Mike Lupica continues the excellent Sunny Randall series brought to life by one of my favorite authors, Robert B Parker. So Sunny fans need worry no more. Sunny takes on two seperate cases in PAYBACK and as always, manages to find trouble behind every door. As a tough, hard boiled PI, Sunny may not be on the Top Ten list, but she's definitely the person I'd hire were I in need of help. Another great read in this great series.

Enjoy the twists and turns of this great story! Characters come in and out and you never know whether they will be good or bad or change it up. You think it is heading one way and it turns around and around. Love it!

Robert B. Parker's Payback is the 9th Sunny Randall mystery, this one penned very much in the style of the late lamented RBP capably and respectfully by Mike Lupica. Released 4th May 2021 by Penguin Random House on their G.P. Putnam's Sons imprint, it's 352 pages and is available in hardcover, audiobook, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

There are pitfalls with posthumous series continuations. The characters are generally well loved, especially by die-hard fans of the canonical works. I came into Parker's posthumous series books with some trepidation, since all three of the series (Spenser, Stone, and Randall) were guaranteed booklist reads for me. Parker was always entertaining, always a gifted writer, and such a deft craftsman that I still revisit his books decades later.

I really enjoyed this one. It's tightly plotted, engaging, and really well written in the style of its originator. I also really enjoyed the inclusion of Dr. Susan Silverman in this book (she's Sunny's therapist) and as always, she's the Greek chorus of the play. There is some on-page violence and gunplay and the language is R-rated (some strong cursing, some sexual content - nothing NSFW though. It would be fine for a commute or work-break read).

This would make a perfect summer read.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I've always enjoyed the Sunny Randall series and this latest entry by Mike Lupica is an easy read. There are two initial story lines that begin to dovetail as Sunny delves deeper into each one. but the book feels somewhat formulaic as if the author had a checklist to follow for what needs to be included; relationship with cross over series character Jesse Stone, check. Therapy sessions with cross over series character Susan Silverman, check. Ambivalence about ex husband Ritchie, check. Meeting with Ritchie's crime boss father, check, and so forth. The author makes an effort to reference the pandemic here and there but it seems somewhat forced. I'm not sure if it was Parker's intention but it seems to me like Sunny Randall could almost be a female version of Jesse Stone in how they have similar characteristics and traits, which is kinda weird seeing as how they are now involved with each other. I hope future volumes has Sunny grow and evolve more in the manner of how the Jesse Stone character has.

I've read several books by this author and have always enjoyed everything I've read, so I was looking forward to reading this book. I must say it didn't disappoint. This book was easy to read and fast paced and kept me wanting to read more. I highly recommend this book.

Robert B. Parker's Payback by Mike Lupica—a solid mystery with a serviceable plot and everything Sunny Randall fans could expect.

The “Sunny Randall” series, created by the legendary Robert B. Parker, follows the cases of the major character Sonya “Sunny” Randall, a female Boston private detective who used to be a cop. Having read and enjoyed the original six books in the series written by Parker, it delighted me when the Parker estate and Mike Lupica revived the series in 2019. Sunny Randall and Spenser, the iconic and better known male Boston PI created by Parker, have much in common. But there are plenty of things besides their respective genders that make them unique. Parker didn’t simply make Spenser a woman and give him a female name.

Payback is the ninth book in the series, the third written by Mike Lupica, who does a remarkable job of capturing the essence of the characters in the series created by Parker. Lupica also mimics Parker’s story-telling style so effectively that his contributions to the series are almost indistinguishable from the originals.

In Payback, the story begins when Sunny’s erstwhile sidekick Spike, a gay restaurateur, gets his restaurant stolen out from under him by Alex Drysdale, a shady hedge fund manager. Drysdale, posing as a friend, loaned Spike money to help him weather the coronavirus pandemic but under what turns out to be a predatory loan agreement that makes it impossible for Spike to repay the loan. After Drysdale forecloses, Spike turns to Sunny for help.

“Payback really is a bitch,” Spike said. “Only it turns out Drysdale’s the bitch.”

While trying to help Spike save his restaurant, Sunny agrees to help her cop friend Lee Farrell with a situation involving his niece, a college student who is seemingly the victim of an assault but refuses to cooperate with the police. When Sunny tries to intervene, the young woman goes from uncooperative to outright hostile. As it usually happens in Sunny Randall novels, what appears to be two unrelated cases eventually intersect, muddling the picture even more.

Besides Spike, Payback features all the other usual series characters—Jesse Stone, a Massachusetts small-town police chief and Sunny’s love interest; Richie, her ex-husband; Susan Silverman, her psychiatrist, Sunny’s father, Phil, a retired Boston police detective; and more. For Robert B. Parker fans, Lupica delivers on what the series promises—easy, breezy whodunits that are easily read in one sitting. Fans of Sunny and the host of series characters will find Payback an enjoyable and exciting read. It may slightly disappoint those looking for a meatier mystery since much of the book reads like a romance novel. But there is plenty of the attitude and snappy tough-guy dialogue that make Robert B. Parker books so easy and enjoyable to read. Overall, Payback is a solid mystery with a serviceable plot and everything Sunny Randall fans could expect.

I received an advance copy of the book from the publisher via NetGalley.

Robert B. Parker’s PAYBACK: A Sunny Randall Novel
Mike Lupica
G.P.Putnam’s Sons
ISBN-13: 978-0593087855
Hardcover
Mystery/Thriller

The newly published PAYBACK is the ninth in the series of the late Robert B. Parker’s Sunny Randall novels and the third to be written by veteran newspaper scribe and author Mike Lupica. PAYBACK finds Lupica hewing a bit closer to his own style and away from Parker’s while still including the latter’s stylistic touches in the mix. Lupica also quite impressively continues to incorporate Jesse Stone, another Parker character, into the Randall storyline with an enviable finesse which makes him something more than a shoehorned cameo player while keeping him from taking over the book entirely and rendering Randall a guest in her own series. It’s a neat line to walk and Lupica does it well.

Lupica as is proper in this series gets things rolling right away. The story takes place at a point just after the end of the pandemic insanity. Randall’s good friend Spike has suffered, as have many tavern owners, and is eager to get back to full business. Spike is shocked to learn that Alex Drysdale, a high powered hedge fund manager who patronizes Spike’s bar and who Spike had considered a friend, has deeply betrayed him. Drysdale lent Spike a significant amount of money to keep his business open but their repayment agreement effectively made Drysdale the new owner of the going concern. Spike goes to Randall for help, which Randall is more than willing to give because of their friendship as well as the aid which Spike has given her in the past. It does not take a great amount of investigation to learn that Drysdale is involved with some significantly high-powered and nasty associates who are bent on turning Boston into a base of operations. Randall at the same time is asked by Lee Farrell, her contact in the Boston Police Department, to quietly assist him with a delicate matter involving his niece, a college student named Emily Barnes. Emily had been the victim of what appears to be a random assault that seems to be something more. What is suspicious to Farrell is that Emily was only cooperative up to a point with the police. He is wondering what Emily has gotten involved in and recruits Randall to help. Randell is told by Emily to butt out in no uncertain terms which of course makes Randall all the more determined to find out what is going on. Similarly, she is warned off of assisting Spike with his Drysdale matter by a quietly dangerous character whose criminal connections go deep, wide, and very, very long. This warning has the opposite effect upon Sunny, of course, whose own bench as far as assistance is concerned is deep as well. Ritchie, her ex-husband, is willing to help using his own criminal connections, as is Stone, and Randell’s own father, whose law enforcement skillset is ingrained in him. Sunny needs all of the help that she can get when Emily’s matter suddenly intersects with Spike’s difficulties and the body count starts to rise in sudden and surprising ways. Her need for assistance notwithstanding, it is Sunny who ultimately and effectively wraps things up in an extremely satisfying way at the story’s end.

PAYBACK is a quick and satisfying read, even if the plot gets possibly a step or two unnecessarily complicated at times. A guest appearance or two from Parker’s cast of Boston inhabitants on both sides of the law is still most welcome, as is the news that Lupica will be writing novels in the Jesse Stone series going forward. That is a good thing, as is, on balance, PAYBACK.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2021, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

This book is an easy 4 stars. It is an easy, entertaining read following Robert B. Parker's style of short sentences and short chapters. Mike Lupica has done well in incorporating Parker's characters and their personalities.
Familiar characters from the series:
Sunny Randall, Private Investigator
Spike, gay bar owner and Sunny's friend/backup guy
Jesse Stone, Paradise Police Chief and Sonny's lover
Richie , her ex spouse, who still loves her and she reciprocates
Phil Randall, her dad, a retired cop
Dr. Susan Silverman. Sunny's psychiatrist
Rita Fiore, lawyer friend of Sunny and Jesse
Tony Marcus, mob boss who has a past with Sunny
This book has Sunny working on 2 cases for friends:
Spike has lost his restaurant to a predatory lender who loaned Spike money during the Covid crisis as a "friend"
Lee Farrell, Sunny's cop friend asks her to find his missing niece, Emily
These 2 cases come together and put Sunny's life in danger, along with her family and friends.
How she solves these cases made for an entertaining story which I read in 3 days.
One quote on Sunny's fashion sense: "My lock picking set was in the cool new Isabel Marant bag I'd gotten on sale when Jesse and I had made a weekend trip to New York City. I imagined it was the first time a Marant bag had contained a hook, tension wrench, twist free wrench, offset pick, half-diamond short and medium hooks and a bogate rake."
Thanks to Penguin Group Putnam for sending me this eARC through NetGalley.
#RobertBParkersPayback #NetGalley

Always. Always, Always leary of ghost written books of beloved characters. This time I have zero complaints. If you had given me the book without an author, I would have guessed Parker. It sounds like him perfectly, there isn't even the slightest hint that someone else wrote the novel.

I mostly stopped reading about Robert B. Parker's characters after his passing, but I just can't give up Sunny Randall. I'm partial to female private investigators!

Payback was a great entry to the Sunny series. This time someone has taken advantage of Sunny's best friend, Spike, and stolen his restaurant out from under him. Spike needed a cash infusion to carry him through the year of COVID. When he pays it back, the lender, Alex Drysdale, who Spike thought was a good guy, informs Spike that he didn't read the fine print closely enough. It was a scam, and Drysdale now owns Spike's. (As it turns out, he pulled the same scam on several other small business owners.) Obviously, Sunny can't let that stand so she starts investigating Drysdale. At the same time, Sunny's cop friend Lee Farrell also needs her help. His college-aged niece was assaulted. She just wants to drop the whole thing, but Lee wants to know more so he asks Sunny to investigate. Eventually, both cases overlap, and Sunny spends a whole lot of time avoiding bullets.

All the great Parker characters are in and out of Payback. Sunny is getting pretty serious with Jesse Stone, but she'll always have her ex, Richie, in her life. She's also still seeing Susan Silverman, her therapist, and when she gets into trouble, she knows she can always call on her father and cop friends. And of course, Rosie will always be at her side.

Payback is a complex PI procedural, and Lupica continues to pay beautiful homage to the late Robert B. Parker. It's a great read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've been a fan of Robert B. Parker's books for a long time, so I approached the continuation books with a bit of suspicion - would the new authors be as good in dealing with the characters we've gotten to know? And, even more important, would they then be able to grow the characters, so that the new entries in the series would not just be "more of the same"? Fortunately, the answer is yes!

This is the 9th entry in the Sunny Randall series, and it's the best yet. I think there was a real opportunity here, since Sunny Randall was never as well developed as Robert B. Parker's other lead characters, and Mike Lupica has really seized that opportunity to develop the characters in this series.

Lupica seems to have gotten over his earlier difficulties in portraying a strong woman, which I appreciate. His descriptions of Sunny no longer seem to rely on male comparisons - he accepts her as someone who's strong and competent in her own right. He has also calmed down a bit with his over-done descriptions of how she dresses - he wouldn't focus on this with a male detective, and I appreciate his approaching her as a detective, not as a hot female!

Lupica also expands on characters like Spike, Sunny's best friend, who has lost his bar to a con man and now needs Sunny's help. We also see a lot of Jesse Stone (probably not surprising, since Lupica is now writing that series as well!), the policeman Lee Farrell, who Sunny is also helping out with a family matter, and in this book, we see a lot more of Sunny's dad, also an interesting character.

The story itself is an interesting one, and I enjoyed following the machinations. He did a good job of connecting the two story lines, so that Sunny's assistance to both Spike and to Lee Ferrell all came together. A good read, and I'm looking forward to the next in the series!

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S PAYBACK ABOUT?
Sunny's closest friend, Spike, has got himself in trouble—he needed some financial assistance to keep the doors of his restaurant open (like just about every restaurant in 2020) and let a long-time customer and friend, a hedge fund manager, loan him the money. But when Spike tried to pay off the loan, he learned the hard way that Alex Drysdale wasn't so much a friend as he was an opportunistic toad, and thanks to clever work on the contract, Spike had defaulted on the loan almost immediately.

Spike has already let his fists do the talking (and broken Drysdale's nose), but oddly enough, that didn't help. So, Sunny decides she's going to figure out a way to get Drysdale to release him. Financial crimes aren't really Sunny's forte—much less shady, but not criminal, financial deals—but Spike is family and she figures she can learn as she goes.

She's barely begun digging into Drysdale and his practices when she gets a call from Lee Farrell who needs a favor. His niece, a student at Taft*, was assaulted and she refuses to talk to the police or Lee. Can Sunny help? Sunny tries to talk to her, but Emily keeps saying it was just a misunderstanding and refuses to explain anything. Lee's worried about her, Sunny's concerned and nosy. So while Lee deals with a major homicide investigation, Sunny starts digging into Emily's life.

* Yup, Taft, the Parker-verse's all-purpose university for people who don't go to Harvard.

Before Sunny can really get anywhere with the Drysdale investigation, she's warned off. THat warning quickly becomes direct threats against her, Spike, Richie's son, and her father. You have to admit, that's really not the most clever approach. Sunny warns them all to be careful and works harder to find something. One of the biggest things she finds is a link between the two cases.

AHH, A LITTLE COVID FICTION
Early on, we're told that this starts shortly after the pandemic is over and life has gone back to something akin to normal. But vaguely so, especially when this was written, no one had an idea when exactly this would be, so Lupica left things vague.

Also, Spike's is in trouble because of the impact that COVID has had on restaurants.

I lost count of how many times that Sunny talked about the world falling apart and getting worse. Clearly, this is a product of 2020 (and 2021). I remember hearing and reading authors last year talking about not being sure how to address COVID in their works—if they were even going to. This is probably the best way to do it—acknowledge it happened, look at the changes/difficulties it brought about—and don't get into the details.

POOR LEE FARRELL
This is my biggest beef with the novel—and the more that I think about it, the more it bothers me.

So, Lee's got a big case that he's dealing with and a family member in trouble—and he's still not in the book that much. Belson plays a bigger role than Lee does in the book, which is fine because it's not like Belson gets a lot of use in the Atkins novels, and he shouldn't be put out to pasture. But this was a chance for Lee to get to shine and Lupica let it pass by.

I like Lee, and have since Paper Doll (he was one of the few good things in that novel), but Parker never used him all that much—and Lupica does the same. It's time for Lee Farrell to really get a moment.

SUNNY AND THE MEN IN HER LIFE
There are two other things that Lupica inherited from Parker that he's maintained—but I'd like him to move on. From Family Honor on, there's been this tension between Sunny's independence, being able to make it as a female in a male-dominated world/industry and her being dependent on men like Richie and Spike (and a couple of others) to help out when things get dangerous. I can see revisiting the issue from time to time, but the authors have spent so much time on it, the reader has to wonder—why doesn't Sunny do something about it? Either step up her fitness and martial arts training, or partner up with a female who can handle the shooting and hand-to-hand stuff. They exist.

Similarly is her seemingly everlasting tie to Richie, being unable to let him go—even as it's clear she needs to, for at least his son's sake. Her level of commitment to Jesse Stone could use some definition as well, but that's not going to happen as long as Richie's around (and, I'm not sure Jesse's capable of it). Coleman was able to get Jesse to the point where he was able to let go of Jen (a move that was more overdue than Sunny and Jesse). I'd like to see Sunny do something similar, all that therapy she's received should be enabling her to make some tough choices.

All that said, again, these are inherited themes, ideas, and characteristics. I'm not holding them against Lupica for maintaining it (he can only do so much without getting the fans to rebel). I just think it'd be nice to see.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT PAYBACK?
Lupica is locked-in on this series, he's got a handle on the characters and the stories he wants to tell and gets it done confidently, smoothly, and with just enough flair to keep the reader hooked and turning pages. This was his best yet. I'd describe his first two novels in this series as "good, for a Sunny Randall novel." Payback. is doesn't get the modifier. It's good, period.

* I've got both hardcovers on the shelf next to me, after getting the eARCs from NetGalley. So if that sounds a little more back-handed than I mean that to be, maybe the fact that I shelled out for them takes a bit of the sting out of it.

The prose is crisp. It's engaging and filled with a Parker-esque clarity and wit. The story is compelling and an interesting reaction to things in the zeitgeist, and the characters are as solidly drawn and executed as they were over two decades ago when Sunny debuted. New readers or established Sunny fans alike will find enough to entertain them and will likely come back for more—just like me. I recommend Payback to you.

Sunny Randall is at it again, poking the bear in this 9th volume of the sassy detective adventures centered in Boston. This time she's helping friends. First it's Spike who seems to have lost his restaurant to a hedge fund manage who helped him out financially to keep going during the pandemic. Next is Lee, her cop friend who's asking her to check out his orphaned niece who he's afraid up to her knees in sketchy friends. As Sunny starts to dig into Spike's situation, she finds Lee's niece in the mix and wondering how these two very different situations could possibly be connected. Chases, gun shots, lovers, ex-husbands, ex-father in-law crime bosses, local drug kingpins all are pulled into Sunny's orbit as she tried to searches for answers and killers. The pace is fast, the writing sharp and the characters a hoot. The only thing wrong with this series is that it just takes too long for the next volume to be published.

Robert B. Parker’s Payback
Mike Lupica
5.4.21
I have long admired Robert B. Parker’s writing it is exceptional. When I picked up this book, I saw that a new author is now writing the Sunny Randall books I must admit to some trepidation as to whether or not Mike Lupica could carry on with Robert Parker’s unique style of writing. Often when a franchise is taken over by a new author the essence is changed. The story and the writing may be good or even excellent but the changes keep it from being as good or familiar as the style you’ve grown to love. This is not at all true of this book. The signature humor, wordplay, situations, and characters that make Robert Parker’s books so uniquely wonderful are there in this book in spades. One could believe that Robert Parker wrote it.
I enjoyed it from start to finish. In this book, Sunny Randall gets herself involved with many unsavory characters and they try to scare her off but Sunny is not easily intimidated and pushes on.
In the beginning, there is a man who runs a corporation and is immensely wealthy. During the Pandemic he loans Spike, a friend of Sunny’s, money to keep his bar afloat and then, in an underhanded manner he takes the bar from Spike. One does not cross Sunny nor her friends so she is determined to do something about it.
That is the tip of the iceberg and as she digs deeper, she gets involved with many characters including the Russian mob.
Sunny is a unique character who can hold his own with the best of them. She is tough to those who need tough and gentle to those who need gentle. She is the kind of person one would love to have a couple of drinks with.
She has a strong moral compass and an imbued sense of right and wrong. This story is an amazingly well-written story that is in turn, gripping, amusing, and terrifying.

In Sunny Randall's Boston, sometime after Covid-19, Spike loses his restaurant to Alex Drysdale in a slimy loan deal the hedge fund owner offers Spike during the pandemic to keep Spike's open. After Spike reveals his stupidity for not reviewing the loan details, Sunny vows to get the problem fixed.

Next, Sunny's friend, Lee Farrell, a local policeman, seeks her help with his niece, Emily. A victim of assault, Emily refuses to let her uncle or Sunny help, claiming it is no big deal.

Sunny begins digging into Drysdale's background, and soon Eddie Ross visits her. Eddie threatens Sunny, warning her to stay out of Drysdale's business unless she wants "them" messing in her business.

So Sunny decides to tail Drysdale, and late one night, she observes him leaving a building with Eddie Ross and Emily quickly following him. A search of Emily's college digs uncovers several decks of marked cards and accessories. As Sunny starts putting things together, Drysdale succumbs to a mob-like hit. And Sunny continues to receive threats – to her family and friends as well as herself. Bottom line: high-stakes poker games are the key.

Payback is a compelling example of why Mike Lupica is an exceptional choice to continue the Sunny Randall series for the Parker estate. Lupica provides insight as Sunny deals with ex-husband Richie's emotional pull while she currently dates Jesse Stone. At the same time, Sunny juggles how to help Spike and uncover what connects Emily to Eddie and Drysdale. Payback is surprisingly complex and a suspense-driven story. Lupica proves that Sunny Randall is in good hands.

Another excellent entry in the Sunny Randall series. Mike Lupica has definitely captured the essence of how Robert B. Parker made the characters so well defined. Can’t wait for the next book in the series!

I've said this before more than once, but of the late Robert B. Parker's three primary characters - Spenser, Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall - my least favorite was Sunny. But then Mike Lupica happened - and the Sun has risen a notch. By the time I was a quarter of the way through this one, my instinct told me it was destined for a 5-star rating.

And my instinct was spot-on. This is one of Sunny/Mike's best yet, despite my dislike that the private detective still has her eye on the aforementioned Jesse, chief of police in Paradise, Massachusetts. In fact, the on-again, off-again relationship is pretty much full-on here (grump, grump), but that means I get to read about him as well so guess I can't complain much. Many of the other usual suspects are here as well - including Sunny's ex-husband Richie, Dr. Susan Silverman (Sunny's therapist and, I believe unbeknownst to Sunny, Spenser's main squeeze), and some of the cops and robbers who tend to cross over in all of Parker's series.

But clearly, Sunny is the star of the show here. Her office in Boston is brand new, and the COVID-19 pandemic is history (as an aside, I've noticed a couple of other authors bypassing the pandemic with story settings before and after. A way to allow greater freedom for character interaction, perhaps? Inquiring minds would love to know). Anyway, Sunny's good friend, Spike, is upset because he lost his bar in a loan shark scam - and Sunny vows to help Spike get even (well, at least get the bar back). Problem is, the guy she wants to take down is powerful, rich, and just may have a legally ironclad "deal" for the bar. Meantime, Sunny's cop friend Lee Farrell tells her his niece Emily, a college student, has been assaulted. But the young woman is less than forthcoming, shall we say, making Sunny wonder what the kid's really up to.

As the chapters move farther from the beginning, the two cases move closer together. Sunny knows there's a connection of some kind, but determining exactly what that is becomes a real challenge as some rather nasty people start challenging her right to stick her nose into their business. In the end, with a little help from a couple of friends including Jesse, everything begins to fall into place. The trick, though, may be for Sunny to keep from falling dead before everything comes together.

In short, this is another super series entry for sure - many thanks once again to the publisher, via NetGalley, for providing me with a pre-release copy to read and review.

I started out really liking this book but as I got further in I lost interest. I liked it enough to finish the book but it wasn’t a book I couldn’t put down. You had to pay close attention because there were a lot of characters to keep track of. There were also a lot of twists in the story, I didn’t see the ending coming. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

Mike Lupica has taken over the life of Sunny Randall for Robert B. Parker - and he continues to do great justice in keeping the spirit of Sunny Randall kicking. Surrounded by a wonderful cast of characters, Sunny's purpose this book is two-fold... figure out what the heck is going on with Lee Farrell's niece, Emily, as well as get Spike his bar back. Doesn't everyone need a Spike in their life?? With fantastic dialog and cameos from Jessee and Richie, Sunny forges ahead when all seems stacked against her. It's a great read for a rainy afternoon... Mr. Lupica takes the reader on a scenic and historic tour of Boston all on Sunny's shoulders. And, it the ending still keeps me wondering if Sunny and Spenser with ever cross paths.

I loved it! Sunny and her crew are so different in personality yet come together in friendship to protect each other in this involved mystery. I especially enjoyed Ritchie and Spike as always. I also enjoy her ‘connections’. Wish Tony was in town. Pick this one up and you won’t put it down until you see how everything plays out—surprising even Sunny.
Thank you netgalley and the publisher for this arc