Robert B. Parker was the author of seventy books, including the legendary Spenser detective series, the novels featuring police chief Jesse Stone, and the acclaimed Virgil Cole–Everett Hitch westerns, as well as the Sunny Randall novels. Winner of the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award and long considered the undisputed dean of American crime fiction, he died in January 2010.
Private investigator Sunny Randall has a full array of family and friends who help her in her new business. Her complex life becomes even more so when she locates the runaway teenager whom she has been hired to find, only to decide that the young girl's home is not a healthy place; so Sunny keeps her while she investigates her clients. Her inquiries reveal some seemingly unrelated murders, and soon she finds herself killing a man to protect young Millicent. Andrea Thompson is easy to listen to; her husky voice is believably one of a self-described "cute" thirty-something blond who can get tough when necessary. Men, too, are portrayed with panache, whether it be a pimp or Sunny's attractive and devoted ex-husband. Most listeners will be drawn into the story immediately. Recommended for popular collections.--Juleigh Muirhead Clark, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Lib., Williamsburg, VA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
After 33 novelsÄincluding more than two dozen Spenser mysteriesÄbackboned by heros concerned with distinctly male codes of behavior, Parker presents his first female protagonist. She's Sunny Randall, and she's a keeper. In some ways, Sunny is a female Spenser. Like him, she's a former cop, now a Boston PI, quick with a pistol and a quip. She teams with an odd sidekick, Spike, as Spenser teams with Hawk, and she has a significant other, an ex-husband to Spenser's Susan. But Sunny is female, and as she explains in this wonderfully involving and moving novel, that means that she can't rely on the compass of "Be a man" to orient toward life. How to live correctly is this novel's theme, as it is in the best Spenser novels, and to explore that theme Parker borrows situations from those novels. Sunny is hired by a powerful family to find their runaway daughter, Millicent, who, it transpires, is hooking and needs rescuingÄlike the girl in Taming a Sea-Horse. Once saved from the streets, Sunny trains Millicent in responsible adult waysÄcooking, exerciseÄas Spenser trained Paul in Early Autumn. But it's only a minor knock that Parker uses here elements honed in 30 years of writing, for he uses them with consummate skill. Millicent, it happens, witnessed a conspiracy to murder arising from her cold, ambitious parentsÄher father aims to be governorÄand the Italian mobsters who control them. The mobsters now want her dead, and Sunny, too, if need be. Sunny's fight to save Millicent and herself moves through a wide swath of Boston and its denizens, all etched in Parker's lean and exquisitely cadenced prose. The high suspense is equaled by the emotional power of Sunny's bonding with the damaged girl. A bravura performance, this novel launches what promises to be a series for the ages. BOMC main selection; film rights to Helen Hunt. (Sept.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
-Sunny Randall, Parker's new detective, bears little resemblance to Spenser, his more famous creation. She is petite, attractive, educated, and artistic, whereas he is burly, gruff, and blunt. They do, however, share a penchant for zinging one-liners and shrewd leaps of deduction. Sunny, the ex-wife of the noninvolved son and nephew of the remnants of the Boston Mafia, wants to strike out on her own. The fact that she still loves Richie and hesitates to form new alliances somewhat cramps her style, but does aid her detecting. With an endearing bull terrier named Rosie; a gourmet cook, body-builder sidekick who happens to be gay; and a girlfriend who is a psychiatric social worker, Sunny has as many compatriots as Spenser, and puts them to equally good use. She is hired by wealthy politician Brock Patton to find his runaway daughter. This task is quickly accomplished with the help of Richie's family; what is not so easily discovered is why someone tries to kill Millicent-and Sunny-or why the girl's parents are so reticent and Millicent so fearful. While not much of a mystery, this is an engrossing, quick read and Millicent is a quirky, captivating adolescent. Parker has come up with another winning team.-Susan H. Woodcock, Chantilly Regional Library, VA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
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