Interviews
Ransom Notes Interview with Robert B. Parker
Ransom Notes: One of the most obvious differences between your Sunny Randall books and your two other bestselling series is the fact that you're working with a female point-of-view character. Is there anything that you find particularly challenging about that?
Robert B. Parker: Sunny Randall was originally invented for Helen Hunt to play, so I had little choice about writing her with a female point-of-view. I am fortunate to be married to the best-looking, smartest, and toughest female person in the world, and that's been very useful to me in this series. Joan can offer easy corrections ("It's not called rouge anymore, Bob") and also keep me on track with more difficult things -- like what women think and feel when they look at men, how they feel when men look at them, etc. I'm not sure I would have undertaken Sunny if I hadn't had Joan available.
RN: Is there anything different about the types of cases you choose for Sunny to investigate, as opposed to those for her fellow P.I. Spenser and/or police officer Jesse Stone?
RBP: Not really, though Sunny is less likely to use direct muscle. Of course, we have her fierce friend Spike on tap for that.
RN: Is that why Sunny refers to both guns and Spike as "equalizers" and mentions that with guns matters are pretty much black-and-white, while people can be modulated -- that is, are more flexible?
RBP: Sunny recognizes that there are times when guns are decisive. But I think it is in keeping with her femaleness that she be interested in how best to achieve results through human interaction as well. I don't see such interest in human interaction as exclusive, among my characters, to Sunny, or even as exclusively a female trait. But it does certainly suit Sunny.
RN: Sunny has said she left the police in part so she could focus her efforts only on cases she cared about. How does that compare to the way she sees her artistic talents?
RBP: James Dickey once said that poetry allowed him to live life on his own terms. That is also Sunny's goal in both her work and art.
RN: Family issues are central in the case Sunny is working on in Melancholy Baby and in the elements that focus on her personal life (coming to terms with her feelings about her beloved ex-husband's marriage to another woman). What made you decide to explore both Sunny and her client Sarah's alienation from their families in Melancholy Baby?
RBP: I think each aspect of familial circumstances resonates with the other. I was aware of it and was hoping for that resonance.
RN: In several of your books you've had lawyers as bad guys -- bending and/or breaking the law. What do you think this element adds to your mysteries?
RBP: Some lawyers are better than others (Rita Flore, for instance). I figure if you write books about broken laws, you're going to need some lawyers who help break them.
RN: Can you tell us anything about your future writing plans?
RBP: I plan to publish a Spenser novel every spring, and alternate Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall each fall. There will also be a very good western novel out sometime next spring or summer [2005].
