Product Description

THE THIRD AND LATEST SUNNY RANDALL MYSTERY Melanie Joan Hall is a best-selling author in a bind. Her publisher needs her to tour on behalf of her newest blockbuster, and Melanie Joan needs a bodyguard-cum-escort to protect her from an overbearing ex-husband whose presence unnerves her to the point of hysteria. Sunny's cool demeanour, cop background, and P.I. smarts are an instant balm for the older woman. She begins to sense that Melanie Joan's ex-a psychotherapist-is not your basic stalker, and when an incident at a book signing leaves the ex bloodied and the author unconscious, it's clear the stakes are high. Deciding that the only way to crack the case is from the inside, Sunny enters therapy herself, only to discover some disturbing truths about herself...while putting her life on the line.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1688370 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Amazon.com
Boston PI Sunny Randall is the daughter Robert Parker's series hero Spenser and his inamorata, Susan Silverman, might have had if they weren't so busy parenting Pearl the Wonder Dog. Like Spenser, Sunny is smart, tough, and fearless; like Susan, she's sexy, droll, and vulnerable; and like Pearl, Sunny's pit bull, Rosie, is the only character who's wise enough to hide when trouble comes knocking at the door. In Shrink Rap, Sunny's working as a bodyguard for a famous romance writer who's being stalked by her ex-husband, a psychiatrist engaged in extremely unprofessional conduct with his female patients. To get the goods on Dr. John Melvin, Sunny goes undercover as a vulnerable divorcée, which isn't that far from the truth; simultaneously, she's also seeing another therapist, who's supposed to be coaching her for her undercover role but is also helping her understand her troubled relationships with men. It's a clever device, and Parker makes the most of it in this spare, smart, swiftly paced mystery, one of Parker's best in recent years. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly
As if responding to his new status as an MWA Grand Master, Parker turns in his strongest mystery in years with Boston PI Sunny Randall's third outing (after Family Honor and Perish Twice), a particular relief after this spring's flaccid Spenser offering, Widow's Walk. The setup lacks originality Sunny is hired to bodyguard a bestselling author, Melanie Joan Hall, who pens "high-end bodice rippers," just as years ago in Stardust, Spenser was hired to bodyguard a famous TV newscaster but by focusing on an author's plight during her book tour, Parker writes about experiences close to his own, delivering sharp portraits of publishing types and fans. Melanie Joan's former husband, John Melvin, a psychopathic psychiatrist, is stalking her. To learn about and discredit him, Sunny consults another psychiatrist, then enters incognito into therapy with Melvin, which adds tremendous resonance to the narrative as, inadvertently, she must confront her own neuroses during sessions, complexes involving her relationships with her parents and estranged husband. Soon Sunny sniffs out that Melvin has been raping and, occasionally, killing members of his all-female clientele by injecting them with a date rape drug. To nab Melvin, she submits to his using the drug on her, in an intense finale. With layers of psychological revelation, plenty of action, the welcome return of Sunny's supporting crew (most notably Spike, a gay counterpart to Spenser's Hawk) and, as usual, prose as tight as a drumhead, this is grade-A Parker.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Mystery Grand Master Parker delivers another fun read in his third Sunny Randall novel (after Perish Twice and Family Honor). Romance novelist Melanie Joan Hall needs help. She is about to start a book tour but is frightened of her ex-husband, psychiatrist John Melvin, who is stalking her. P.I. Sunny Randall, also divorced and with her own problems never far from her mind, is hired to be her bodyguard. Melvin's clients are all wealthy women, and no one wants to talk about what he does with them, not even when two wind up dead under suspicious circumstances. To find out what Melvin's up to, Sunny disguises herself and becomes his patient, putting herself in harm's way while probing the secret recesses of her own psyche. This is a novel of sly wit (evident also in the title), heavy on dialog and short on descriptive or narrative prose. But the effect is to hurtle the reader toward the climax, with a fine sense of ever-increasing danger. Fans will enjoy the crisp dialog, Sunny's investigations of her mind, and the matching of wits with a truly frightening villain. Highly recommended for all mystery collections. Ronnie H. Terpening, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.