- Title: Revenge Tour
- wiki: link
Boston Private Detective Sunny Randall has two cases occupying her attention in Revenge Tour. One involves her landlady, and former client, being blackmailed over the book that made her a star. The other concerns her father being targeted by someone looking to avenge an old grudge. While he only appears in a single chapter, the novel in notable for the first time Sunny Randall crosses paths with Spenser (Robert B. Parker’s original Boston PI whose sucess led to spinoffs for both Jesse Stone and Sunny). Spenser, who is dating Randall’s shrink Susan Silverman, has come up in conversation before, but this marks the first time the two detectives share the printed page.
Getting a larger role is Hawk, Spenser’s longtime friend, who decides to help Sunny with one of her problems. While Hawk doesn’t appear much in the story, he does impact the climax of the novel when the life of both Sunny and her client are put in danger as the blackmailer is revealed.
The main story falls back on one of the mainstays of Parker’s novels with our detective’s clients lying about their past and refusing to divulge crucial information that would have helped their case in the long run but also would have brought up embarrassing or damaging events from their past. We of course get the other usual suspects here in Sunny’s best-friend Spike and her dog Rosie as well as reference to other shared characters such as Vinnie Morris and Jesse Stone. More than just the first interaction between Sunny and Spenser, Revenge Tour is another strong entry into the series as Mike Lupica seems to have found his stride in continuing the adventures started by his longtime friend.