Kickback Book Review

I can't believe how quickly I can go through these books because I can't put them down.  There is so much going on that it is so hard to get other things done but I also knew that I had a deadline on this one because it was due back to the library with no more renewals.  Luckily, I got it done in plenty of time...okay, enough time.  Robert B. Parker's Kickback (Spenser) by Ace Atkins was the 43rd book in the series that always has me glued to the edge of my seat and this was no different.

PI Spenser, knight-errant of the Back Bay, returns in this stellar New York Times–bestselling addition to the iconic 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, Mass., where zero tolerance for minors is a way of life.

Leading the movement is tough-as-nails judge Joe Scali, who gives speeches about coming down hard 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.

This book dealt with the lives of children which is something that Spenser can't see being ruined.  Dillon Yates went to a juvenile facility because he started a twitter account and said bad things about his principal.  The judge in this small town bullies all the parents to sign away their rights to have a lawyer for their child and then sends even the smallest offenses to this prison island where they are given very little and have to work to earn their pillow and blanket.  There are so many things going on in this book but Spenser is focused on bringing Dillon home to his mother as well as closing the whole facility so that no one should have to live that life again.  It is amazing to watch Spenser and Hawk in action to take down the unknown bad guys and protect the lives of many children and families.  I hope that you check out this book for yourself because I don't think that you will be able to put it down either.  I hope that you read the rest of the books in the Spenser series if you like this too!