[.ca] Shrink Rap (ISBN 1842430750)

From Amazon.com:
Boston PI Sunny Randall is the daughter Robert Parker's series hero Spenser and his inamorata, Susan Silverman, might have had if they weren't so busy parenting Pearl the Wonder Dog. Like Spenser, Sunny is smart, tough, and fearless; like Susan, she's sexy, droll, and vulnerable; and like Pearl, Sunny's pit bull, Rosie, is the only character who's wise enough to hide when trouble comes knocking at the door. In Shrink Rap, Sunny's working as a bodyguard for a famous romance writer who's being stalked by her ex-husband, a psychiatrist engaged in extremely unprofessional conduct with his female patients. To get the goods on Dr. John Melvin, Sunny goes undercover as a vulnerable divorcée, which isn't that far from the truth; simultaneously, she's also seeing another therapist, who's supposed to be coaching her for her undercover role but is also helping her understand her troubled relationships with men. It's a clever device, and Parker makes the most of it in this spare, smart, swiftly paced mystery, one of Parker's best in recent years. --Jane Adams

woof-woof:
Robert Parker's Shrink Rap is a dog. As a long-time fan of Parker's - I've read 'em all and enjoyed most of them - I found Shrink Rap to be silly, contrived, sexist, and banal - and that's the good parts. This book shows the sign of too much success and not enough effort on the part of the author. After a good start - a successful woman is being stalked by a dangerous ex-husband and hires Sunny Randall to provide security - the novel simply whirls down the drain through some really messy plotting into a totally unsatisfying ending. This thing smacks of the typess of sicko fantasy a demented pre-adolescent might dream up. Go back to what you know, Bob! If Spenser had a problem like this, it would be a subplot in a better novel, because he or Hawk would dispense some street-corner justice and the ex-husband would be on the first bus out of town - as soon as he got out of the hospital. If the next one's this bad, no more Sunny Randall for me!

Sunny Randall sure has problems:
I love his books and this one is also great. But his character, Sunny Randall, P.I. was getting on my nerves through the whole thing. She is a tramp, a feminist(which means she is seriously confused about who she is or what she wants), has major head problems, and at the same time a goody two shoes. How in the god's name can you sympasize with a character like that? She is everything I despise. Despite all that I enjoyed the book so I'm giving it high marks

Possibly the most painful book I've ever read/heard:
There are really no words to describe this book except possibly awful. Or terrible. Or downright painful. Not only were the writing and dialogue completely mediocre, but the plot was so ridiculous and boring, I was stunned. The blurb about the book caught my attention, and well essentially, that was the only interesting thing about the entire experience. The ending (which I suffered to get to) must have been phoned in, because the author completely stopped trying by that point. The only reason I continued to listen to this book was because I just couldn't believe that it could get any worse. And yet, it did. Additionally, I don't think that I've ever been more shocked with a narrator. My five year old sister would have done a much better job. Didn't anyone give this woman an audition before you let her further destroy a really bad novel? Soooo much exagerrrration, soooo much inflecccction, and soooo much over-acting. So much for subtlety. I read many, many books on CD, and I've never written anything about them, but I feel it is my duty to warn all of you out there about this disaster. I've heard some pretty poor narrating and listened to some not-so-great stories, but this one was so over the top, I just couldn't believe it. I sat there iin amazement that someone not only chose to publish this, but decided it should be an audio book, and then let Raffin narrate it. The only positive aspect was that I rented it from the library, and didn't waste any money.

Annoying Narrator:
While Deborah Raffin does her best to inject some liveliness into this book, I agree with another reviewer that the constant "he said" "she said" was extremely annoying. This book was definitely not as well written as Parker's other books. I also found the constant mispronounciation of Boston locations more than annoying--obviously Raffin didn't do her homework prior to reading this book. As a native Bostonian, I found it extremely jarring--like actors who try to do Boston accents.

Almost made me crazy!:
I listened to this book, and I regretted that within the first ten minutes. The constant use of "she said" or "he said" for every single line of dialogue almost made me roll down my car windows and scream like a banshee. Not only that, but the story was sexist and contrived and, well, rather stupid. This was the first book I ever picked up by this author, and I can't see buying anymore if this is any indication. Give me James Patterson or Patricia Cornwell for murder mysteries any day.