Perish Twice
Thriller
Penguin
2001
334
Boston private investigator Sunny Randall comes to the aid of three very different women as she investigates threats against a prominent feminist and assists her best friend and older sister, each of whom is confronting a wrenching personal struggle, in this well-plotted thriller by the author of Family Honor and Hugger Mugger. Reprint.
Sunny Randall is one of a rare breed. A full-time private investigator and part-time painter, she is also a full-time divorcee who dates her ex-husband once a week; hardly normal behaviour. When radical feminist Mary Lou Goddard, approaches Sunny to protect her from a stalker, Sunny accepts the case with some reluctance. It’s not because she disagrees with Mary Lou’s beliefs, or even because she doesn’t like the woman, but because Goddard detests Rosie, Sunny’s bull terrier, canine vacuum, and stakeout companion.
It doesn’t take Sunny long to track down and confront “the stalker”, Lawrence Reeves. Case solved? Not so. Two days later Reeves is dead and so is one of Goddard’s colleagues, Gretchen Crane. Not convinced by the police line on the case, 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 usually leave a nasty taste in the mouth and this case is no different. Before long Sunny find’s herself face to face with the mobster Tony Marcus and when the mob is involved bullets usually follow.
Throughout all of this Sunny also has to contend with her older sister – who just caught her husband sleeping around – as well as her best friend’s marital problems.
‘Perish Twice’ is an interesting book. Avid fans of the Sunny Randall series will snap it up and Parker will have you laughing aloud at Sunny’s eccentricities. It won’t set the world on fire but it is an easy read. 
