Robert B Parker"s quick quips, droll wit and staccato dialogue are all on display in the Sunny Randall novel, Perish Twice. When radical feminist Mary Lou Goddard hires Sunny to protect her from a stalker, Sunny accepts the case with some reluctance. After all, Goddard detests Rosie, Sunny"s bull terrier, canine vacuum, and stakeout companion ("Rosie was in the passenger seat, staring out the side window, alert for the appearance of a strange dog at whom she could gargle ferociously."). It doesn"t take Sunny long to track down and confront Lawrence Reeves, a particularly pestilential human being. But pestilence is no excuse for murder, so when Reeves and Gretchen Crane, one of Goddard"s colleagues, are both found dead, Sunny dives into the murky waters of Boston"s prostitution industry, where Reeves was a client and Gretchen was trying to unionise the workers. Politics and sexuality can be a nasty tangle, and the unravelling threads lead straight to mobster Tony Marcus"s door. Tony may appreciate Sunny"s sharp wit, but business is business: interference can--and does--lead to a bullet with her name on it. And as if all of this weren"t enough, Sunny"s sister and her best friend are in the throes of nasty divorces. Luckily, the leap from PI to marital counsellor is well within Sunny"s abilities. While there"s no doubt that rabid Parker fans will snap up anything the author turns out (and with reason), Perish Twice may be more appealing to new readers, for whom Sunny"s charm will carry none of the uneasy echoes of private investigators past.--Kelly Flynn, Amazon.com