Robert B. Parker's Blood Feud

Starred review from September 10, 2018
Edgar finalist Lupica (Dead Air) does justice to the work of MWA Grand Master Robert B. Parker in this splendid continuation of the late author’s Sunny Randall series. Sunny, a smart-aleck Boston PI, is wrestling with what role her ex-husband, Richie Burke, should play in her life. In her loneliness, she turns to psychiatrist Susan Silverman, a regular in Parker’s Spenser series, for help in exploring her psyche. The stakes rise when a gunman shoots Richie, the son of powerful Irish mobster Desmond, with the intention of only wounding him, and tells Richie that he was paying for the “sins of the father.” Sunny pursues the case, despite warnings to leave it alone from men on both sides of the law; her resolve only strengthens when escalating violence claims someone close to Richie. Lupica hits the sweet spot by balancing Sunny’s professional hypercompetence with first-person narration that exposes her fears and self-doubts. Parker fans will look forward to seeing what Lupica does with Sunny in her next outing. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM.