"strong crime thriller"

When a person sees Sunny Randall for the first time, the individual thinks "cute and perky". However, Sunny is a private detective with a spine of steel and she's not afraid to use the gun she's permitted to carry.

Psychiatrist Dr. John Melvin is stalking romance author Melanie Joan Hall, so while she is going on a book tour she hires Sunny to be her bodyguard.

While on tour, the two women see Dr. Melvin many times but are helpless to do anything about it. Melanie Jones starts confiding in Sunny and the private detective realizes the stalker is committing actual crimes against his patients. Determined to put him away Sunny poses as his patient and sets herself up as bait.

Robert B. Parker, the author of the famous Spenser series, creates a totally new series using a different voice when he writes about Sunny Randall. In SHRINK RAP, although the reader knows what is going to happen, the fun is in watching a twisted and evil person get his comeuppance. This crime thriller is heading for the bestseller lists.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted August 7, 2002

Summary

Melanie Joan Hall is a bestselling author in a bind. Her publisher needs her to tour on behalf of her newest blockbuster, and Melanie Joan needs a bodyguard-cum-escort to protect her from an overbearing ex-husband whose presence unnerves her to the point of hysteria. Sunny's cool demeanor, cop background, and P.I. smarts are an instant balm for the older woman. She begins to sense that Melanie Joan's ex-a psychotherapist-is not your basic stalker, and when an incident at a book signing leaves the ex bloodied and the author unconscious, it's clear the stakes are high. Deciding that the only way to crack the case is from the inside, Sunny enters therapy herself, only to discover some disturbing truths about herself . . . while putting her life on the line. Gripping, nuanced, and filled with Parker's signature dialogue and psychological insight, Shrink Rap is a winner.