Ace Atkins (born June 28, 1970) is an American journalist and author. He became a

full-time Full-time or Full Time may refer to: * Full-time job, employment in which a person works a minimum number of hours defined as such by their employer * Full-time mother, a woman whose work is running or managing her family's home * Full-time fa ...

novelist at the age of 30.

Biography

Born in 1970, Atkins is the son of NFL player Billy Atkins. Atkins lettered for the Auburn University

football team A football team is a group of players selected to play together in the various team sports known as football. Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an all-s ...

in 1992 and 1993. Atkins was featured on the ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence tw ...

'' cover commemorating the Tigers' perfect 11-0 season of 1993. The cover shows Atkins celebrating after sacking future

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and har ...

winner

Danny Wuerffel Daniel Carl Wuerffel (born May 27, 1974) is a former college and professional American football quarterback. Wuerffel attended the University of Florida, where he was a prolific passer for the Florida Gators under head coach Steve Spurrier. Wue ...

of the

Florida Gators The Florida Gators are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni and its sports fans are often collectively referred to as th ...

. Atkins wore number 99 for the Tigers. Atkins graduated from

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest ...

in 1994. Atkins worked as a crime reporter in the newsroom of ''

The Tampa Tribune ''The Tampa Tribune'' was a daily newspaper published in Tampa, Florida. Along with the competing ''Tampa Bay Times'', the ''Tampa Tribune'' was one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area. The newspaper also published a ''St. ...

'' before he published his first novel, ''Crossroad Blues'' (1998). While at the ''Tribune'', Atkins earned a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

nomination for a feature series based on his investigation into a forgotten murder of the 1950s. The story became the core of his critically acclaimed novel, ''White Shadow'', which was commented on positively by noted authors and

critics A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governme ...

. 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 Dennis Lehane (born August 4, 1965) is an American author. He has published more than a dozen novels; the first several were a series of mysteries featuring recurring characters, including ''A Drink Before the War''. Of these, four were adapted a ...

and

George Pelecanos George P. Pelecanos (born February 18, 1957) is an American author. Many of his 20 books are in the genre of detective fiction and set primarily in his hometown of Washington, D.C. He is also a film and television producer and a television wri ...

. ''White Shadow'' (2006), ''Wicked City'' (2008), and ''Devil's Garden'' (2009) are personal books for Atkins, all set in his former homes:

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

, where he lived as a child;

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

, his family's home and where he was born and went to college; and

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough C ...

, 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. In ''Devil's Garden'', Atkins explores the early life of one of those heroes:

Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...

, the originator of the hard-boiled

crime novel Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

. As a

Pinkerton Agency Pinkerton is a private security guard and detective agency established around 1850 in the United States by Scottish-born cooper Allan Pinkerton and Chicago attorney Edward Rucker as the North-Western Police Agency, which later became Pinkerton ...

detective, Hammett investigated the

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...

and

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th ce ...

case against early

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

Roscoe Arbuckle Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (; March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked w ...

, one of the most sensational trials of the 20th Century. 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. In 2011, Atkins was selected by the estate of Robert B. Parker to take over writing the Spenser series of novels."Parker's series live on" by Mark Shanahan & Meredith Goldstein, ''Boston Globe'' April 28, 2011
/ref> ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' 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." Atkins has been living on a historic farm outside

Oxford, Mississippi Oxford is a city and college town in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Oxford lies 75 miles (121 km) south-southeast of Memphis, Tennessee, and is the county seat of Lafayette County. Founded in 1837, it was named after the British city of Ox ...

with his family.

Novels

Nick Travers

#''Crossroad Blues'' (1998) #''Leavin' Trunk Blues'' (2000) #''Dark End of the Street'' (2002) #''Dirty South'' (2004)

Quinn Colson

#''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)

Robert B. Parker's 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)

Stand Alone Novels

*''White Shadow'' (2006) 400 pages *''Wicked City'' (2008) 368 pages *''Devil's Garden'' (2009) 368 pages *''Infamous'' (2010) 416 pages

References

External links

Official website

Author page, UK publisher (No Exit Press)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atkins, Ace 1970 births Living people American crime fiction writers American male novelists American non-fiction crime writers Auburn High School (Alabama) alumni Auburn University alumni Auburn Tigers football players 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American novelists People from Oxford, Mississippi Novelists from Mississippi 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers