Ace Atkins (born June 28, 1970) is an American journalist and author. He became a full-time novelist at the age of 30.

Biography

Born in 1970, Atkins is the son of

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

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-st ...

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 a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

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

Heisman Trophy The Heisman Memorial Trophy ( ; also known simply as the Heisman) is awarded annually since 1935 to the top player in college football. It is considered the most prestigious award in the sport and is presented by the Heisman Trophy Trust followin ...

winner

Danny Wuerffel Daniel Carl Wuerffel (born May 27, 1974) is an American former American football, football quarterback who played college football for the Florida Gators football, Florida Gators and professional football in the National Football League (NFL). ...

of the

Florida Gators The Florida Gators are the College sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville, Florida, Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni an ...

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

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 26,800 undergraduate students, over 6,100 post-graduate students, and a tota ...

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. P ...

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

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

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 and screenwriter. 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''. Four of hi ...

and

George Pelecanos George P. Pelecanos (born February 18, 1957) is an American author, producer and television writer. Many of his 20 books are in the genre of detective fiction and set primarily in his hometown of Washington, D.C. On television, he frequently co ...

. ''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, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, where he lived as a child;

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, 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 United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa'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 t ...

, 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 characters he created are Sam Spade ('' The Ma ...

, the originator of the hard-boiled

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

. As a Pinkerton Agency detective, Hammett investigated the

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

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) * Hollywood ...

star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

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

, 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 Robert Brown Parker (September 17, 1932 – January 18, 2010) was an American writer, primarily of fiction within the mystery/detective genre. His most famous works include the 40 novels written about the fictional private detective Spenser. ...

to take over writing the

Spenser Spenser is an alternative spelling of the British surname Spencer. It may refer to: Geographical places with the name Spenser: * Spenser Mountains, a range in the northern part of South Island, New Zealand People with the surname Spenser: * Dav ...

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,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'' 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."

Personal life

In a 2023 interview for CrimeReads, Atkins said he’s been living for the past twenty years on a historic farm outside

Oxford, Mississippi Oxford is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, 14th most populous city in Mississippi, United States, and the county seat of Lafayette County, Mississippi, Lafayette County, southeast of Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis. A college town, Oxford ...

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 Robert Brown Parker (September 17, 1932 – January 18, 2010) was an American writer, primarily of fiction within the mystery/detective genre. His most famous works include the 40 novels written about the fictional private detective Spenser. ...
's
Spenser Spenser is an alternative spelling of the British surname Spencer. It may refer to: Geographical places with the name Spenser: * Spenser Mountains, a range in the northern part of South Island, New Zealand People with the surname Spenser: * Dav ...

*''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 Southern noir writers