Shrink Rap (Sunny Randall) | Robert B. Parker

Shrink Rap (Sunny Randall) | Robert B. Parker | Vintage Parker--The Third Sunny Randall Book

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Shrink Rap (Sunny ...

	Shrink Rap (Sunny Randall) Robert B. Parker Jove Books, 2003 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 53 reviews view larger image
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Sunny Randall is hired to protect a bestselling novelist from her ex-husband. He's not only a stalker...he's a shrink. And when Sunny becomes his patient, she discovers as much about herself as she does about the criminal mind...

Female P.I.s

Sunny Randall once again, despite her own problems, saves the day. Her clever rescue of several women from a sadistic psychiatrist takes a lot of courageous well as help from her ex-husband.

As usual, a fast reading book, as are all of Rober Parker's books.Shrink Rap (Sunny Randall)

Vintage Parker--The Third Sunny Randall Book

Robert B. Parker's Sunny Randall makes her third appearance. The first two are, in order of publication, Family Honor and Perish Twice. In this novel, private investigator Randall is hired as the bodyguard of Melanie Joan Hall, a famous romance novelist who has a series of appearances and book signings. The problem is that her ex-husband, Dr. John Melvin, a psychiatrist, seems to be stalking her. Sure enough, he shows up at her signings. When he makes a scene at one by pulling his blood-covered hands along a store window, we know he's a bit unbalanced. So does Sunny.

Sunny decides to do more than just protect Melanie Joan, and she goes undercover as Dr. Melvin's patient. At the same time, she hires another shrink so that she can discuss her investigation of Melvin. However, in both sessions, she finds, to her chagrin, that she has a variety of emotional issues regarding her own ex-husband, her former police captain father (retired), and her mother. Worse yet, as she investigates Melvin further, she discovers that he might be guilty of a great deal more than stalking.

"Shrink Rap" is one of Parker's better detective novels and bears his hallmarks. (In fact, snippets of dialog seems identical to dialog in the Spenser novels.) The suspense builds slowly at first but picks up significantly about half way through the book, so anyone planning to get a good night's sleep should make sure he or she does not start the second half right before bedtime. Among the Sunny Randall novels, this one ranks up there with Spare Change as the best.

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Sunny Randall series from Robert B. Parker

I enjoy a good mystery, Robert B. Parker does a good job of entertaining the reader. Sunny is hired to serve as bodyguard for a book author on tour who is being stalked by her psychotherapist/ex-husband. Sunny must find a way to get the low-down on him and find a way to remove him from being a threat to herself and her client. Along the way you meet Sunny's quirky family and friends that try to help her and provide a bit of personal drama.... including Rosie, Sunny's English bull terrier.

The Sunny Randall series of books are "a lighter fare", but still quite interesting. With the love-interest thread in the series I have gotten my wife interested in reading them. I enjoy the characters he has created. Shrink Rap is as good as the rest of the series that I have read. It is a fast read, funny and predictable. Give it a try!

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Not bad, not bad at all

I'm a first time reader of Robert Parker. Maybe it was just what I needed at the time which was a light and breezy, very predictable little novel that I was able to jump right into within 3 pages. Over a span of less than 24 hours, I was able to pick it up, put it down, a few pages here, a few pages there and then it was over, a neatly wrapped package of a pleasant diversion, not one I'm going to remember for sure but entertaining nevertheless.

However, as I read other people's reviews, it appears that some of you Parker readers kind of feel cheated. I might venture to read a few more of his books since I feel there's no where to go but "up" with this author and I appear to have caught a "dog" according to most.

The one thing I must mention is that our villain is introduced as a "stalker" but it doesn't appear that he would have any time to stalk Melanie Joan (the author Sunny is hired to protect). Our villain also employs other sexually deviant behavior that just doesn't fit it with his portrait of a stalker. Another words be a stalker or be the other deviant. To call this is a mystery or any type of thriller is a joke. Just take it for what it is, a pleasant diversion.

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Best Sunny Randall so far

This is the 3rd book in the Sunny Randall series, and in my opinion, the best to date. I liked the first one (Family Honor), wasn't real keen on the second installment (Perish Twice), but Parker is giving us more insight into his protagonist of Sunny Randall in each book.

I'm still not real big on Parker's writing style where dialog with Sunny, friend Spike, Sunny's various clients, and her ex-husband Richie is mostly monosyllabic, but I'm getting used to it. The other thing I noticed in this book for the first time is that Parker's dialog eschews anything other than "said." You'll never see "asked," "mused," exclaimed," "bellowed," or any other verb to describe his characters' utterances. It's an interesting style...not necessarily objectionable, just unique. While I suppose things like poetry (haikus in particular) would be considered minimalist writing, Parker has a style I can only categorize as minimalist prose. As I said above, he doesn't make any attempt to use verbs other than "said" in his dialog. The characters themselves never ramble or philosophize or muse except in these brief little sputs of one or two sentences. It reminds me of those Crime Noir pulp fiction novels...

"The dame entered my office. I got up. She was showing plenty of leg. We embraced. I said, 'Find the place OK?' She said, 'Yeah.' I locked the door."

The writing is sort of in that style, and while admittedly not quite so terse, you won't find much in the way of adjectives. Let's put it this way: If Jack Webb (aka: Sgt. Joe Friday of Dragnet fame) wrote a book, it would sound like Parker's style. Terse. Mostly humorless. Just the facts, maam.

The plot here centers around Melanie Joan Hall, a bestselling author of romance novels who hires Sunny to act as a bodyguard, protecting Melanie Joan from an obsessive ex-husband who is stalking her. It slowly becomes clear that Melanie's ex-husband, a successful psychiatrist, is doing more than just stalking, he is seducing and killing his clients with Sunny and Melanie next on his list of would-be victims.

In this book, we get a little more insight into Sunny and why she seems to be such a "c'mere c'mere get away get away" personality when it comes to men in general and her ex-husband in particular. Sunny is a complex character, tough, independent, and often frustrating, but in this book she learns to ask for help when she realizes she's in over her head. It's refreshing to see Sunny soften up a little bit and stop being such a loner.

As usual, she's joined by her pal Spike and her ever-present dog, Rosie, whom is more like a child than a pet to both Sunny and Richie.

A fun read. Even more fun when you read the previous two Sunny Randall novels. I'll probably pick up some of Parker's other novels from his Spencer series to compare.

Finally, I can't help but notice that photos of Parker on several books show him walking a bull terrier. I think his own love of these dogs has spilled over into Sunny Randall's persona. I wonder if Parker's dog is named Rosie, just like Sunny's?

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