Family Honor

Rating:
Summary: Cruising...
Review: Obviously, Robert Parker can write. That's not the issue any more. But why does he choose to write the same book over and over again? Sorry, but just because Sunny is a woman, can't cook, and doesn't have a perfect romance doesn't make her that different from Spenser. She has the same "moral code" thing, for lack of a better term, and the whole Millicent rich runaway in distress from an unloved family is Paul Giacomin all over again, not to mention the one Parker did a few years ago, I forgot which book, as they tend to blur.

I appreciate that Parker is branching out, with Sunny and Jesse Stone, as Spenser does become a bit perfect at times, as a character. But for better or worse, this is run-of-the-mill Parker. Which is not to say I didn't devour it in a couple of hours like I always do, but it's already half gone from my head.

Rating:
Summary: Good suspense, I enjoyed it
Review: This is a great crime fiction yarn . . . it's got all of the intensity of thrillers like The Triumph & Glory and winning characters like you'd find in a John McDonald book . . . great plots twists . . . a unique approach with the gender thing . . . Family Honor was a change of pace from the usual genre titles we see

Rating:
Summary: Parker scores with his first female sleuth as a star
Review: Everyone seems to possess a different handle of what makes Sunny Randle tick. To herself, Sunny simply ends up being a big question mark. She lives alone although she loves her ex-spouse Ritchie deeply. However, her family represents law enforcement while his kin symbolize organized crime. For years, her father has tried to put her ex father-in-law behind bars. She quit the police force, becoming a private investigator. Sunny also works as an artist while attending school part-time.

Brock and Billy Patton hire Sunny to locate and bring home their runaway teenage daughter, Millicent. Though she accepts the case, Sunny senses something is not right within the Patton household. Sunny finds Millicent hooking in Boston, but the adolescent refuses to return to the home of her parents. Unable to desert Millicent to the streets nor force her to go to her parents' home, the kind hearted detective takes her back to her own house. However, two thugs arrive, trying to abduct Millicent. As Sunny protects her new charge, she investigates why there is such a sudden interest in just what seems to be another runaway.

FAMILY HONOR turns out to be Robert B. Parker's first tale starring a female protagonist. Anyone who reads it will think the author has been dabbling with female sleuths for decades. Sunny is a well-rounded individual with a marshmallow heart, an Einstein brain, and a need to do the right thing without hurting anyone(but does not play end for the Cardinals). In spite her being a soft touch, Sunny is tough, which makes her similar in nature to Spencer. Fans of Mr. Parker will relish the tale of a realistic, original, and strong woman starring in a will written who-done-it.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Audio Reading by Andrea Thompson
Review: Andrea Thompson, the pretty actress who was on NYPD BLUE for a season or two, does a worthwhile read.

I just finished it--the abridged audio version--and wanted to send her a compliment.

So this obscure review place will immortally do it.

Her urban voice is pure sexiness, and complements Mr. Parker's intriguing composition.

**The plot is interesting private "pussy" fodder, rather than private "dick" shtick, and Andrea makes this P.I. Sonja Randall voice acting opportunity maximally entertaining.

The novel contains an interesting take on "what is manliness?" and "what is womanliness?"

I would say the uncensored work is appropriate reading for both teenagers and adults

THANKS for the fun fantasy.

**Don't dis me for originating the above un-witticism: I recently heard it in an audio version of a detective novel entitled "Family Honor."

Rating:
Summary: mildly entertaining
Review: Introducing Sunny Randall - tough newly divorced female detective, ready to take on Boston's organized crime, including her ex in-laws, who love her to death. A powerful family asks Sunny to locate their missing teenage daughter, after waiting over a week. Sunny realizes there doesn't seem to be a lot of love in this family. After finding the girl, she wonders whether or not she should return her to the family. Then the real fun begins, trying to discover why the girl ran away. Corruption at the highest levels of Massachusetts politics is not far away, along with kinky family activities.

Rating:
Summary: Not Great
Review: Parker introduces a new character, only she's not new. It's Spenser as a short female PI. She has Spenser's sense of humor, but is deeply imbued with Susan Silverman's consuming self-interest. The woman are all selfish (...). And she spews cliches made popular by the many Spenser books preceding it. Event he story line is merely a rehash of Early Autumn (one of Parker's finest). All in all, a disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Family secrets
Review: Sunny and Richie were married for nine years. They had had a house in Marblehead. Richie refused the house. Sunny wrapped her paintings in order to move her things. Her mother said she was disappointed. Her father offered to help with a divorce or with whatever she needed. Families offer protection to their members. Protection is the theme of Parker's story.

Sunny was a cop, her father was a cop. Richie resembled her father although he came from a crime family. Sunny moved to investigation and then to private investigation. She is hired to find a teenage runaway. The mother seems too perfect. Sunny is pursuing an MFA nights. She still paints and lives in a loft. The missing girl, Millicent, attended a girls school. The school provided a classical education. Millicent had been missing for ten days. At the school she had no friends, no interests, no achievements.

Sunny discovered that Millicent had been to a youth shelter. The person running the shelter said that the kids seemed to have equal measures of defiance and guilt. Sunny needs her ex-husband's help to get her into areas of activity to find Millicent, (Milly). Sunny finds the girl through the connections that Richie Burke makes available to her. Since Milly isn't talking convincingly, Sunny has the the girl move in with her.

It develops that others are looking for the girl. They have to go to the mattresses and move to a friend's apartment in the South End. An interesting subtext in the story is that families teach its members how to function, and that no one seems to have taken any time to teach Milly how to function.

Parker writes that in Boston organized crime is an oxymoron. There are loose groups. When Sunny returns to her loft, she finds that it had been tossed. The insurance company sends a clean up team to the loft. Sunny is able to identify her primary interest as keeping the girl safe. Through the intervention of Richie Sunny could return to her loft and begin to solve the mystery. This is a strong and enjoyable effort by Robert Parker, writing from his strengths such as knowledge of the Boston environs and police networking.