Rating: 
Summary: shrink rap
Review: This is the best of the Sunny Randall novels. The dialog is very fast and sometimes funny. The ending happens so quickly that the reader is left feeling a little disappointed. But, otherwise this is a good Parker novel. This might be the best non-Spenser book he has written since Wilderness.
Rating: 
Summary: One more chance for Sunny Randall
Review: This is the second Sunny Randall book I've read. While there is much to like - interesting characters, good dialogue, descriptive details, I'm having trouble with Sunny.Sunny was a police officer, now a private detective, but she seems to be uncomfortable in her PI skin. Danger seems new and scary to her, and she always seems to be struggling with "doing it by myself." The first book, okay. The second book? Tiring. Sunny is, one time, competent & tough, and the next minute is caught unaware, wearing cute but inappropriate footwear. There's a little too much female angst, which doesn't hit quite the right note. I especially enjoy her interactions with her dog, Rosie. I'll give a third book a try, but unless she can start "doin' it for herself", I'm no longer interested.
Rating:
Summary: Sunny Randall back again in Shrink Rap by Robert B. Parker
Review: This third novel of the Sunny Randall character series finds Sunny with her usual problem. Though she is now divorced from Richie she still loves him whether she wants to admit or not. And he still feels the same about her, but has decided he wants to try to move on. He has found someone else by the name of Carrie and she could be the next Mrs. Right. But, as he points out to her in a small diner, he can't seem to get past Sunny.
If he can't and she can't, where does that leave them? That deep intellectual question is quickly shoved to the back burner as Sunny is hired to bodyguard author Melanie Joan Hall. Like Sunny, Melanie is also divorced, most recently for the third time. Unlike Sunny, she has a horrible relationship with her ex-husband Dr. John Melvin. A psychiatrist by training, he is stalking her and trying to cause her to lose control and surrender herself back to his clutches. Her agent recognizes that Melanie needs protection and hires Sunny to provide such protection while Melanie is on her book tour. Things start out well enough and both Sunny and Melanie get along with each other and share a common perspective and background regarding men. And it becomes clear that the good doctor may pose an actual threat, not only in regards to her sanity but to Melanie's life. Sunny decides to investigate the good doctor and eventually moves to pose undercover as one of his patients. As he escalates the stalking and Melanie begins to crack under the psychological pressure, Sunny realizes that time is running out and she may be forced to take drastic action to solve the threat. Like most of Robert B. Parker's novels the dialogue moves the story forward with limited action. Stereotypical shallow characters populate the novel with everything cast clearly as good or evil with no shades of gray in between. The storyline is straightforward with no twists or turns for the reader and at 289 pages an incredibly fast read. With almost no setting descriptions and chapter lengths of three to four pages there is very little weight to the work. In short, it's the perfect book for the beach or waiting for anyone to come out of the mall this holiday season. For what is, it is his usual good stuff, but like most of his, easily forgotten when the book is closed.
Rating: 
Summary: Sunny Days Shine on This Book
Review: This time around I enjoyed Sunny Randall Character in Shrink Rap. I thought it was well-written and action packed. Though I wish she solve her emotional conflicts between herself and Richie. It is getting too repetive and it is stifling the book. But otherwise It is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: Sunny Grows Up
Review: This, the third Robert Parker book on Sunny Randall, the female equivalent of his long-running and superb Spenser series, is the one in which she comes of age as a full-fledged character. One we can understand. One we can care about. And the writing -- the patented spare, sharp Parker prose -- is as good as it gets in Spenser.
It starts with Sunny's conflicted but real relationship with her ex-husband, Richie, taking a sinking-stomach turn as Richie announces he is going to get married. Then Sunny gets involved in a case protecting a romance novelist, Melanie Joan Hall, from her ex-husband, Dr. John Melvin, a psychiatrist, a creep and a dangerous dude. In an interesting twist, Parker has Sunny go under cover as Melvin's patient -- and see an honest psychiatrist, too, as a counterbalance. Before she solves the case -- and it's creepier than one expects -- these dual sessions lead to some real psychotherapy for the resistant Sunny and a glimpse into what makes her what she is, just as we have gotten with Spenser. This makes it the most satisfying of the Sunny series so far -- and leaves the reader hungering for Book 4.
It's a fast and satisfying read.
Rating:
Summary: Not the usual Parker line on psychology
Review: Well, if you're gonna write about shrinks all the time in your thrillers, you might as well have one where they're central to the plot. That's what Mr. Parker does here, and the result is actually pretty entertaining. I especially liked the fact that the featured shrink is memorably evil. It really kept the pages turning!
Rating:
Summary: strong Sunny Randall tale
Review: When a person sees Sunny Randall for the first time, the individual thinks cute and perky. However, Sunny is a private detective with a spine of steel and she's not afraid to use the gun she's permitted to carry. Psychiatrist Dr. John Melvin stalks romance author Melanie Joan Hall, so while she is going on a book tour she hires Sunny to be her bodyguard. While on tour, the two women see Dr. Melvin many times but are helpless to do anything about it. Melanie Jones starts confiding in Sunny and the private detective realizes the stalker is committing actual crimes against his patients. Determined to put him away Sunny poses as his patient and sets herself up as bait. Robert B. Parker, the author of the famous Spenser series, creates a totally new series using a different voice when he writes about Sunny Randall. In SHRINK RAP, although the reader knows what is going to happen, the fun is in watching a twisted and evil person get his comeuppance. This crime thriller is heading for the bestseller lists. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Sexist. Tedious. Silly
Review: When Robert Parker tells me that "tough" Boson PI Sunny Randall is "cute as Meg Ryan," I have to ask "why?" Why is it important to know, among other things, that she's cute? I have a picture of a 100 pound woman, cute, who keeps a loaded sawed off shotgun in her bedroom closet. Frankly, I'm perplexed. I don't think it's necessary for women protaganists to be cute. I like cute. Beautiful. Attractive. I just think it's unnecessary for the lead in a mystery noir to be "cute." We're not interested. It's irrelevant. It's sexist. I've read all 30+ Spenser novels and I couldn't tell you what he looked like. Ditto Dave Robicheaux in the James Burke series or Elvis Cole in the Robert Crais series. I glanced through some Elizabeth George novels and some Francine Matthews novels and the word "cute" never came up. On top of that, every man in the book, reticent ex-husbands, former lovers, mobsters, all want to "take out the bad guys" for her. Yet, she keeps singing that song from the '70's, "I gotta' be me!" What is it about her that all these men want to help? I mean she's got that darn sawed off shotgun in her bedroom! Finally, I have a hard time not believing that this is just another Spenser novel with the lead a heroine instead of a hero. Matthews and George and dozens of others write some of the best mysteries of our time. But Sunny's got the same friends, the same issues, the same code of conduct as Spenser. She's even got the same dog. And the fact is, Spenser did this 30 years ago in Rachel Wallace, a thousand percent better. That's it for me. Good luck Sunny.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to Believe
Review: With this latest in the Sunny Randall series, Mr. Parker has acheived something nearly impossible: a book written by a fine author that is so bad, on so many levels, it's hard to know where to begin criticizing it. Let's start with the mystery. There isn't one. Dr. John Melvin, a psychiatrist, is stalking his ex-wife and abusing his exclusively sexy, exclusively female patients. We know that almost from the beginning of the book. The only tension in the plot (which reads more like an hour of bad cop television than a novel) is that Sunny can't prove he's doing it, to a court of law. So she must use her own sexy body as bait to trap him. Throughout the book, everyone she knows tries to talk her out of doing the work she does without help from her male friends and attachments. EVERYONE. This is what, the third or fourth book in the series? So presumably Sunny has been doing this kind of work for a while, and her friends and family ought to be used to it. The argument was old the first time around. Does this writer have such a problem with independent women that he must continually justify Sunny's decisions? Next we have the old can't-live-with-him, can't-live-without-him relationship that permeates every one of Robert B. Parker's books. For Spenser and Susan, it kind of makes sense. But Jesse Stone from the "Paradise" series is still in love with his ex-wife and Sunny is still in love with Ritchie, even though they've been divorced since before the first book, and even though Ritchie is getting married to someone else. Or at least thinking about it. Maybe. I think this plot line started out being a way to keep some tension going, but it is now its own cliche. Can't anyone in a Parker book manage to grow up enough to really be married? I especially hated how proud Sunny's ex-husband was of her at the end, for being so tough and brave. As far as I could see, all she did was allow herself to be victimized and then yell for him to rescue her. The set-up was repulsive and the congratulations patronizing. Parker's contempt for women really shows and he should not try to write about strong ones - with the exception of Susan Silverman, who evolved over the years, he can't do it. Freudian psychology is laced all through this novel, which probably tells us more about Parker than we need to know. The only good thing about the book is, it reads quick. I finished it in one evening, but I felt a little nauseous.
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