Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsParker just doesn't get Females
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 10, 2000
I *love* the Spenser series and love Parker's writing style in general. That makes it very difficult for me to understand how he can fail in his two Sunny Randall stories. The first one was pretty bad. If possible, this one is even worse.
Sunny is a short blonde PI whose ex-hubby's family are into crime. She has a female shrink pal (a la Susan), a tough male friend (a la Hawk) and just about the same contacts as Spenser does. I could forgive all that. It's the way Parker writes female characters that really irks me, and the inane plots he puts her through.
Let's see. In the first chapter Sunny's sister is berating crazy Jew shrinks (hmmmmmm) and she manages to catch the sis' hubby cheating the very first day, the very first time. Not only that, but plot flaws give her omniscient powers at times. We can forgive those, perhaps they were sly comments on womanhood and the Spenser history.
Sunny finds it strange that a woman who is researching prostitutes would talk to a vice cop. We have the whole "Oh, I love you but I can't live with you, isn't this perfect" situation. We have the old "I caught you and now must decide what is morally correct to do about it" situation. This starts to get tedious.
Two of the women she deals with need men in different ways - one to take care of her and one for pleasure. Another doesn't like her home situation and decides to run around with men instead. Sunny doesn't want to turn to men, but in the end ends up completely turning to men to both get to talk to someone and then to fall in their arms and cry afterwards! For a book that you would hope promotes a female's ability to be an individual, it falls flat on its face.
The plot had so much potential. There were mixed sexualities, mixed races, mixed relationships, you name it. I kept hoping for something to shine through, but it didn't. Sunny kept telling everyone that they were in a 'crazy time' and that they shouldn't do anything permanent until they got through it. I can only hope that Parker will concentrate on Spenser from now on, and give us the fantastic writing he is so well known for.
