“Robert B. Parker’s Slow Burn”

By Ace Atkins

G.P. Putnam’s Sons (320 pages, $270)

A troubling series of fires in mostly abandoned Boston buildings turns deadly in “Robert B. Parker’s Slow Burn,” the latest crime thriller in the long-running but still potent Spenser series.

Spenser, a private detective, is called upon when the arson unit of the fire department hits dead ends investigating a fire at an old, shut down Catholic church. Three firefighters entering the church died when flames erupted into a sudden inferno.

Arson is suspected, but a motive remains unclear and more fires leave the city on edge as Spenser’s probe takes a wrong turn, putting his own life in danger.

This is the fifth Spenser novel by Ace Atkins since the Robert B. Parker estate asked the Southern writer to relocate part of the year in Boston and continue the series after Parker’s death. As was clear from the start, Atkins deftly recreates the Spenser character and his Boston milieu, making the reading a familiar, pleasurable trip.

In “Slow Burn,” Atkins also includes touches that remind us how long Spenser has been on the job as a private eye and how many years he and Susan Silverman have relished a sensuous but live-apart romance.

It doesn’t appear they will exit their Boston stage anytime soon. A few plot twists in “Slow Burn” leave loose ends and raise the likelihood that Atkins will have another Spenser case to solve next year. (AP)