Robert B. Parker's Blood Feud

Sunny Randall, Book 7

By: Mike Lupica

Narrated by: Kate Burton

Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

Robert B. Parker's iconic and irresistible PI Sunny Randall is back, and the stakes are higher than ever as she races to protect her ex-husband - and his Mafia family - from the vengeful plan of a mysterious rival.

Sunny Randall is "on" again with Richie, the ex-husband she never stopped loving and never seemed to be able to let go, despite her discomfort with his Mafia connections. When Richie is shot and nearly killed, Sunny is dragged into the thick of his family's business as she searches for answers and tries to stave off a mob war.

But as the bullets start flying in Boston's mean streets, Sunny finds herself targeted by the deranged mastermind of the plot against the Burke family, whose motive may be far more personal than she could have anticipated....

©2018 Mike Lupica (P)2018 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Lupica, an award-winning sports columnist, author of 40 books, and longtime friend of the late Parker, nails the Sunny Randall character and the Boston criminal milieu that Parker created. The patter is snappy. The criminal honor codes are only understood by the criminals but are dismissed anyway when they interfere with personal enrichment. Even family loyalties come and go. Great stuff, Parker fans. Sunny’s back!” (Booklist)

“Lupica does justice to the work of MWA Grand Master Robert B. Parker in this splendid continuation of the late author’s Sunny Randall series.... 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.” (Publisher’s Weekly)

Enough with the she said ...

As engrossing as I found the story line, with all the the ‘she said,’ ‘he said’ after every spoken line, I nearly stopped listening.

I will not buy another of Lupica’s books due to the irritating performance.

Oppositional defiance disorder

Sunny’s primary motivation is ODD and that doesn’t make her a compelling or engaging protagonist. This is the weakest of the series so far.

politics outweighs the story

the problem here is that lupica couldn't conceal his trump hate. parker stayed in the center.

Glad to have Sunny back

I have read all of the Parker books and am always happy to see new authors bring his characters back to life. I enjoyed this story and hope Mike Lupica follows up with another Sunny Randall book.

Lupica is a hack

Parker never interjected political views in his books. Lupica is so much smarter than we are I guess he feels like he must enlighten us. No
place for that here.

Sunny is back!!!!

I am glad that Robert B Parker’s well loved characters live on after his death. The wait for an author to get Parker’s style and vision of Sunny Randall was worth it. I hope the wait for the next installment in the series won’t be quite so long!!! Nicely done Mike Lupica, I think RBP would agree.

Great book

Highly recommend if you like mob stories. The main themes were murder and revenge. And how true blood family always sticks together no matter what.

Huge Disappointment

While credit is due for sticking with Robert B. Parker’s “voice,” this book was a disappointment.

There were so many subtle — and not so subtle — digs at the American politics of 2018 (the year it was written).

The author(s) is-are obviously [a] Democrat(s) and that’s fine, but I have zero need to hear about how much he/she/they hate Trump and Republicans

Bad narration

The narrative in this book was so irritating I almost stopped listening. The constant "he said", "I said" after every sentence was obnoxious.
The story could have been a good one if it would have been done like a conversation.
Also, I can tell that Parker did not write this book. lacked his luster

Ugh! “He said” “I said”. “She said”

I’m only into the 5th chapter and am sick of he said she said. Reader is doing a good job of distinguishing voices. Why oh why after every (that we infer stand is a) quote does the writer have to explain. I don’t think I can take it for 72 chapters.