Perish Twice

Rating:
Summary: What an entertaining read!
Review: I am new to Mr. Parker but this book sure was a fun read. I could see Helen Hunt in the lead role, I can't wait for the movie!!!! I just finished an interesting thriller: "A Tourist in the Yucatan" another fun read.

Rating:
Summary: Sunny's second outing has a lot of echoes
Review: Robert Parker's newest character, Boston P.I. Sunny Randall, returns in "Perish Twice," but this time she's juggling the role of relationship counselor along with her usual sleuthing duties. Her snooty sister learns of her husband's mistress and plunges into bouts of self-pity mixed with revenge; her best friend, bored with her marriage, has an affair, and a lesbian feminist becomes increasingly unhelpful when it's revealed that her stalker might know her more intimately than she's willing to admit. Through it all, Sunny struggles with her own relationship with her ex-husband Richie and comes closer to danger with each new twist of her case.

It's still too early to tell where Parker will take the character of Sunny. At this point, she still seems like the female equivalent of Parker's most famous character, Spenser, albeit a bit more ladylike. The book itself is fairly typical, uninspired Parker--the plot is reminiscent of an early Spenser novel, "Looking For Rachel Wallace." Sunny's relationship with Richie echoes a similar situation with Parker's other character Jesse Stone. Parker fans will experience a lot of deja vu with "Perish Twice," but it's still a fairly enjoyable read.

Rating:
Summary: Variations on a Theme
Review: No, the title I've chosen does not refer to Robert Parker creating a sort of female Spenser in Sunny Randall. Rather this, Sunny's second case, is itself more a series of studies of the varied and tortured physical relations women get into. There's the radical feminist who's a lesbian with a heterosexual itch to scratch; the former prostitute who drifted from respectable married life to lesbian promiscuity; the unhappy wife who deserts her husband and children to find herself; and the overly dependent wife who discovers her husband is cheating and strikes out on her own, a role for which she is singularly unqualified. Then there's Sunny herself, enjoying a perfectly good relationship with the man she's divorced. Somewhere along the way, three people get murdered because of the dirty little complications in the first two relationships above. That the last two confused women are Sunny's best friend and sister adds to the intrigue. But it also adds to the confusion as Sunny hops from emotional problem to emotional problem while trying to solve a well disguised mystery, knowing solving it could also be fatal. It works, well sort of, only because of Parker's genius with sparse prose and clipped, incisive dialogue. And because the heroine is so damn likeable. Still, it's not fully satisyfing and, as he did in Hugger Mugger, Mr. Parker's ending is also unsatisfyingly unresolved. Parhaps as he grows older, Mr. Parker is trying to tell us that the black and white of the young Spenser's world hardly exists. If that's the message, it doesn't quite work. Sort of like this novel.

Rating:
Summary: A FIRST RATE MYSTERY
Review: Boston P.I., Sunny Randall, is up to her neck in three seperate case's...each case will push her to her absolute limits, and if she is not careful...it may cost her her life.

Sunny must protect a prominent feminist, Mary Lou Goddard, from the threats of a stalker, she must also tail her brother in-law on allegations of cheating, AND she must supply support to her best friend who has begun to cheat on her husband.

Sunny's search will lead her into the Boston underworld where one wrong step could be her last.

Despite the odds she is up against, Sunny, will not stop until every stone is turned and she has her killer.

"Perish Twice" is another masterful tale from Robert Parker, and the second entry in the Sunny Randall series. The plot in this new novel moves fast...twisting and turning, leading the reader to believe they have it figured out, and then throwing in a whole new twist.

Robert Parker fan's, as well as new readers will be hooked, and "Perish Twice" will sustain it's spot on the bestseller list's, further proving Mr. Parker a master of the mystery novel.

Nick Gonnella

Rating:
Summary: A great detective story
Review: Boston private detective Sunny Randall was once married to Irish mobster Richie Burke. Though divorced, Sunny and Richie still date, make love, spend a lot of time together and share custody of their miniature bull terrier Rosie. Richie wants to remarry his beloved, but the independent sleuth needs her space.

Sunny currently is dealing with several situations. At her sister's request, Sunny tails the woman's husband and obtains proof he is cheating on her. Her best friend steps out on her husband and children and wants Sunny to accompany her while obtaining an abortion. Finally, the lesbian head of Great Strides hires Sunny to serve as her bodyguard because someone is stalking her, but the suspect commits suicide neatly wrapping up the case for everyone except Sunny. The private investigator begins an inquest only to end up in the midst of prostitution and the individual who runs the action in the city.

Anyone who thinks Sunny Randall is a distaff Spencer because they are Robert B. Parker's Beantown detectives has not read one or the other series. Sunny is not a one-person gangbuster and her books contain a small ensemble ready to help her with little notice. The mystery of PERISH TWICE is a cryptic puzzle that is fun to read as well solve. Mr. Parker remains one of the better writers on the market today and the proof will be when he returns to all the bestseller lists with this fine novel.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Still Ridiculous
Review: This latest character is ridiculous. She doesn't want to be married (that requires effort), but she doesn't want her ex to have a life of his own. She wants to be independent, a private eye, but is always looking for males to help her, because she is incapable of doing the job alone. Parker is having good ideas for stories and is ruining them with these selfish idiots.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent story, well written, but sub-par ending
Review: This was a 5 star book until the last 20 pages. Although we get an explanation for how all the parties are connected and who killed who and why, we miss out on the justice. Sunny and her friends are complex characters, who are interesting to get to know. I thought some of the marital issues were a little strange though. In particular, Sunny's relationship with Richie is very unusual, but I will say it is interesting. This is a very good book, and once again, Parker writes in a crisp style that holds your attention.

Rating:
Summary: WHAT A TATTERED WEB WE (OR SOMEONE) WEAVE(S)
Review: For starters I'd like to comment on the comparisons to Parker's other Ace Detective, Spenser. Yes, in many ways our heroine, Boston P. I. (Private Investigator) Sunny Randal, is similar to Spenser. Additionally, many comparisons can also be made between their respective supporting casts. Even their speech patterns are remarkably similar, but why not? After all, they are both Robert B. Parker's creations. Now that we've taken care of that, let's move on to the plot.

In _PERISH TWICE_, before we even get to the criminal stuff, we need to address several other things going on in Sunny's life. First there's her sister, Elizabeth, for whom any aspect of dealing with real life is just too overwhelming. Elizabeth's husband has been having an affair (as who wouldn't, thinks Sunny). She has left him and has begun to take her revenge by stalking him and his woman friend. Even though she resents Sunny's help, and her need for it, Elizabeth looks to Sunny to make everything okay, an impossible task, given Elizabeth's faulty coping mechanisms.

Second, there's Sunny's friend Julie, a therapist who needs to see a therapist. Julie's marriage and life are unraveling, and she looks to Sunny for emotional support until she can get her act together.

Third there's Sunny's own life in which she is still adjusting to her divorce from, but continued relationship with, her ex-husband, a man she really likes.

While these three things are going on, Sunny gets involved with some of the stuff in which Private Investigators (P.I.'s) are supposed to get involved. Here's the detecting stuff:

A lesbian employee of a firm that offers guidance counselling to women only, is murdered while the murderee's boss is being stalked by a rather repulsive male who evidently has had an affair with the boss, even though she also professes to be a man hating lesbian. This series of events sets the stage for what's to follow.

What's to follow is that said repulsive male is found dead of a bullet shot through the mouth. Alongside his body is a suicide note, signed in his own handwriting, in which he confesses that he is the murderer of the aforementioned murderee. This note conveniently clears a murder case off the books -- or does it? Our intrepid P.I. thinks not, and so continues her investigation into the murder and the convenient suicide which might not be a suicide at all, or so she believes.

As her investigation continues, a few cages are rattled, cages that some people feel shouldn't be rattled. Next, a second level prostitution ring "manager" (pimp in charge of other pimps) attempts to kill her. Being the resourceful P.I. that she is, Sunny turns the tables on him, and causes him to be sent to prison where, shortly thereafter, he is murdered by persons unknown.

Another coincidence? Not in Sunny's opinion. In fighting crime, there are no coincidences, one just needs to find the connections.

Want to know if Sunny does figure out how these murders are tied together, and how she wraps up all of these personal and whodunnit threads? If I've done my self appointed job well, you'll want to read the book and find out. Good reading!

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but too many similarities....
Review: Having just finished Robert Parker's Death in Paradise, I immediately picked up Perish Twice and thought I was reading the same book. There are just way too many similarities between Jesse Stone (Death in Paradise) and PI Sunny Randall. Both are divorced. Both are still stuck on their ex's and meet them once a week for dinner. Both are quick with a comback, although Sunny has more interesting friends than Jesse Stone. In both books, the plots are a bit lame and they resolve themselves a little too quickly. Both are quick reads with way too much paper wasted between dozens of chapters (66 chapters in Death in Paradise vs. 58 in Perish Twice). You can read each book in only 90 minutes. The only reason I gave it three stars is that Parker's dialogue is always first rate. Otherwise, I wasn't much impressed with Perish Twice.

Rating:
Summary: Extremely dull
Review: Sunny Randall is fun to read. Some readers though make too much of the similarities between her and Spenser. There are definite differences that some seem to miss.

She definitely a woman. There's one scene where she's investigating the murdered man's apartment and notes that he hadn't done a good job of cleaning the bathroom fixtures. I doubt that Spenser would've particularly noticed that.

There's a difference also in her confidence level. She rightly doesn't have Spenser's confidence when it comes to physical confrontation although that might change in time with enough visits to the gym with Spike.

And while there are partial counterparts to characters in the Spenser series, they are only partial. Spike isn't Hawk. Nor is Richie. Richie isn't a male Susan either. Julie isn't Susan Silverman.

Parker is good in his use of characters we know from the Spenser series in this series. We see a different side of Tony Marcus than Spenser sees. Lee Farrell appears in this, and Spenser fans should get a laugh out of one scene in this book...an encounter between Farrell and Sunny's client while Sunny's watching. We get a laugh because we know more about Farrell than either Sunny or the militant feminist client.

Don't expect a truly satisfying ending. Some will find it weak, but I think Parker knew what he was doing. This type of ending does make a person think.

I did have mixed reactions to this book, but it is enjoyable and if you like Parker, you should enjoy this.