Spare Change (Sunny Randall Novels) [Hardcover]

Robert B. Parker (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sunny Randall Novels | Publication Date: June 5, 2007

Boston P.I. Sunny Randall joins forces with the most important man in her life-her father-to crack a thirty-year-old case.

Hi Phil,
You miss me? I got bored, so I thought I'd reestablish our relationship. Give us both something to do in our later years. Stay tuned.
Spare Change

When a serial murderer dubbed "The Spare Change Killer" by the Boston press surfaces after three decades in hiding, the police immediately seek out the cop, now retired, who headed the original task force: Phil Randall. As a sharp-eyed investigator and a doting parent ("You're smart. You're tough. You, too, are a paradigm of law enforcement perfection, and you're my kid"), Phil calls on his daughter, Sunny, to help catch the criminal who eluded him so many years before.

Sunny is certain that she's found her man after interviewing just a handful of suspects. Though she has no evidence against Bob Johnson, she trusts her intuition. And she knows the power she has over him-she can feel the skittishness and sexual tension that he radiates when he's around her-but persuading her father and the rest of the task force is a different story.

When the killer strikes a second and third time, the murders take a macabre turn, as the victims each eerily resemble Sunny. While her father pressures her to drop the case, Sunny's need to create a trap to nab her killer grows.

In a compelling game of cat-and-mouse, Sunny uses all her skills to draw out her prey, realizing too late that she's setting herself up to become the next victim.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of Parker's engaging sixth Sunny Randall novel (after Blue Screen), the cop-turned-PI helps her father track down a Boston serial killer whose depredations begin again after a 20-year hiatus. The "spare change" killer executes victims with a single shot to the head, leaving three coins near the body. Sunny's dad, Phil, headed the old task force formed to catch the killer, who wrote Phil taunting letters as the killings piled up. A new killing and a fresh letter to Phil have him and Sunny serving as consultant and assistant respectively to a new task force. Gutsy Sunny takes the lead in identifying the most likely suspect, and then in playing him dangerously to get hard evidence. Parker's signature bantering byplay and some borrowings of characters from other series (notably Susan Silverman from the Spenser novels) will delight fans. The outcome is never in doubt, but Parker hits most of the right notes, and there's still ingenuity to his cat-and-mouse. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The victims, dispatched with a single shot to the back of the head, are not assaulted or molested in any way and share no defining characteristics. Their bodies are decorated with a few coins. Most troubling to the Boston PD is the time elapsed between the two most recent victims: 20 years. The city was terrorized by the Spare Change killer two decades ago, and Phil Randall headed the task force that came up dry. Now he's been asked to come out of retirement to consult on the new killings. He asks his daughter, private investigator and former cop Sunny Randall, to join him. A suspect emerges, but there is no physical evidence to tie him to the killings, only Sunny's intuition. Meanwhile, Sunny's relationship with her ex-husband--for whom she still carries a torch--is moving to a new plateau as she tries to understand the family dynamics among her father, mother, sister and herself. Parker, also responsible for the classic Spenser mystery series and the Jesse Stone novels, continues to add depth to his characterization of Randall as he explores her often contradictory feelings about love. Parker's ruminations on romance are sometimes--not always--wearisome, but he never fails to entertain with humor and recurring characters whom we welcome back into our lives like old friends. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult (June 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399154256
• ISBN-13: 978-0399154256
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #770,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert B. Parker (1932-2010) has long been acknowledged as the dean of American crime fiction. His novel featuring the wise-cracking, street-smart Boston private-eye Spenser earned him a devoted following and reams of critical acclaim, typified by R.W.B. Lewis' comment, "We are witnessing one of the great series in the history of the American detective story" (The New York Times Book Review). In June and October of 2005, Parker had national bestsellers with APPALOOSA and SCHOOL DAYS, and continued his winning streak in February of 2006 with his latest Jesse Stone novel, SEA CHANGE.

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Parker attended Colby College in Maine, served with the Army in Korea, and then completed a Ph.D. in English at Boston University. He married his wife Joan in 1956; they raised two sons, David and Daniel. Together the Parkers founded Pearl Productions, a Boston-based independent film company named after their short-haired pointer, Pearl, who has also been featured in many of Parker's novels.

Parker began writing his Spenser novels in 1971 while teaching at Boston's Northeastern University. Little did he suspect then that his witty, literate prose and psychological insights would make him keeper-of-the-flame of America's rich tradition of detective fiction. Parker's fictional Spenser inspired the ABC-TV series Spenser: For Hire. In February 2005, CBS-TV broadcast its highly-rated adaptation of the Jesse Stone novel Stone Cold, which featured Tom Selleck in the lead role as Parker's small-town police chief. The second CBS movie, Night Passage, also scored high ratings, and the third, Death in Paradise, aired on April 30, 2006.

Parker was named Grand Master of the 2002 Edgar Awards by the Mystery Writers of America, an honor shared with earlier masters such as Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen.

Parker died on January 19, 2010, at the age of 77.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Satisfying Read from Robert Parker, June 6, 2008

By 

Donald Gallinger - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spare Change (Sunny Randall) (Mass Market Paperback)

Spare Change by Robert Parker teams up Sunny Randall and her father in a case involving a serial killer who drops coins next to the bodies of his victims. Although Parker's dialogue is always razor sharp and his characters well delineated, there's a certain perfunctory quality about the plot that perhaps comes from writing too many crime dramas over the years. You won't be disappointed by this book, but you won't necessarily remember it as one of Parker's best, either. A good airport read. You'll enjoy yourself between the soft drinks and the on board movie.

Donald Gallinger is the author ofThe Master Planets

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interior Motivations, June 7, 2007

By 

Mel Odom (Moore, OK USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Spare Change (Sunny Randall Novels) (Hardcover)

SPARE CHANGE, the sixth Sunny Randall novel, shouldn't be read as an entry to the series. Too much subtext from earlier novels is needed for the reader to competently understand all the dynamics of family and self that are going on in this one.

The plot is simple. Sunny and her dad Phil attempt to close out a cold case he had before he left the Boston Police. The case had suddenly turned hot again as a new victim is discovered. The serial killer known as Spare Change (named so because he leaves a nickel, dime, and quarter behind at each murder scene) has struck again. Phil gets called out of retirement to advise on the case and he brings his private-eye daughter with him.

The solution of the murders is the plot that drives Parker's theme: his examination of families, how they work together and how they shape the individuals within them.

On many levels, Parker succeeds admirably. Fans of the Sunny Randall series (of which I am one) will love seeing some of the changes. But a few of them, like the change with her ex-husband, comes out of left field. And that one, to a degree, gets dropped to hang around for the next book. I think the extended views into the dynamics of Sunny's family, and especially the exploration of character between father and daughter, is great and a lot of readers are going to find parallels in their own lives. Always an amazing experience for readers.

However, the story of the serial killer resonates the same theme, but misses the boat because it doesn't offer quite the same reveals.

Parker's writing is as smooth and exciting as ever. I sailed through this book and the pages kept turning. I was drawn as much by the character development and insights as I was the homicide investigation.

Parker is also cross-pollinating his series with characters from other books. Martin Quirk, who's known primarily from the Spenser novels, was present. And Dr. Susan Silverman has been a mainstay for a while in Sunny's series as her counselor. But Frank Belson, Healy, and Lee Farrell were also onboard this one for a while.

I love Parker's books even when they're more comfortable than groundbreaking. Reading one is like sitting down with a friend and catching up on events in that person's life. Long-time fans will enjoy the book and already know what the score it, but new readers would best be advised to at least have read some if not all of the other Sunny Randall novels.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What the #%$@*???, June 11, 2007

By 

CeeCee (Hollywood, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spare Change (Sunny Randall Novels) (Hardcover)

Ok. I have read and enjoyed Mr. Parker's books for as long as I can remember but I am seriously wondering if writing 3 series is too much for him. What's the deal with the continuity issues???

SPOILER ALERT-PLEASE DO NOT READ BELOW IF YOU HAVE NOT YET READ THIS BOOK!!



In Blue Screen, the last Sunny Randall novel, Sunny learned that Richie's wife was PREGNANT. Now all of a sudden, Richie decides he loves Sunny and leaves his wife and there is absolutely no mention of his wife being pregnant in this book??? What the heck??? That's beyond sloppy and a slap in the face of loyal readers who deserve more respect. I am very disappointed...where oh where did the quality of A Catskill Eagle or Valediction go???