Perish Twice (Sunny Randall)
by Robert B. Parker
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Book Summary Information
Author: Robert B. ParkerEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-11-01
ISBN: 0425182150
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Berkley
Book Reviews of Perish Twice (Sunny Randall)
Book Review: High Heels Hang Out. Three Limbs Crack. Reading Spice.
Summary: 5 Stars
Having sped through the first 4 chapters of PERISH TWICE, # 2 in Parker's Sunny Randall series, I forced a pause. I had intended to read only a couple paragraphs, as I usually do for a treat when receiving new books from Amazon. Finishing the first couple paragraphs, I said, "Just a couple more." I don't know where I forgot my promise. All I know was I didn't quit reading. Each time I paused, "... few more paragraphs."
Periodically I surfaced to notice how the book was holding me captive. With that awareness percolating, I began itching to open a PC file for review notes, to avoid losing some of my thoughts about how Sunny's snarky voice and approach to problems relentlessly re-kidnaped my focus.
Beginning chapter 5, I remembered the paperback back flap describing Sunny aiding three women, one business, one friendship, the other family. The family rescue was set up in the first 4 chapters. Sunny's sister Elizabeth had stopped by Sunny's loft, quickly snagging my attention with her puzzling, unappealing stupidity, in diametric contrast to Sunny, and as evidenced by Rosie's response to Elizabeth's self-centeredness reigning as the "Queen of doesn't get it" (quoting Elizabeth's Ivy League husband, Hal Reagan). It seemed like nothing in the universe could rescue Elizabeth from stuck prissiness... except, possibly, to get a nickname like "Bunny"? (Her new job as an divorced, single woman could be a high class call girl working for Xavier, specializing in handling Ivy League men.)
I craved to keep reading until I came naturally to a point at which I actually wanted to take a break and do something else (lots of else's needed doing). Maybe if I paused to type a few first reading responses, I'd be okay with allowing a full fall into PERISH TWICE.
Was I fighting perishing twice myself? First in fire, then in ice, per the Robert Frost poem prefacing the plot. To make sense out of that question, read Parker's dedication to Joan in this one, along with the opening lines from Frost.
Was Sunny fire; Elizabeth ice? I was hoping that Sunny could pull a Spenser and save Elizabeth, even though the first few chapters made a logic-tight case against the ice thawing, and retaining anything of a self beyond an amorphous puddle of stagnant fluid.
To think there would be two more female issues Sunny would be juggling in this plot knot. I was there.
Okay, enough. Don't be Elizabeth. Get it.
After writing this much of a first draft for a review, I got myself immediately back to reading. This book was too good to get out of, and too good to avoid pausing to explain why.
What about the aid Sunny provided for friendship and business? What entertaining contrasts of female angst those provided to the corruption of Elizabeth's stagnation. Julie's marriage shakedown temporarily took away her professional aura as an MSW and sanctioned a space for a short journey into insanity. A hard core feminist hired Sunny to stop a stalker. The situation trilogy was woven together with the perfection of a master of the relationship game as it played out into murder and pleas of insanity, hot and cold. Sunny sweats to get the acts on track in a cool "Who done what to whom." And, of course, we get bonus hints on "why."
Was Frost somehow prescient of mother earth juggling an Ice Age with a hot house to improve the human temperature? Is the big SHE using that puzzling contrast to help humans see she knows her job? But, is she a good mother, Sunny might want to know.
How might enigmatic Tony Marcus have answered that, as he fanned the flames of a fascinating role in PERISH TWICE. At a prime plot point, Sunny sagely observed, "Tony didn't seem to want to hear my theories of love, anger, and ambivalence. In truth I didn't either." But, I was compelled to read them... laughing heartily here and there. I'm thanking God (Goddess?) that Robert B. Parker understands, to a large degree, what it's like to be a woman (even if he doesn't relish walking in high heels).
Respectfully Submitted,
Linda Shelnutt
Author of several Kindle books and Amazon Shorts, including:
Molasses Moon
Myrtle's Ultimate Mystery
Full Moon Rising (The Books of Gem)
Summary of Perish Twice (Sunny Randall)
Spenser creator Robert B. Parker returns with his newest heroine, Boston P.I. Sunny Randall, coming to the aid of three very different women in three very dangerous situations. One is for business. One is for a friend. One is for family. And all could be fatal?
What mystery fan hasn't heard by now that Robert B. Parker created his Sunny Randall series expressly for good friend Helen Hunt, with an eye toward the actress playing the petite blonde investigator on the silver screen? Although the series has been touted as a radical departure for Parker (a woman in the lead, by gum!), so strongly do Boston PI Sunny and her cohorts resemble Boston PI Spenser and his pals that the movie's casting director might prefer a blond-wigged Robert Urich. But Parker's quick quips, droll wit, and staccato dialogue are all on display in the latest Randall novel, Perish Twice, so in spite of the reworked characters, there's still plenty to enjoy.
When radical feminist Mary Lou Goddard hires Sunny to protect her from a stalker, Sunny accepts the case with some reluctance. After all, Goddard detests Rosie, Sunny's bull terrier, canine vacuum, and stakeout companion ("Rosie was in the passenger seat, staring out the side window, alert for the appearance of a strange dog at whom she could gargle ferociously."). It doesn't take Sunny long to track down and confront Lawrence Reeves, a particularly pestilential human being. But pestilence is no excuse for murder, so when Reeves and Gretchen Crane, one of Goddard's colleagues, are both found dead, Sunny dives into the murky waters of Boston's prostitution industry, where Reeves was a client and Gretchen was trying to unionize the workers. Politics and sexuality can be a nasty tangle, and the unraveling threads lead straight to mobster Tony Marcus's door. Tony may appreciate Sunny's sharp wit, but business is business: interference can--and does--lead to a bullet with her name on it. And as if all of this weren't enough, Sunny's sister and her best friend are in the throes of nasty divorces. Luckily, the leap from PI to marital counselor is well within Sunny's abilities.
While there's no doubt that rabid Parker fans will snap up anything the author turns out (and with reason), Perish Twice may be more appealing to new readers, for whom Sunny's charm will carry none of the uneasy echoes of private investigators past. --Kelly Flynn
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