Ace Atkins — behind the story of The Redeemers

New York Times bestselling author Ace Atkins began his career as a writer by working for a newspaper. His journalism background taught him many lessons about writing, but also gave him insight into people, which he now uses when he writes the Quinn Colson series and Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series.

For those unfamiliar with Ace Atkins, he’s been nominated for every major award in crime fiction. He’s written seventeen novels and has two coming out this year. He was handpicked by the Robert B. Parker Estate to carry on the Spenser series after Parker’s death and somehow balances writing novels set in back roads Mississippi and urban Boston.

“I worked for a big daily newspaper in Florida not long after I got out of college. My beat when I worked for the Tampa Tribune was a beat most people did not want. But, for me, I’ve always been a big fan of crime novels. And so, for me to cover the police department in Tampa, the Mayor’s office—I loved it. Absolutely loved it. And I did that for about five or six years and it was just the best training in the world.”

His training as a reporter taught Atkins to write fast, succinctly, and to meet your deadlines. He said it also taught him an even more valuable lesson, which was listening to how people talk and writing them authentically. “Younger people talk to me about becoming a novelist and I tell them my entry point doesn’t exist anymore. I was at the last days of a really long, proud tradition and I wouldn’t trade that for any MFA program in the country. Being a journalist teaches you to go straight to the source and write about real people.”

I like to get to the truth and shine the light on things.

Among those real people Ace Atkins wrote about were a transsexual carnival worker who had gone missing, but had actually been murdered. “It was rumored that her husband had buried her in an Airstream trailer in this carnival community. It was one of those rare times where the reporter was ahead of the cops. And that almost never happens, but we had some really good inside information.” For his story, Atkins interviewed the ‘human blockhead,’ and the ‘cat lady.’ I tried to interview the ‘monkey woman,’ but she wouldn’t talk. The story just wrote itself.”

Atkins said the truth did come out. The woman had been buried, but not in the Airstream. One of his other stories was about a man who murdered two veteran Tampa Police detectives. He said, “That was a very dark story and I had to profile the killer. It was a very dark and sordid time in that city.”

Writing two books a year keeps Ace Atkins busy, but he does still dabble in journalism. “I wrote a story last year for Outside Magazine about a guy who represented himself as a former CIA officer and had stolen $12.5 million from a couple in Virginia. A buddy of mine from the Tribune [Michael Fechter] outed this guy. We’re very proud of our work on that. It goes back thematically to what I like to write about in my novels. I like to get to the truth and shine the light on things. I think it’s very important.”

The genesis of Quinn was to write somebody that I could go to time and again.

In addition to his interest in writing a realistic crime series, Ace Atkins also wanted to have a series character with longevity. Atkins said he ran out of stories about his first series character, which he created when he was in his twenties, after four books. Ace Atkins feels he has a character with longevity in Quinn Colson, who was in the military for ten years, returned home, and became sheriff. “The genesis of Quinn was to write somebody that I could go to time and again. It’s a very simple, basic premise, but it’s also a premise that gives limitless possibilities.”

A perfect example of those possibilities came about after a local attorney in Oxford discussed the case of a recent break-in with Atkins. The attorney said, “I know about this case, and these seem like your kind of people.”

“That was either a compliment or an insult,” said Atkins. While he took the comment as a compliment, it also served as inspiration. “It was such an interesting story about a break-in that had happened and how the people turned on each other as the crime unravelled in real time.”

For the foreseeable future, Atkins will be writing about Quinn Colson and Robert B. Parker’s Spenser, another character with longevity. As Atkins noted, the two characters are very different. The settings, back roads Mississippi and urban Boston are also very different. So, too, are the writing styles. The question becomes, how to keep each series separate and avoid homogenizing them.

“My editor for the Quinn books always jokes with me—and there’s a partial amount of truth in that he always tells people when I’m writing Spenser, I only drink beer and listen to jazz. But, when I’m writing Quinn, I drink hard whiskey and listen to country music. And there’s a little bit of truth in that. I do have to write them totally separate. Keeping those projects wholly compartmentalized has been the key for the last five books.

The difference for me, as opposed to most writers [who are writing different series] is I’m writing in two different voices. And I don’t mean just character voices, but styles. When I write Spenser, I’m writing it in Bob Parker’s style. I’m writing it as a different author. I’m writing in the voice of that author. I think if I was writing two different series that were in my voice and my style, it would not be so difficult. But, switching to write and think like a different author, that’s pretty tricky.”

Find out how living in Alabama has influenced Ace Atkins’ writing in this companion interview at Examiner.com.

Learn more about Ace Atkins on his website at aceatkins.com.

Book & a Latte Contest

Early Birds: Use this Bonus Code for The Snitch Bonus Code: #Redeemed

What: This month, Ace is giving away two copies of “The Redeemers” and I’m adding two $5.00 Starbucks gift cards. Two random entries will be chosen as winners. Each winner will receive a book and a gift card.

How to enter: Choose one or more of the options below. Each option gives you an additional chance to win.

Who can enter: This contest is only open to continental US residents over 18 years of age.

When: Contest closes at 12:00 a.m., August 9. Winners will be selected on Sunday, August 9. Selected winners must claim prizes within 72 hours of notification.

Verification of entries: All winning entries are subject to verification.

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