August 2, 2015.
- ^ "The Fallen (A Quinn Colson Novel)". aceatkins.com. Retrieved July 27, 2017.
External links
[edit]Ace Atkins
View on GrokipediaEarly life and education
Family background
Ace Atkins was born William Ellis Atkins on June 28, 1970, in Troy, Alabama.[1] He is the son of Billy Atkins, an All-Pro NFL defensive back who played for the Buffalo Bills from 1958 to 1961 and later became a coach, including positions with the San Francisco 49ers, Detroit Lions, St. Louis Cardinals, and Atlanta Falcons, as well as at Troy State University where he led the team to the 1968 NAIA national championship.[5] Atkins' mother was Doris Atkins, and he has an older sister named Paige.[5] The family relocated several times due to Billy's coaching career before settling in Auburn, Alabama, where Atkins spent much of his childhood surrounded by extended family, including grandparents, an aunt, and an uncle, in the close-knit community of Lee County.[5] Billy Atkins' storied football career profoundly shaped his son's early interest in sports, instilling a passion for the game that Atkins himself pursued through high school and into college.[5] Growing up in this environment, Atkins was immersed in Southern culture, with the rhythms of Alabama life—from community gatherings to the legacy of college football—forming the backdrop of his formative years.[5] His father's nickname "Ace," earned during his playing days at Auburn University where he was MVP of the 1957 national championship team, was passed down to his son, further embedding family athletic heritage into Atkins' identity.[5] Atkins' exposure to storytelling began early, influenced by his father's world of football, where he listened to tales from players who had competed under Billy Atkins, sparking an appreciation for narrative that blended personal history with dramatic events.[11] This familial atmosphere, combined with his teenage reading of crime thrillers and Southern Gothic authors like Flannery O'Connor, introduced him to the motifs of crime and moral complexity that would later inform his writing, all rooted in the rich oral traditions of his Alabama upbringing.[5]College years
Atkins attended Auburn University, where he pursued a degree in mass communications with an emphasis on writing for radio, television, and film, graduating in 1994.[12][5] Following in the athletic footsteps of his father, former NFL player Billy Atkins, he joined the Auburn Tigers football team as a defensive end, lettering in 1992 and 1993.[13][14] During the 1993 season, Atkins contributed to Auburn's undefeated 11-0 campaign, notably recording two sacks on Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel in a key upset victory over the No. 4 Gators.[5] His performance in that game, which helped secure the Tigers' perfect record despite NCAA sanctions preventing a bowl appearance, earned him a prominent spot on the cover of Sports Illustrated's commemorative edition for the season, capturing him celebrating the sack.[15][16] Atkins' interest in writing emerged prominently during his college years, as he enrolled in writing courses and literature classes, drawing inspiration from Southern Gothic authors like Flannery O'Connor under the guidance of professor Marian Carcache.[5] He began developing early creative works, including short stories, a nascent novel, and the character Nick Travers, which he sketched out in notebooks amid his athletic commitments.[13][5] Balancing the demands of Division I football with his academic and creative pursuits proved challenging for Atkins, who often studied or wrote late into the night after practices and team meetings.[5] His coaches occasionally questioned his dedication to the sport when they saw him reading novels, reflecting the tension between his athletic role and budding literary ambitions.[5]Professional background
Journalism career
Ace Atkins began his professional journalism career as a reporter for The St. Petersburg Times for one year before joining The Tampa Tribune in 1996, where he worked until 2001.[1][17] During his tenure at The Tampa Tribune, Atkins gained recognition for his investigative reporting on Florida's criminal underworld. In 2000, he received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for his seven-part series "Tampa Confidential," which examined the unsolved 1956 murder of socialite Edy Parkhill, the wife of a prominent mob attorney connected to Tampa crime boss Charlie Wall.[1][17] That same year, the series also earned him a nomination for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists, highlighting his in-depth research into the case.[1] Atkins' coverage extended to various Florida crime scenes, including mob-related incidents and organized crime networks in Tampa, where he delved into historical and contemporary elements of the region's underworld.[17] This reporting experience shaped his later fiction by instilling a focus on authentic details and themes of Southern noir and true crime.[1]Transition to fiction writing
After publishing his debut novel, Crossroad Blues, in 1998 while still working full-time as a crime reporter for The Tampa Tribune, Ace Atkins began to shift his focus toward fiction writing.[8] The book, which introduced the character Nick Travers and drew on Atkins' interest in blues music and Southern history, marked the start of his transition from journalism to novels, allowing him to blend investigative skills with storytelling.[18] In 2001, Atkins left The Tampa Tribune after five years on the crime beat to pursue writing full-time, relocating to Oxford, Mississippi, at the age of 30.[1] This decision came after he had already completed his second novel, Leavin' Trunk Blues, demonstrating his growing commitment to fiction despite the demands of his reporting job.[8] The move represented a significant career pivot, enabling him to dedicate himself entirely to crafting crime narratives informed by his professional experiences. Atkins has credited his journalism background with shaping his approach to fiction, particularly in terms of rigorous research methods and the narrative pacing honed through deadline-driven crime reporting.[19] These skills helped him infuse his early novels with authentic details of criminal investigations and Southern locales, bridging the gap between factual reporting and imaginative prose. Early in this transition, Atkins faced the challenge of balancing his demanding newsroom role with novel-writing, often producing manuscripts in his spare time before achieving mainstream publication success.[4]Novels
Nick Travers series
The Nick Travers series, Ace Atkins' debut foray into crime fiction, centers on Nick Travers, a former professional football player for the New Orleans Saints who transitions into a blues historian and part-time investigator at Tulane University in New Orleans.[18] Travers, often drawn into cases tied to the music world, embodies a hard-boiled Southern detective archetype, blending physical prowess from his athletic past with intellectual curiosity about blues lore.[20] Atkins' background in journalism lent authenticity to the series' vivid portrayals of New Orleans' underbelly and the Mississippi Delta's cultural landscapes.[21] The novels explore themes of Delta blues culture, institutional corruption within the music industry, and personal redemption, reflecting Atkins' Alabama upbringing and fascination with Southern musical heritage.[1] Stories frequently delve into the mythic allure of blues legends like Robert Johnson, intertwining historical reverence with modern-day intrigue involving greed, betrayal, and moral reckoning amid humid, shadowy Southern settings.[22] These elements create a noir-infused narrative that honors the raw emotional depth of blues traditions while critiquing societal decay.[23] The series comprises four novels, published between 1998 and 2004:- Crossroad Blues (1998)
- Leavin' Trunk Blues (2000)
- Dark End of the Street (2002)
- Dirty South (2004)
Quinn Colson series
The Quinn Colson series is a collection of crime novels by Ace Atkins, centering on the titular protagonist, a U.S. Army Ranger who returns to his hometown in rural Mississippi to serve as sheriff and confront entrenched local corruption.[27] Set in the fictional Tibbehah County, the series explores the challenges of law enforcement in a decaying Southern community, drawing inspiration from Atkins' own residence near Oxford, Mississippi. The books blend gritty realism with themes of veteran reintegration, drawing from Atkins' journalistic background to depict authentic small-town dynamics. The series began in 2011 and has grown to include twelve installments as of 2025, with the following publication order:- The Ranger (2011)
- The Lost Ones (2012)
- The Broken Places (2013)
- The Forsaken (2014)
- The Redeemers (2015)
- The Innocents (2016)
- The Fallen (2017)
- The Sinners (2018)
- The Shameless (2019)
- The Revelators (2020)
- The Heathens (2021)
- Kudzu (2025, short story)[28][29]
Robert B. Parker's Spenser series
In 2011, following Robert B. Parker's death in 2010, Ace Atkins was selected by Parker's estate to continue the long-running Spenser series, a decision endorsed by Parker's widow Joan and editor Christine Pepe after Atkins submitted sample pages demonstrating his command of the material.[31][19] The protagonist, Spenser, is a Boston-based private investigator known for his physical prowess, philosophical bent, and unyielding moral code, frequently partnering with the laconic enforcer Hawk in cases blending street-level crime with deeper ethical dilemmas.[32] Atkins' background in investigative journalism lent a layer of gritty realism to these urban tales, drawing on his reporting experience to ground the action in authentic details of Boston's underbelly.[33] Atkins contributed ten novels to the series between 2012 and 2022, each maintaining the first-person narrative style and brisk pacing of Parker's originals while introducing fresh cases for Spenser:- Robert B. Parker's Lullaby (2012)
- Robert B. Parker's Wonderland (2013)
- Robert B. Parker's Cheap Shot (2014)
- Robert B. Parker's Kickback (2015)
- Robert B. Parker's Slow Burn (2016)
- Robert B. Parker's Little White Lies (2017)
- Robert B. Parker's Old Black Magic (2018)
- Robert B. Parker's Angel Eyes (2019)
- Robert B. Parker's Someone to Watch Over Me (2020)
- Robert B. Parker's Bye Bye Baby (2022)
