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'Shrink Rap' by Robert B. Parker

Parker's latest Sunny Randall mystery is a gripping read

Sunday, August 25, 2002

By Robert Croan, Post-Gazette Senior Editor

	Shrink Rap By Robert B. Parker Putnam $24.95

As it happens, Spenser is alive and well today, co-existing in the world of fiction with his female counterpart and one or two other fictional heroes, too.

Randall and Spenser have a lot in common beyond their shared Boston milieu. She’s a cultured tough girl; Spenser is a self-educated macho man who cooks magnificently and has a heart of gold.

She has an ex-husband, Richie (whose family happens to be “connected”), and a miniature English bull terrier, Rosie, whom they still share; Spenser’s part-time pooch belongs to his psychotherapist girlfriend, Susan.

Sunny has a gay strong man sidekick who is as threatening (to the bad guys) as Spenser’s Hawk. A major difference is that Sunny -- divorced -- is allowed to sleep with other men, even if she still is pining for her ex-husband.

Spenser is too virtuous even to consider being unfaithful, but Parker’s updated middle-class morality pervades both series.

So does the author’s terse, gripping writing style. And so it is in his latest Randall story. The situations may seem obvious, the plot thin, but it’s impossible to put the book down from the opening paragraph to the sassy conclusion.

When the story begins, Sunny and Richie are having lunch, transferring the loving words meant for each other to the dog. When he tells Sunny that he is considering marriage to a woman he’s been seeing, she’s devastated.

Then business matters take over. Sunny has a serious lunch with Melanie Joan Hall, a superstar author of romance novels. Sunny is going on tour -- only to places that don’t require flying, thanks to Sept. 11 -- and she wants a driver who will double as her bodyguard.

It seems Melanie has an ex-husband who is stalking her. The ex is a wealthy Boston psychiatrist named John Melvin, whose clientele are all beautiful women. Melanie herself was once one of his patients.

However, it turns out that what Melvin does when the ladies are on the couch goes far beyond talking. When Melanie realized the extent of her husband’s sexual deviations, she ran out and never went back. But Melvin will not let her go, and Sunny soon learns how dangerous he can be.

There’s a buddy story intertwined with the slim mystery plot, and it’s really quite gripping. Much of the tale is as touching as it is suspenseful, and the harrowing climactic scene is amusing despite the cardboard violence.