Robert B. Parker is known for his Spenser novels. He also has a new series that features police chief Jesse Stone. Now he has a brand new person for his readers to meet. Her name is Sunny Randall and she is a Boston P.I. Sunny's debut is in the novel Family Honor. The book was published by G.P. Putnam's Sons.

Sunny Randall is not your common private detective. She once was on the police force. Her father was a police officer as well before he retired. Sunny also used to be married to Richie Burke. It seems that Richie's father and uncles are all in the criminal arena. Sunny's dad spent a good part of his career trying to put Richie's father is jail. Richie is a simple saloon owner, or so he says.

Sunny gets a case where a teen-age girl has run away from home. Millicent Patton is your typical rich teenager. She goes to a private school and has a therapist. She seemingly doesn't have any major problems. That is according to her parents, Brock and Betty Patton. Brock seems self-assured and thinks he's a ladies man. Betty is somewhat aloof, not liking the situation too much. They both want Millicent found and brought home to them. It seems that Brock has political aspirations and this thing with Millicent could become an embarrassment.

It doesn't take Sunny long to find Millicent. Most girls that run away usually either end up in a shelter or on the streets, hooking. Sunny reaches out to her friend Spike to help find Millicent. Spike is big, bad and gay. Together they determine that Millicent is probably hooking for a local pimp, Pharaoh Fox. Sunny uses Richie's family ties to get Fox's boss to allow her to retrieve Millicent from him. Pharaoh doesn't want Millicent to go and Sunny almost has to shoot him in order to get the girl away.

Sunny puts Millicent up in her loft apartment. There is something definitely wrong in the Patton household for Millicent to have run away. Sunny intends to find out what that something is before she will allow Millicent to go home. Two men come to the loft and try to kill Sunny and the girl. Sunny kills one of them and the other gets arrested. Why did they want to kill Millicent?

Sunny follows down leads and tries to keep Millicent safe. She is able to get Millicent to tell her what is going on. It seems that Millicent may have overheard a murder plot. If that was true, then the men who tried to kill her were probably sent by one of the people involved in the plot.

As Sunny gets more into the case, she finds that the Brocks haves some unusual habits and some dark secrets. Does she really want to put Millicent back into that environment? And will she be able to keep Millicent out of harm's way? Sunny seems to be on a collision course with Millicent's future. She wants to keep Millicent safe and put the conspirator's in jail.

Family Honor is a surprising new novel by master storyteller Robert B. Parker. I think that Sunny Randall will be making other appearances on the bookshelves. At least I hope so.

Copyright © 2000 Bruce E. Von Stiers