Family Honor

Great first in a series. I'm discovering Parker late, and I'm glad:)

This is the first of the Sunny Randall novels (though I happened to read it last). I didn't like it as well as the sequels, but it definitely had potential. Here, Parker introduces Sunny's friend Spike, dog Rosie, and ex-husband Richie, as well as police officer Brian Kelley, who makes an

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appearance in later Sunny Randall mysteries. Parker lays the groundwork for an entertaining series, but Sunny's character is still a bit rough around the edges. She becomes more polished and less bossy as the series continues. Also, curiously, she grows an inch taller and gains ten pounds.

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Sonny Randall used to be a cop, now she's a PI in Boston, living with her dog, Rosie, painting, and trying hard to work out where her relationship with her ex-husband is going to go from here (the weekly dinner's out aren't helping) and where her relationship with cop Brian is going to go

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either.

This case has her looking for runaway Millicent Patton, her parents appear to be a bit unconcerned and really only looking for her for form's sake. When Sunny finds her she has to decide what she's going to do with her. When there's an attempt on both of their lives Sunny has to find out a lot more about her client's backgrounds.

I really did enjoy reading this one, Sunny came across as a strong woman who takes no prisoners and who understands what working in a man's world involves.

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I absolutely adore Robert B. Parker's books and have for years. Sunny Randall is Parker's first female private eye, but she has much in common with Spenser and Jesse Stone while still being her own character. She believes in being as self-sufficient as possible, but doesn't have the same set moral

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code that Spenser does. Like Jesse she's working through a divorce that hasn't ended the relationship with her ex, but she doesn't have the same alcohol problems and she has a much more secure support network. One of my favorite parts of the book was getting to see the Boston crime network that Parker has created from a different viewpoint than Spenser's. In this outing Sunny is hired to find a 15 year old runaway from a wealthy, but not so loving, home. Sunny finds Millicent fairly quickly, but then struggles to figure out what precisely is the right thing to do with her. Return her to the parents who don't appear to care? Let her return to her life hooking on the streets? Keep her? Then a couple of goons show up also looking for Millicent and everything gets much more complicated. While Parker's Spenser series continues to please, the Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone series provide an opportunity to play with characters who are a little less finished and set in their ways - there's more room to grow here. I'm looking forward to re-reading the rest of the series and reading the new entry Spare Change for the first time.

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Family Honor is the book in which noted crime writer Robert B. Parker introduced his readers to Sonya (Sunny) Randall, a college-educated former cop, the daughter of a cop, and currently a private detective. He eventually wrote five other books featuring her, and in several of them, she crosses

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paths with (and becomes the occasional lover of) Jesse Stone, another of Parker’s popular characters. Although she weighs only 115 pounds, she is as tough as nails. She talks like a guy and (except for a few references to her make-up) she thinks like a guy. This doesn’t bother me because I, too, think like a guy. Some female readers may think Parker should have conferred with Betty Friedan, but I didn’t notice anything unbelievable about Sunny. (However, like I said, I’m a guy.)

Sunny is hired by a wealthy, prominent couple to find their run-away daughter, a task which proves to be not too difficult for a clever investigator. However, having found the young lady (who has been working as a prostitute to get by, but who hates her parents, and does not want to go home), Sunny has a problem deciding what to do with her. Sunny’s task is complicated by several very bad men who seem willing to kill Sunny, the young lady, or both of them. Fortunately, Sunny has some assistance from her ex-husband Richie (whose father and uncle are mobsters) and her large, very tough gay friend Spike. Richie and Spike are both delightful characters who will appear in the later Sunny Randall novels.

(Spoiler alert, sort of.) All’s well that ends well, and Sunny kills one bad guy herself (but not without some remorse), arranges for the early demise of the worst bad guy, and teaches the young run-away how to be an independent woman. As in the other 20 or so Parker novels I have read, the plot moves along at a nice pace and keeps the reader’s interest—but that is not why you read these books. What makes them fun to read is the characters and their snappy dialog. This one is as good as most of the others.

(JAB)

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Sunny Randall isn't Spenser. But she's still great. In this, her first case, she goes up against a crime syndicate to save a teenage girl from a loveless family situation.

So nice to see well written crime mystery from a female point of view. There are some similarities to her character and Jesse Stone in the flaws, but Sunny is a more enjoyable read. Jess can come off like the James Bond of policemen at times.

Let's face it, Sunny isn't Spenser. But she's still tougher and more fun than most... Here she's trying to save a young girl who's seen too much and is being pursued by the criminals - usual philosophical treatises on self-reliance and personal strength and integrity - which, don't get me wrong,

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hit my heartstrings every time.

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This first Sunny Randall book is rather similar to the Spencer books; maybe it was written by the same person! Sunny has divorced her husband because she needs more space, rather like Spenser and Susan living apart but being together. Both couples share a dog. And Sunny ends up mentoring /

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parenting a teenager sadly lacking decent parents, rather like Spenser and Paul Giacomin. Sunny's connection to organized crime in New England makes a tidy resolution possible. Her saving her clients' daughter from a life of prostitution results in the death of three people, all of them criminals, but still---again, the story is similar to the stories in which Spenser's poking around leads to many dead bodies, sometimes even his clients'.

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The great thing about the Spenser novels is the characterization---you begin to feel you know the main characters as real people.

Sunny Randall is just Spenser in drag: same dialog, same attitude, not a fully drawn new character. The story was fun enough, but I would not reread.