Order of Ace Atkins Books

Ace Atkins was born on June 28, 1970, and he’s still very much alive—breathing life into the battered streets of southern noir fiction and carving out his place as one of the boldest voices in modern crime writing. A true Southern son, Atkins was raised in Alabama and carries the grit and charm of the Deep South in every sentence he pens. But don’t be fooled by the genteel roots—his storytelling is rough-edged, unapologetically raw, and packed with bruising realism.

Before his typewriter days, Ace Atkins wasn’t chasing criminals with a pen. He was actually knocking heads on the football field. That’s right—Atkins played defensive end for the Auburn Tigers, earning a spot on the team that went undefeated in 1993. His imposing frame and athletic grit were a far cry from the image of a solitary writer hunched over a laptop, yet somehow, both lives converged perfectly. That iron-jawed discipline and Southern swagger became the foundation of his hard-boiled prose.

After college, he became a crime reporter for The Tampa Tribune. It was during his time as a journalist that he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize—yes, that Pulitzer—for a gripping series on a forgotten 1950s murder. But the story didn’t just end up on the front page. It became the seed for his debut novel, Crossroad Blues (1998), the first in his Nick Travers series. In a world where too many authors write from imagination alone, Atkins brought lived experience and investigative backbone to the table—and it showed.

And then came the twist in his tale that no one saw coming: Robert B. Parker’s estate came calling. When the legendary crime author passed away in 2010, they handed over the reins of the iconic Spenser series to none other than Ace Atkins. What seemed like an impossible ask—fill the shoes of a literary titan—became a masterclass in voice, style, and homage. Atkins wrote ten Spenser novels between 2011 and 2022, capturing Parker’s wit, rhythm, and spirit so well that even longtime fans did a double-take.

But Ace didn’t stop at carrying the torch for another writer. His true soul bleeds through in his Quinn Colson series—a visceral, unflinching look at the corruption, grit, and moral complexity of the American South. Inspired by his home state of Mississippi, this series follows an Army Ranger turned sheriff as he battles everything from crooked politicians to drug cartels. Think Justified meets True Detective with a moral compass that spins under pressure.

Atkins writes like a man who’s seen the worst and knows better than to offer easy resolutions. His characters bleed. His towns rot. His justice is earned, not handed out. That’s what makes his stories pulse with authenticity—and why readers keep coming back, hungry for another dive into the moral murk of the modern South.

He currently resides in Oxford, Mississippi, where he lives with his family and continues to write, mentor, and fight the good fight for old-school storytelling. He’s a craftsman, a torchbearer, and a legend in the making.

So, what happens when a football bruiser becomes one of noir’s sharpest minds? You get Ace Atkins. And trust me—his stories don’t flinch. They hit.