Melancholy Baby

Parker is amazing. How can an author have 4 series going at once and always deliver books worth reading? True, some are stronger than others....but there's not a "clunker" in the lot. And Melancoly Baby puts the Sunny Randall series in a special class. Sunny Randall is a female Boston PI who in her private life is a painter devoted to her bull terrier and her ex-husband...complex, likeable, competant and attractive. Melancoly Baby starts with a trust-fund baby who doubts her parentage and hires Sunny to find out who her parents really are. The case escalates to intimidation and then murder. The characters are well developed with an economy of words. And Parker makes it more fun yet by involving in a believable way some of the Spencer characters. If you like a mystery but also want characters with interest and intelligence, you will love Melancoly Baby.

Sunny's pretty neat. If you're reading her, quite possibly you have previously been immersed in Susan Silverman's boyfriend's story, old whats-his-name. I used to think that Sunny was just a cop turned detective and was about to emulate all of those virile manly charms on a female frame. I guess that means I ought to call 1-800-IMASEXISTINDENIAL or arrange for an appointment with Dr. Silverman. In any event, Sunny's her own man . . . .errrr, person. In the early chapters we come face to face with her former husband, Ritchie, re-marrying and the crushing weight that falls on her heart. And like her self directed questioning, we want to know why should this be a problem? He was there for five years; he'll still be there. You weren't going to marry him then; you're not going to marry him now. Sure it hurts. Next. Then we get to meet Sarah Markham, the criminal issue at the center of "Melancholy Baby," nearly as emotionally repulsive a character as Paul G. was in the early Parkers. Very subtle move Professor Parker. Deft. Cunning. Will Sarah show up again? Will she stop chain smoking for God's sake? And in the search for psychic retribution for Sarah, we gain some insight into Sunny. We sense the courage it takes her to listen to the loving advice from Spike, a Hawk-like character from the other side of the Church, that she must seek psychological help, and she then returns to Dr. Copeland. Dr. Copeland listens to her rant and rave and snivel, and then tells her . . . . he's retiring. He refers her to a Phd. in Cambridge (did you guys see this coming?) who is Dr. Silverman. Again, kudos to Parker, because it gives Susan a depth we rarely see when she's just what's his name's girlfriend. Then she's on the same playing field as Belson, Hawk, Marcus, Hawk's plethora of women friends. Now she's a central figure and we learn from Sunny's admiration of her. Anyhow, a very well written book. I suppose eventually the meeting between the two major Parker characters must take place. I hope not. Sunny is a certain style of person, he's different. When I've seen it done in the past, (Michael Connely) it hasn't necessarily been seamless. The only thing I might have held back was Sunny's age. You never know how a character will take off. At some point it might be hard to imagine her fighting crime with a winsome smile and great legs at the age of 57. Nevertheless, a hard 5 stars. Larry Scantlebury

I have to admit I have not cared too much for Robert Parker's Sunny Randall novels because she seemed like a female version of Spenser. This offering is an exception and is the first of this series that I have enjoyed. Here Parker finally gives Sunny a personality and character of her own. I read a comment in a Washington Post Book Review of this novel that said Parker can tell you more about a character in a few sentences of dialogue than any other author. And that is certainly true here. This fast paced novel built on the clipped dialogue Parker is known for is masterful in characterization and storytelling. Two stories run through this novel. Sunny's ex-husband Richie gets married which throws her into a pique of melancholy (thus the title) because she loves her ex-husband, but she finds she can't be married to him or live with him. As a result she sees a shrink - none other than our own Susan Silverman of Spenser fame. At the same time Sunny is on a very odd case. An obviously dysfunctional 19 year old, Sarah Markham, hires Sunny to find out who her real parents are. The catch is - her current parents insist she is their natural child. As Sunny starts digging into the matter nefarious characters assault Sarah and threaten Sunny so she'll drop the case. Both story lines play themselves out side by side as we learn what really make Sunny tick. This is an excellent mystery novel as well as excellent in establishing Sunny as a character in her own right apart from the Spenser cannon that so many Parker fans will inevitably compare it to. Parker fans should certainly enjoy this novel.

Boston private detective Sunny Randall goes into an emotional tailspin when her ex-husband Richie tells her that he is getting remarried. Even though she divorced him she never stopped loving him. She just couldn't be married or live anyone else except her bullterrier Rosie. Unable to cope with the pain of Richie's remarriage, Sunny visits psychiatrist Dr. Susan Silverman. Although she doesn't know it, Susan is the girlfriend of the famous Spencer. Needing something to occupy herself, Sunny takes on the case of Sarah Markham, a twenty year old college student, who wants her to find out who her real parents are. When Sunny talks to the Markhams they insist that they are Sarah's real parents; Sunny catches the husband in a lie about where he worked when Sarah was conceived. Two thugs beat up Sarah, telling her to drop the investigation or else. The same musclemen come after Sunny who meets them with her gun and some backup. The information she gets from these two goons leads her to the people who hired them. By the time the case is finished, two men are dead, one person is going to prison, Sarah learns who her biological mother is and Sunny is beginning to understand her fears of marriage. Robert B. Parker's Sunny Randall series is not a female version of Spenser. She is a troubled woman who seeks help to regain her mental health as s she shows her emotions more than Spenser does and her methods of investigation are quite different as is her circle of friends. MELANCHOLY BABY is one of the author's best works with its stark prose, eccentric cast and a climax it is impossible not to love.

CAVEAT: if you are looking for a mystery laden straightforward detective story filled with surprising twists, in all likelihood this will be only a two star story for you. Furthermore, if you have not previously read some of Robert Parker's books, don't start with this one. While sufficient background information is interwoven into the story to make it work as a standalone novel, any potential reader has the advantage that despite Parker's approximately fifty books in print, this is only the fourth book in the recently created Sunny (Sonya) Randall series. Thus, given the fact that all Parker's books are incredibly fast reads, it makes sense to start with FAMILY HONOR and meet Sunny's friends, family, and bull terrier Rosie as her cases and the complications of her life unfold. New readers will miss some of the crossover references to the Spenser series in this book, but even many longtime Spenser fans such as myself, the task of reading all the early books in that series (which is responsible for the legion of readers that he has today) is still incomplete. But for me, this is the most enjoyable Sunny Randall book to date. The plot is simplicity itself, Sarah Markham (a college student) is referred to Sunny because Sarah has become increasingly convinced that the couple who have raised her are not her parents. (While they are adamant that she is her daughter they refuse to submit to a DNA test for "religious reasons" and out of privacy concerns.) Sonny has just been notified by Ritchie, her ex-husband, that given Sonny's reluctance to remarry (anyone -she still loves him) and have children, he is about to marry another woman. Thus, Sarah's case provides a possible distraction for Sunny as she attempts to sort out why she is still so psychologically conflicted about her personal relationships at thirty seven years of age. As soon as Sunny starts detecting (no more an unusual word than Sunny's use of the adjective the griefy or describing her therapy as shrinkage), she realizes what an emotional cripple Sarah is and how totally weird her parents are. Thus, the stage is set. Repairing Sarah's life will be juxtaposed with Sunny's attempt to repair her own. (The plot is simple but the storyline complex.) Of course, violence soon erupts, and the case becomes the standard Parker detective procedural, heavy on the character relationships rather than the plot. But even for Parker, this plot is thin and the question is how the story will be resolved, not the mystery of Sarah's parentage. Of course, there are the usual few homicides, just to up the stakes and inject an element of physical danger as well as mystery and psychological stress. In addition to Ritchie's brief appearance but central importance both to the story and also to Sunny's future, Spike is once again an important supporting actor and Tony Marcus makes a cameo appearance. During one of Sunny's visits to NYC, series newcomer Detective Sal Corsetti suddenly assumes a key role in the case,