Family Honor (Sunny Randall)
by Robert B. Parker
List Price:
Our Price: $4.87
You Save: $5.12 (51%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Robert B. ParkerEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-11-01
ISBN: 0425177068
Number of pages: 338
Publisher: Berkley
Book Reviews of Family Honor (Sunny Randall)
Book Review: "You Wouldn't Understand," she said - Rachel Wallace. This novel is Spenser's Reply.
Summary: 5 Stars
FAMILY HONOR lived up to its title as the pilot for this delightful series which felt at first like Spenser was toning himself into a female roar heard round the literary arena, while extending his slant on gangster Vs cop family backgrounds (in which neither is all bad or all good) in this Juliet and Romeo romance.
I hadn't thought I'd be able to get into a female private eye series by Parker, especially after having become addicted to his 34 Spenser novels. But FAMILY HONOR was a perfect appetizer with appealing percolation. I don't doubt that Parker can carry both his new series (see my review of NIGHT PASSAGE, Jesse Stone # 1).
It didn't take more than a few chapters for Sunny to split off from the long-wrought, well-writ Spenser mystique and into her own, as a full character... maybe with Spenser speaking into her ear as an angel from an alternate reality, for a while. I enjoyed the slips connecting to Spenser, i.e., how Sunny might deal with a particular hairy situation if she were a 200 pound, male boxer. In humorous yet realistic contrast to Spenser and Hawk types, Parker dramatized what a small female can do to compensate for not being a testy, taut, towering gorilla-with-gonads, in a plot which will had me smiling. I'm excited about this series; I enjoyed the upbeat feeling of this first offering in it. I relished hearing Randall use Spenser's trademark words in dialogue, like "some more" and "eek."
Reading the first few chapters of FAMILY HONOR I kept seeing Spenser in high heels, noting how uncomfortable they were, and wondering where/how to effectively house a big enough gun on a 115 lb, 5'4" body... as he seemed to be having great fun adapting to this recent female incarnation, shaking out the form and personality. Of course, that image alone got me grinning. By the time the intense ending called up, I was liking Sunny Randall every bit as much as Kinsey Millhone (Sue Grafton's P. I.).
For this unique pilot, Parker designed a stylish, italicized prologue in third person observation of Sunny and Rosie, accomplishing an artistic, literary feel, giving a light-touch, sensitive contrast to chapter one opening into a first person narrative style with Sunny telling her own story in the classic private eye genre mode.
The included cultural icons of cooking, dress, habits, and thinking were precisely on target with the copyright date of 1999, when the Great Chefs TV episodes were running hot and heavy, with their long-handled saute pans being shook (contents were no longer stirred on TV) above gas-lit burners on commercial grade stoves, featuring Spike, Sunny's gay, tough-guy chef friend.
The plot here gave hints of EARLY AUTUMN (# 7 Spenser) and CEREMONY (# 9 Spenser) as Sunny took in a young teen, Millicent Patton, runaway, hooking daughter of her clients. Enlightening entertainment was easily obtained through Sunny's ways of dealing with and drawing out this young human lost in the sump and shrug of a lack of love.
A few quirky questions came to mind as I began reading this novel:
What might Rachel Wallace (# 6 SPENSER, Looking for Rachel Wallace) say about Spenser's (Parker's) ability to understand being female, if she were to read FAMILY HONOR. And what would she think about macho if she had read all 34 Spenser novels. Can novels help us understand that which we would have to stretch outside our bodies and into another form to get? I'd say they can, especially if penned by Parker.
Rachel Wallace may have to give the gauntlet on this one. Spenser understands.
Yet... can testosterone ever fully comprehend powerlessness...
Maybe any person who has ever been depressed, grieved loss of a loved one, or desperately wanted something he couldn't have, for whatever reason, has the capacity to comprehend the initial feeling of hopelessness which sometimes comes at those times of leached strength and slow coming answers. We each have a spirit, though, which seems to believe that morning comes daily. Parker has made a good case that sunny weather can dog the footsteps of storms.
Linda Shelnutt
Literature & Fiction Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Literature & Fiction Books
Little Womenby Louisa May Alcott
Scribner; Published: 1986-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
The Killing Groundby JACK HIGGINS
HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS LTD; Published: 2007; Hardcover; Book
Saving Fish from Drowningby Amy Tan
4th Estate; Published: 2005; Paperback; Book
Life Expectancyby Dean Koontz
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2005-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.00
Constant Princessby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster; Published: 2005; Hardcover; Book
Wolf of the Plains (Conqueror, Book 1)by Conn Iggulden
Harper; Published: 2007; Paperback; Book
Saharaby Clive Cussler
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2005-03-21; Paperback; Book
Perelandra (Cosmic Trilogy)by C. S. Lewis
Voyager; Published: 2005-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.64
Price in other shops:
The Lord Of The Rings: Part 2 The Two Towersby J. R. R. Tolkien
Harper Collins Publishers; Published: 2001; Paperback; Book
Red Marsby Kim Stanley Robinson
Trafalgar Square; Published: 2001-06; Paperback; Book
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Sea Change (Jesse Stone Novels)by Robert B. Parker
Berkley; Published: 2007-03-06; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.50
Price in other shops:
Spare Change (Sunny Randall)by Robert B. Parker
Berkley; Published: 2008-06-03; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.35
Price in other shops:
High Profile (Jesse Stone)by Robert B. Parker
Berkley; Published: 2008-03-04; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
Split Image (Jesse Stone)by Robert B. Parker
Berkley; Published: 2011-02-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.79
Price in other shops:
Shrink Rap (Sunny Randall)by Robert B. Parker
Berkley; Published: 2010-05-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.12
Price in other shops:
Melancholy Baby (Sunny Randall)by Robert B. Parker
Berkley; Published: 2005-10-04; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.66
Price in other shops:
Perish Twice (Sunny Randall)by Robert B. Parker
Berkley; Published: 2001-11-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.28
Price in other shops:
Night Passage (Jesse Stone Novels)by Robert B. Parker
Berkley; Published: 2001-07-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.37
Price in other shops:
Spare Change (Sunny Randall Novels)by Robert B. Parker
Putnam Adult; Published: 2007-06-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.95
Price in other shops:
Blue Screen (Sunny Randall)by Robert B. Parker
Berkley; Published: 2007-06-05; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops: