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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780425215982
ISBN number: 0425215989
Label: Berkley
Manufacturer: Berkley
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 352
Printing Date: June 05, 2007
Publishing house: Berkley
Sale Popularity Level: 77100
Studio: Berkley
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Product Description:
Sunny Randall, 'Boston's leading lady gumshoe' (New York Daily News), returns as hired bodyguard for the spoiled, and possibly dangerous, prize female client of a sleazy producer. This time, she gets a little help from Parker's popular character Jesse Stone, making a guest appearance here
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Rated by buyers -
This is an exciting book, typical of Robert Parker. The copy I received was new and it arrived in a timely manner.
Rated by buyers 
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I've never read Robert B. Parker before and I settled on Blue Screen because it was available at the library on short notice, and I needed an audio book for a trip the subsequent day. As a reader, I'm always weary of jumping into the middle of a series. Will I be lost because I haven't read the previous books? Will I care about or understand the main characters? In Blue Screen, Sunny Randall is hired by Buddy Bollen to watch over and protect Erin Flint. Buddy is a mega rich dotcom millionairre who owns the fictional Connecticut Nutmegs, a major league baseball team. Erin Flint is a beautiful woman. Every one agrees on that. She is Buddy's girlfriend and has starred in many B-movies that he's produced. Erin is also a pretty good athelete and a very first class jerk to be around.
Buddy wants Sunny to protect Erin because he feels Erin may be in danger because Buddy plans on having her be the center fielder for his major league team. Okay. I need to stop right there. This is a pretty big plot point. I've read a lot of fiction and most have outrageous and unrealistc plots that the author never the less makes believable because of his writing talent. The idea of a movie star jumping in and playing in the majors is one of the most laughable, ridiculous things I've ever read in a novel. What's sad is that Parker believes it could happen. Sunny and other characters continuously ask those who supposedly know, including Jesse Stone, if Erin could make it. They all seem to say, sure, but it would be difficult. This whole plot point, a 35 year old actress suddenly playing in the majors totally ruined the novel for me. This isn't mentioned in the summary on the back of the book, or I wouldn't have even started reading it. Baseball is one sport where even the best college players have to work their way up through the minors. Most players hit their prime in their 20s. Thirty-five is over the hill. Baseball isn't a sport you can just pick up by spending a few months in a batting cage hitting against college kids.
Okay, enough of that rant. How is the rest of the book? Well, the plot is typical thriller stuff that includes pimps, murder, thugs and the mob. In fact, the plot, aside from the baseball angle, is comepletely underwhelming. There is no hook here. Nothing to compel you to turn the page. Sunny hooks up with Jesse Stone and they begin a relationship. Sunny is still attached to her ex-husband Richie and seems to think in her deluded mind that she has a chance with him although he is married and expecting a child. For such a short book, there was way too much relationship with Stone and Sunny. The dog Rosie and its biscuits drove me crazy, and the chat with the psychiatrist during the last fifth of the book about sex was absolutely pointless. Parker sets up an interesting character in Erin during the very first half of the book, then seems more interested in having Stone and Sunny talk about sex for the latter half.
I probably won't read any more Parker books. The entire 35 year old actress as a major league center fielder soured me early on on the book. Then the bad parts of the rest of the novel seemed to stick out all the more and my dislike seemed to snowball. I'm sorry, but this is one series I can't recommend. Novels featuring his other characters may be different, so I may try one of those out again in the future.
Rated by buyers 
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This book isn't awful it just never drew me in. Both the main characters are regulars from other Parker books. After this I have no desire to try either of them again. I like Parker but these two were both too bland. I read it on a working vacation to Europe and I can't even say this was good "killing time" type reading.
Rated by buyers -
Turns out I had already read this book. I read it cover to cover anyway.
As my former boss (Ted Ahlgren) always told me, "Cremin, you really only need three books." That is, if you have a memory like Ted and me.
Rated by buyers -
I have long been a huge Spenser fan. I always thought that Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall were far lesser lights in Parker's galaxy. In Blue Screen they team up, professionally and personally. The combination is far better than any of their solo excursions.
Both characters are extremely likeable and working through their relationships with exes (which prompts the brief appearances of Dr. Susan Silverman) when the P.I. and the Chief of Police meet over a corpse.
The corpse is that of the sister to a talentless, yet athletic, actress who Sunny was hired to protect. She then hires Sunny to find the killer of her sister. The actress is also planning to be the very first female major league baseball player, playing on the team owned by a very deliciously smarmy producer. The batting practice scenes are near hilarious.
The sisters have a past, of course, and that leads Sunny and Jesse to the west coast and back to solve the crime. Along they way they stagger into their new relationship. The plot wends and weaves and the actress is often a suspect. The ending caps a good mystery.
Like all of Parker's best, the plot is a good one with interesting characters all along the way. Also, Parker's trademark of humour and warmth between his main characters is sprinkled liberally throughout.
This is highly recommended for a good fun light read, especially for those who thought these two characters often fell short of Spenser and Hawk. It is hoped that the subsequent iterations of these two will keep them together.
A note on the audio book. Kate Burton does a great job. Many female readers have difficulty doing men's voices it seems, but she did the several males seamlessly.
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