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Journal Entry 1 by Kislany on Friday, December 16, 2005
 Received through Titletrader.com
Sunny Randall, the Boston Private Investigator of Robert B. Parker's novel "Family Honor," is a former cop, college graduate, aspiring painter, divorcee, who owns a miniature bull terrier named Rosie. Only 5'6" and 115 pounds Sunny is not, as she observes at one point, a 200 pound ex-boxer. This comment is particularly telling because why Parker makes a concerted effort to offer some key differences between the character of Sunny Randall and his more famous Boston P.I. creation, the plot of "Family Honor" is a rather blatant mixture of several Spencer novels: Sunny is looking for a Millicent Patton, a runaway who has turned to hooking (like April Kyle in "Ceremony); Sunny finds Millicent and discovers she has to be a surrogate parent that can teach the young girl how to be a human being (like Paul in "Early Autumn"); as always, there is more to the case than meets the eye, having to do with the political aspirations of Millicent's father (like in "The Widening Gyre"). Consequently, we are covering familiar territory with a new guide. It is pretty much impossible not to be aware of the differences between Sunny and Spencer: instead of Hawk she has Spike, a flamboyant and dangerous gay man; instead of an absolute commitment to a soul mate she is trying to work out her mixed feelings for her ex-husband (similar to Parker's other recent creation, Jesse Stone); instead of having no other living relatives she has a supportive father and a mother she will never impress. Just to make things interesting, Sunny's ex-husband Richie Burke is related to one of the mob families in Boston, and while he is technically "clean" he knows what is going on.
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Journal Entry 3 by potok-fan from Turku, Varsinais-Suomi Finland on Friday, January 05, 2007
I needed something to take with me to the hospital yesterday and bookcrossing books seemed perfect (if I lose them it just counts as a wild-release!). I got through about 2/3 of this while waiting to be called for my procedure, and finished the last third while recovering.
I really enjoyed it! I enjoyed reading all the Boston references (including calling pita bread "Syrian bread", which I had begun to think was just some quirk in my family). I also liked the structure of the novel - it didn't have the heavily overblown "thriller" elements (the female detective heads out on a hunch, without telling anyone where she's going, and now is trapped in the warehouse with the insane and clever and heavily over-armed bad guy...). It wasn't a cozy, but there wasn't excessive blood either.
I've never read any Parker before (and never even watched "Spenser for Hire" on tv), but I'm glad to have Small Vices on my TBR pile, and I will definitely watch for more of Parker's stuff in the future.
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Journal Entry 4 by potok-fan from Turku, Varsinais-Suomi Finland on Thursday, January 21, 2010
I just read that the author of this book died this week. His death was mentioned in a blog by my favorite cartoonist, and also here on bookcrossing. (The blog links to a nice obituary in the Guardian newspaper.) I tried to find this book on my shelf, thinking I might wild-release it today, but cannot lay my hands on it. I thought I was saving it to release in Boston, but couldn't find it when I packed for Boston a month ago. Could I have wild-released it in the hospital???
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Family Honor
