‘The Devil Wins’: New writers breathe new life to beloved character

When Ed McBain died, the boys from the 87th Precinct died with him. Readers mourned. When William G. Tapply died, so too did Boston attorney Brady Coyne. Again, readers mourned.

That's not always the case these days.

Followers of the late Robert B. Parker still read Spenser and Jesse Stone books after the estate commissioned Ace Atkins and Reed Farrel Coleman to continue the series. Vince Flynn's thrillers about CIA operative Mitch Rapp are now in the hands of Kyle Mills. Stieg Larsson's 'Millennium Trilogy” about Lisbeth Salander lives on with David Lagercrantz.

People may differ about whether this is a good thing. I, for one, am pleased about the Spenser and Jesse Stone books. They're better with Atkins and Coleman at the helm. Parker phoned it in toward the end of his career, relying on built-in sales from early success to pump out pale imitations of his best work. He wore out the formula.

Atkins has given the Spenser books a fresh spin, and Coleman has managed to make the taciturn Jesse Stone a more engaging character.

In this fall's 'The Devil Wins” (G.P. Putnam's Sons, $27, 342 pages), Stone continues to wrestle with his inner demons even as he struggles to solve a couple of 25-year-old homicides that have now spawned additional deaths in the resort town of Paradise, Mass. But the literary ride is easier with Coleman's smoother prose. Parker's choppy style, punctuated by terse and often sappy dialogue, had gotten in the way of his storytelling - more so in the Spenser books but even to a lesser extent in the Stone novels.

Coleman stays true to the premise and history of Parker's character but in a nuanced manner that manages to make the police chief a little less enigmatic and allows the reader to employ a little more empathy.

Coleman also deepens Stone's relationship with two key deputies, Molly Crane and Luther 'Suitcase” Simpson - Crane via her involvement in the 25-year-old homicides and Simpson via a shooting incident in a previous book.

Stone continues to drink and continues to be somewhat baffled by his relationships with women. He continues to 'kind of” work on those things with his therapist. But mostly he plods his way to solving his murder cases and pulls a satisfied reader along with him.

Now, if I ever find my way to the top of the library's waiting list, I'll see how Kyle Mills is doing with Mitch Rapp.