This is the second runny Sandall Sunny Randall novel I've read and probably my favourite Parker novel to-date, despite all the weird let's cross over characters from all my series stuff that's going on. (Sunny gets the main protagonist of one series for a boy friend and already has the girl friend of the main protagonist from another series for a therapist.) In fact I like Sunny and her boy friend more than I like Spenser and his girlfriend, despite the Spenser novels being far more famous than any of Parker's other series.

Susan Silverman, Wunder-therapist, cures all Randall's man-issues with the twitch of an eyebrow, which is really annoying because that never happens back in reality and yet a very realistic approach is taken to the rest of the story, so it feels glaringly out of place.

One reason why I prefer this series to the Spenser books I've read is that there is much less macho posturing, because Randall isn't an exceptionally macho woman. Macho posturing, even if it is entirely appropriate to the characters and situation can irritate me if there is too much in too short a time.

In my review of [b:Melancholy Baby|69657|Melancholy Baby (Sunny Randall, #4)|Robert B. Parker|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309209093s/69657.jpg|2847745] I was a little negative about Spike, the gay tough-guy friend. However, that is somewhat unfair in that gay characters appear in Parker's books where-as they are conspicuous by their absence in most novels. Parker's gay characters aren't mere stereotypes, either, even if they do suffer from character-recycling with only minor variations - which is true of Parker's straight characters, too.

One of the best Parker books I've read.