Reviews for Robert B. Parker's Grudge match (Book)
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
A second reincarnation for Sunny Randall, the Boston private eye who just can’t seem to walk away from organized crime once and for all. Prostitution czar Tony Marcus has no reason to trust Sunny, who double-crossed him on a recent deal (Robert B. Parker’s Blood Feud, 2018, etc.) in which he didn’t get the illegal guns she’d promised him for saving the life of Desmond Burke, her ex-husband Richie’s equally mobbed-up father. But she definitely owes Tony one, and he has no hesitation about calling in the marker by asking her to track down Lisa Morneau, who rose through the ranks from sex worker to supervisor to become Tony’s chief operating officer, his second brain, and bedmate. He doesn’t want to make Lisa do anything, he insists; he just wants to talk to her and ask why she left him. Though she’s skeptical about that claim and more generally reluctant to take another dip in Tony’s foul pool, Sunny finds herself drawn to a search for a woman who actually wielded considerable power in the boys-only club of Boston’s crime families. The only problems are that Richie’s more recent ex, Kathryn, has just blown into town with an adorable 6-year-old son who throws Sunny considerably off balance and that agreeing to take on Tony’s job doesn’t get her anywhere. The main response of Tony’s aspiring rival Gabriel Jabari, who runs a place called Suite and wants to run a whole lot more, is to smile evilly and offer to hire Sunny himself. And Callie Harden, the friend and former co-worker of Lisa’s who agrees to meet with Sunny, gets shot to death after revealing very little about the missing woman. Sunny’s convinced that both Tony and Jabari are holding back vital information and lying to her, and she’s right on all counts. Will Lisa Morneau survive long enough for Sunny to put together the pieces? No great shakes as a detective story, but fans needn’t worry: Lupica has Parker’s formula down to a turn. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
