Status
Available
Call number
Series
Genres
Collection
Publication
Thorndike Press (2004), Edition: Large Print, 378 pages
Description
Fiction. Mystery. HTML: When Sunny Randall helps a young woman locate her birth parents, she uncovers the dark truth about her own past..
User reviews
LibraryThing member drebbles
Boston college student Sarah Markham is convinced that she was adopted and hires PI Sunny Randall to find out the truth. Sarah's parents insist that she isn't adopted but they say they can't find her birth certificate and they both refuse to take a DNA test. The Markham's are so vague and
This is the first non-Spenser Robert Parker book I've read and I was a bit apprehensive thinking Sunny would just be Spenser in a skirt. I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, Sunny has some of the same characteristic traits as Spenser, including being a dog owner and having a sidekick she can call on if she's in trouble (gay Spike is Sunny's Hawk). But Sunny is a more complex character than Spenser and her visits to Susan Silverman, interspersed with her search for the truth about Sarah's parents, add a dimension to this book that's missing from the Spenser series. While it's interesting and refreshing to see Susan Silverman from the viewpoint of someone other than Spenser, Parker's a little too in love with his own character and his repetitive descriptions of Susan's manicured nails wear thin very quickly. Parker's writing is mostly dialogue driven and doesn't vary much beyond "I said", "he said", and "she said". Still, Parker has a keen sense of humor and his new character, Detective second-grade Eugene Corsetti, is a perfect example of Parker at his best.
This was a quick, enjoyable book to read.
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uncooperative when Sunny questions them she is sure they are lying and sets out to find the truth about Sarah's birth. Sunny is also finding out some truths about herself - her ex-husband is getting married and she sees a psychiatrist (Susan Silverman of Robert Parker's Spenser series) to deal with her conflicted feelings about her, her ex, and her parents. This is the first non-Spenser Robert Parker book I've read and I was a bit apprehensive thinking Sunny would just be Spenser in a skirt. I was pleasantly surprised. Sure, Sunny has some of the same characteristic traits as Spenser, including being a dog owner and having a sidekick she can call on if she's in trouble (gay Spike is Sunny's Hawk). But Sunny is a more complex character than Spenser and her visits to Susan Silverman, interspersed with her search for the truth about Sarah's parents, add a dimension to this book that's missing from the Spenser series. While it's interesting and refreshing to see Susan Silverman from the viewpoint of someone other than Spenser, Parker's a little too in love with his own character and his repetitive descriptions of Susan's manicured nails wear thin very quickly. Parker's writing is mostly dialogue driven and doesn't vary much beyond "I said", "he said", and "she said". Still, Parker has a keen sense of humor and his new character, Detective second-grade Eugene Corsetti, is a perfect example of Parker at his best.
This was a quick, enjoyable book to read.
Show Less
LibraryThing member shelleyraec
A good story -but prefer the Spenser novels
LibraryThing member littlesparrow
A little different from what I usually read, but he's good. He makes you laugh, but at the same time you're thinking "what's going on here?" and not in the "i-am-lost" sense, but more like "I-want-to-know-more-what-a-mystery!" sense.
I haven't read any other Sunny Randall books from him yet, but I
I haven't read any other Sunny Randall books from him yet, but I
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didn't really need to read them to understand what was going on, or to get an idea of who Sunny is and what her herself, which is something good. :) Show Less
LibraryThing member JenJ.
The fourth Sunny Randall novel, in which Sunny begins to see shrink Susan Silverman (Spenser's girlfriend) to work out some of her psychological issues related to her ex-husband's remarriage. While she's dealing with this, Sunny also investigates the parentage of a 20-year-old college student who's
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parents insist she's their biological child despite refusing DNA tests. Show Less
LibraryThing member ferrisscottr
Things in this book that were "as usual" from Robert B. Parker...
Great characters
Conflicted characters
Gray lines between right and wrong
Cops
The Mob
Too much reliance on the (ex) in-laws
Rosie
"Unusual" things in this book...
I figured it out about 25% into the book
The crime wasn't that interesting
I
Great characters
Conflicted characters
Gray lines between right and wrong
Cops
The Mob
Too much reliance on the (ex) in-laws
Rosie
"Unusual" things in this book...
I figured it out about 25% into the book
The crime wasn't that interesting
I
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kept reading after I figured it out because I love the Sunny Randall as a character and Parker knows how to write but it wasn't one of his best works. Show Less
LibraryThing member nbmars
Robert B. Parker has created a gallery of interesting and (generally) lovable characters who populate his three series of Boston-based crime novels. Each of the three main characters (Spenser, Jesse Stone, and Sunny Randall) has his or her own independent series, but some of the minor characters
My least favorite character is obviously one of Parker’s favorites: Spenser’s girl friend, Harvard trained psychoanalyst Susan Silverman, who appears as an omni-competent shrink in several Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall novels. Wikipedia and the Boston Globe say that Susan was more than loosely based on Parker’s actual wife. Parker is usually an excellent writer who avoids clichés and trite adjectives. Yet here he has Sunny Randall describing Susan in Melancholy Baby:
“Her nails were perfectly manicured. Her black hair was thick and shiny. Her makeup was amazing.”
Come on Bob, amazing makeup?! In every other encounter the reader has with Susan, she is elegantly dressed, stylishly coiffed, and gushingly described. The author is so enamored of his character that he abandons and obtunds his usual snarky style.
In Melancholy Baby, Sunny Randall is going through some tough emotional times because her ex-husband Richie, whom she still loves, gets remarried. She then takes on the case of Sarah Markham, a troubled young girl who wants Sunny to find out the identity of her actual birth parents. Complicating Sunny’s assignment, Sarah’s ostensibly adoptive parents claim they are her biological parents (but won’t take DNA tests). Sunny’s investigation offends some powerful interests, and two people end up executed, gangland style.
The book might have been more accurately called Melancholy Babies, because both Sunny and Sarah find solace in consulting the chicly-attired Susan Silverman. Parker is at his weakest when relating the conversations that transpire in the psychiatric sessions — I can’t imagine anything that insipid would help anyone. Nevertheless, the rest of the book is pretty good. And one of the minor characters, a New York cop named Corsetti, is an absolute delight.
(JAB)
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pop up in more than one of the series. For example, the Boston and Massachusetts state police and the local head of the FBI are the same characters in all three series.My least favorite character is obviously one of Parker’s favorites: Spenser’s girl friend, Harvard trained psychoanalyst Susan Silverman, who appears as an omni-competent shrink in several Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall novels. Wikipedia and the Boston Globe say that Susan was more than loosely based on Parker’s actual wife. Parker is usually an excellent writer who avoids clichés and trite adjectives. Yet here he has Sunny Randall describing Susan in Melancholy Baby:
“Her nails were perfectly manicured. Her black hair was thick and shiny. Her makeup was amazing.”
Come on Bob, amazing makeup?! In every other encounter the reader has with Susan, she is elegantly dressed, stylishly coiffed, and gushingly described. The author is so enamored of his character that he abandons and obtunds his usual snarky style.
In Melancholy Baby, Sunny Randall is going through some tough emotional times because her ex-husband Richie, whom she still loves, gets remarried. She then takes on the case of Sarah Markham, a troubled young girl who wants Sunny to find out the identity of her actual birth parents. Complicating Sunny’s assignment, Sarah’s ostensibly adoptive parents claim they are her biological parents (but won’t take DNA tests). Sunny’s investigation offends some powerful interests, and two people end up executed, gangland style.
The book might have been more accurately called Melancholy Babies, because both Sunny and Sarah find solace in consulting the chicly-attired Susan Silverman. Parker is at his weakest when relating the conversations that transpire in the psychiatric sessions — I can’t imagine anything that insipid would help anyone. Nevertheless, the rest of the book is pretty good. And one of the minor characters, a New York cop named Corsetti, is an absolute delight.
(JAB)
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LibraryThing member asxz
I like Sunny. I'm not entirely convinced by her feminist credentials, but I like her anyway. I get that she's more flawed and more in need of therapy than Parker's other characters, I just can't help wondering if that's because she's a woman or not. In this book she solves the riddle and engages
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the services of Dr. Susan Silverman which was a treat all by itself. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2004-09
ISBN
0786269499 / 9780786269495