Rating: 
Summary: Spenser had a Sex Change
Review: Okay, all true Parker fans know that he only knows how to write a couple kinds of characters. So I expected Sunny Randall to act and sound a lot like Spenser (and Jesse Stone, and Philip Marlowe in Parker's rendition of Raymond Chandler). I also expected a Hawk-like character; no one is fooled by the fact that Spike is white and gay. If that had been the only problem with this book, it would have been okay - Spenser and Hawk aren't bad characters to repeat. But the mystery was disappointing. Why is it assumed that all 15-year-old girls who run away from home are hooking? Or that her parents are to blame? Sunny takes these facts for granted, and it spoils the book's believability. Does anyone else recall poor April Kyle, rescued by Spenser in two different novels? Hey - maybe Sunny read those books too. Maybe they're required reading for a PI license in Boston. Come on, Mr. Parker - show us some imagination. We all believe you have one.
Rating: 
Summary: want my money back
Review: Parker's dedication was, I concentrated on you Joan. He should concentrate on his writing. The computer enables fast editing and that is all he does. Sunny and Spenser are the same, just cross dressing the characters. Of course the gay guy is Hawk in a nice suit, and all the bad guys are the same. I bought the paperback for a flight home and was wishing for the plane to crash before I choked down another boring, boring page of the same old Parker has been doing for the past twenty years. What is worse are all the glowing reviews from the paid of reviewers.
Rating: 
Summary: Big disappointment for a Parker fan!
Review: I'm sorry, but this is the worst Robert B. Parker novel I have ever read! I am sorry that I spent the money on the paperback. I loved the Spenser novels, I even loved Night Passage with Jesse Stone, but this book was pedestrian, right from the start. The dialogue was so predictable, I could practically guess what Sunny was going to say. The characters were underdeveloped with no real depth. There was no thrill or excitement at the end of the book, like in the rest of Mr. Parker's novels. All I know is that I will be getting the next book he writes from the library!
Rating:
Summary: A female Spenser.
Review: It seems to me that all Parker did was give Spenser a sex change operation and name him/her Sonny. Save your money. The best thing about this book is the dog, Rosie, at least she's the one that Parker talks about the most. Give me Spenser, anyday.
Rating: 
Summary: Spenser as played by Helen Hunt
Review: It read like a merger between the Spenser novels "Early Autumn" and "Ceremony," (especially the TV movie adaptation of "Ceremony" Lifetime did a few years back, since Spike sounds like the same one in the aforementioned TV movie) but spun it around by making Spenser a short blonde woman who only got into the business to pay the bills between painting sales. Setting it in the same universe as Spenser and Jesse Stone did make it entertaining, and made me wonder if Parker'll ever do a crossover between all three.
Rating:
Summary: Like one of the better old Spenser novels
Review: Robert B. Parker 's Spenser novels have gotten stuck in a rut, a result of needing to keep the storylines consistent with the characters' past history. I continue to read them avidly, but they seem a little stale.All he has done here is to keep the same basic cast characters but change their names, genders, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. This simple gimmick actually works quite well. "Family Honor" reads and feels just like a Spenser novel--a fresh, rejuvenated Spenser novel, like the ones he was writing a decade ago. It's like seeing the same group of actors in a new sitcom after a few too many years of seeing them in the old one.
Rating: 
Summary: So what?
Review: Okay, ditto on the Spencer/Stone/Parker fan interested to see how he handles a female heroine. Okay, ditto on the similarities between Spencer/Sunny, right down to the dog. But to it all I say a resounding so what? By the end of the book, I was so interested and attached to Sunny, Richie, Spike, Brian, Millicent, and ever her mother, I didn't care! So, write on, Robert (all puns intended)! Long may you type!!
Rating:
Summary: A "Sunny" forecast for this new character
Review: I must be the only person in New England who never read a Spencer novel or watched the TV show, Spencer For Hire. It clearly is my loss if this book which introduces the character Sunny Randall, PI is any judge of things. I picked up the book while on vacation - literally. It was left in our room for future guests to enjoy and it may be as perfect a "beach read" as I have seen in some time. If you don't break for lunch (or maybe even if you do)you will finish the 322 pages of this book before dinner. You will enjoy the reparte between the characters, you will wonder why Meredith Patton, age 15, is so determined to run away from a home that would seem to offer wealth and security, you will fall in love with a dog named Rosie and you will quickly figure out that you should not underestimate or mess with Ms. Sunny Randall. I shall have to try out some of the Spencer novels to see if they are as enjoyable. I am very optimistic.
Rating:
Summary: A female Spenser? I could only have hoped ...
Review: I love the Spenser series, so I had high hopes when I picked this up. In many ways, it's a little too similar to Spenser. A female private eye, in Boston, knows the good guys, knows the bad guys. She's got a male sidekick who works in the Hawk role, and there's even a Susan-alike too. And a dog. So what's wrong? Well, so much for a female role model. She comments on the decorating of a room. She moans about ponies at parties. She moans about why Tony Marcus won't go take care of things for her ... she's told 80 quadrillion times that the girl is hooking and POOF of course she is. *sigh* My boyfriend had three words: "I hate it." I tried to be open minded. I didn't mind the Paradise novels. It's good to get a different take on things, even if everything REEKS of Spenser and is set in the same universe. But REALLY! She's always going "I'm independant. I can stand on my own. Hey, ex-hubby, can you talk to people for me? I can't seem to find a girl in one town even though I'm convinced she's hooking. Hey, Tony, why won't you just give her to me? I don't care if your employee has her and is making money. I feel it is Only Right that you hand her over just Because." ARRRGGGHHHHH. The writing is excellent. The characters and location are great. It's the minor plot flaws, and the huge character flaws, that bug me on this one.
Rating:
Summary: Brave try
Review: A good effort by Parker but not as well executed as his other books featuring non-Spenser characters. Jesse Stone, by comparison, really seems like his own man. Maybe it's the Boston setting (complete with Spenser super pimp Tony Marcus) but I kept thinking I was reading a Spenser novel with occasional mind blows about skirt-wearing and diatribes on how hard it was to carry a gun if you weigh 115 pounds. - rob
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