Rating: 
Summary: Parker's best Sunny Randall Novel
Review: Despite plot devices that are bit too unbelievable, this is the first Sunny Randall novel I've actually liked. This is the first novel where Parker explores Sunny's character in more than simply superficial terms, giving her a life of her own beyond simply being "Spenser in drag." Here we find Sunny hired by a popular novelist as a bodyguard because her ex-husband is stalking her. The ex-husband also happens to be a manipulative psychiatrist preying on women. In getting to the bottom of the "case" Sunny begins to explore her own feelings, which begin to reveal a lot about her personality -as do her actions throughout. Parker fans should enjoy this one...
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: Time for Spenser to retire?
Review: Probably not. But I really enjoyed Shrink Rap MUCH more than the last Spenser tale, "Widow's Walk." While I agree with some of the other reviewers here that there could've been a bit more tension/suspense, I really enjoyed the story. While there are numerous parallels between Spenser and Sunny, Spenser seems to be running out of steam. I finished this book looking forward to reading more about Sunny.
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: A most enjoyable treat.
Review: Robert B. Parker's third Sunny Randall novel is witty, bright, light and full of crisp dialog. A fast-paced plot that makes for a swift read. The plot pitches the reader to the climax thru a succession of increasing danger points that P.I. Sunny Randall, her client, her archangel Spike and ex-husband overcome. The villain is a twisted, creepy psychologist who is stalking and manipulating his former wife (Sunny's client, best selling author Melanie Joan Hall.) Seems he has a history of terrorizing and manipulating his female patients. Mr. Parker does a nifty job of developing the characters by exploring their relationships mainly via dialog with a minimum of narrative passages. Big fun.
Rating:
Summary: A step up
Review: I gave a fairly negative review of the last Sunny Randall, Perish Twice. I liked this one a lot more. Parker is still working out his relationships, but this one was more interesting. The smart-mouthing didn't dominate the story, and I enjoyed the interplay of the psychiatric moves. Also thought it was one of Parker's best titles re: content.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a Sunny Day
Review: As her ex-husband says, Sunny Randall, Robert Parker's fresh, new heroine is as cute as Meg Ryan and tougher than a Mafia Don. Unfortunately, she may be losing Robert Parker's interest already, well before she loses ours. _Shrink Wrap_ does not do justice to her early promise.Sunny's case, where an appealing and likable author of Romance novels is being stalked in some pretty creepy circumstances, is an intriguing and original one. The plot moves along briskly, making it difficult to put the book down. But Sunny is becoming increasingly one-dimensional and thinly drawn. There is no way not to like her. She is honest, earnest, smart and tough. She is trying to make her life into something honorable. She is sometimes as fast with a comeback as Spenser himself, and almost as funny. So Parker does her an injustice when he has eight people tell her she needs to ask for help, and makes her give each and every one the exact same answer, that she needs to do it herself. Understandable, laudable even, but we get it after the third time. Repeating it is a nuisance, like a one-note song. There is much about Sunny we would like to know, and while Parker explores a little, the whole character development of the book is built around one insight Sunny has into herself at the end, as a breakthrough, which is --- wait for it -- that her relationship with her father and mother has strongly influenced her relationships with men. Um, okay, good insight. But we could all have used a little more of Parker investing himself here, Sunny most of all. And then there is the dog. Spenser and Susan's Pearl is a delight, as is the way they feel and talk about her. But this little dog is taking up more emotional space in Parker's minimalistic story than any other supporting character. Which seems to me to be a mistake and again, a waste of potential. Spike, for example, is a magnetic character, not up to Hawk exactly -- who would be? -- but worth a lot more space on the wide-margined, large-typefaced pages. The books are getting shorter, thinner, more off-hand, as if Parker is writing while he's watching a ballgame. He can grab hold of Sunny and make her someone who will hold our interest for years. If he decides to make the effort. In _Shrink Wrap_ it rains or snows and is bleak every day, except on the last page, when the sun comes out. Hopefully that lift out of the grayness will carry over to the next Sunny Randall book. She's worth it.
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: Great characters, tired template
Review: I sat across the table from my alter ego, pen in hand ready to write a review of "Shrink Rap". "I'm afraid Parker's losing it," I said. "Don't you like Sunny Randall?" he said. "Sunny's great," I said. "Then what?" he said. "His books are all the same," I said. Plot, pace, dialogue - just plug in Spenser, Jesse Stone or Sunny, add a dog and a murder or two." "Richie's a great character," he said. "Yeah, and so are Susan and Hawk," I said. "He's the two of them rolled together. You know, the steadying love interest from a different background and the 'I'll take care of it, just don't ask how' guy all in one." "I think the gay friend Spike is more like Hawk," he said. "Wait a minute. Isn't Spike the dog and Milo the gay friend?" I said. "Different writer. He comes out next month," he said. "Oh yeah," I said. "All in all I guess "Shrink Rap" was a pretty good story."
Rating:
Summary: Okay if you don't demand a lot of believable detail
Review: If you like Parker, you'll like this book because it is another example of what he does best. Short chapters, stereotyped characters and familiar angst in familiar surroundings. If you are not a Parker fan, it may be difficult to swallow that the heroine can just put on a wig and successfully present herself repeatedly in close quarters to a psychiatrist (whom she has already met several times) as a comletely different person. If you are willing to overlook that particular plot lynchpin, then you're likely to enjoy the book.
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