A Sharon McCone Mystery Series by Marcia Muller
A Sharon McCone Mystery #1
Edwin of the Iron Shoes
Marcia Muller
The book that launched the massively popular series! It's Sharon McCone's first case as staff investigator for All Souls Legal Cooperative. She knows nothing about antiques, yet she has an affection for Salem Street with its charming mix of antique and curio shops. Now elderly dealer Joan Albritton has been found dead, stabbed with an antique dagger. Her neighbors are shocked. Recurring vandalism has them frightened. And McCone's introduction to Lieutenant Gregory Marcus doesn't help matters. Ferreting out the facts will take Sharon from the chaotic jumble of the junk dealer's establishment to a museum where San Francisco's most elegant socialites gather.About the AuthorMarcia Muller is the author of more than thirty-five novels including twenty-five featuring PI Sharon McCone. She's been recognized with the 2005 Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America, the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award, a Ridley Award, an American Mystery Award, and the Anthony Award.
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A Sharon McCone Mystery #5
Leave a Message for Willie
Marcia Muller
Amid the shifting world of San Francisco flea markets, shady vendors sell junk, precious antiques, and stolen goods side by side. Somewhere in the mix, a priceless collection of sacred Torah scrolls is gathering dust - and attracting a group of fanatical killers.When private investigator Sharon McCone helps one flea market kingpin fend off a stalker, she's drawn into the netherworld of deal-making and thievery, a dangerous milieu seldom seen by outsiders. For her client Willie Whelan, the sidewalk sales are a game: trick the customer, outsell the competition, and stay one step ahead of the cops. But Willie's enemies have something more sinister in mind - a conspiracy so heinous it threatens the religious artifacts, Willie's freedom, and McCone's life.
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A Sharon McCone Mystery #7
There's Nothing to Be Afraid Of
Marcia Muller
The Globe Apartments, six stories of decaying brick and concrete, rises above San Francisco's volatile Tenderloin district. The seedy former hotel, once a haven for the city's down and out, now houses Vietnamese families striving to improve their lives. But private eye Sharon McCone believes that someone from the Tenderloin's shadowy underworld is determined to drive the newcomers out. The suspects range from the colorful to the dangerous: a poetry-loving drifter, a mean-spirited preacher, a flower seller with a deadly touch, an enterprising photographer, and a developer who'd like nothing better than to unload his worst investment - the Globe Hotel.When the All Souls Legal Cooperative is called upon to stop the patterns of intimidation, resentment explodes into murder. As McCone takes up the refugees' cause, she is drawn into the depths of the city's most hated industry - and into the secrets of San Francisco's buried past.
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A Sharon McCone Mystery #11
Trophies and Dead Things
Marcia Muller
A RANDOM SERIES OF MURDERS IS ONLY a succession of headlines in the San Francisco Chronicle for investigator Sharon McCone until one of her legal co-op's clients becomes a victim. Perry Hilderly had been a founder of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement in the early 1960s. Although he had settled down and drawn up a proper will several years earlier, a holograph document was found among his possessions ... the new will disinherits his children and leaves his considerable estate to four unknowns.As Sharon tries to track down this strange quartet, she wonders what connection they had had with the dead man. One is a popular news anchor, one is a successful divorce attorney, one runs a Marin County horse stable, and the fourth is an alcoholic oysterman. Before long, Sharon notices a pattern--a tangled pattern of involvement leading back to the Vietnam War.When the random killer starts to strike closer to home, the facts behind Hilderly's death become less abstract. Never before has Sharon become so personally involved in a case--and faced so squarely the brutal consequences of murderous rage.
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A Sharon McCone Mystery #12
Where Echoes Live
Marcia Muller
IN HER TWELFTH OUTING, P.I. Sharon McCone leaves her San Francisco turf for the forbidding high desert landscape of Tufa Lake near the Nevada border. An environmental group thinks that the Hong Kong-based Transpacific Corporation has some dubious plans for an abandoned gold mine near the ghost town of Promiseville.Sharon's investigation takes a grim turn when the bullet-riddled body of a Transpacific employee turns up in Tula Lake. Then a local prospector suddenly disappears and Lionel Ong, the president of Transpacific, is kidnapped. Has one of the environmental activists, perhaps the mysterious Hy Ripinsky, taken matters into his own hands?As she pieces together the interlocking puzzle of personal histories and private interests that led to murder, Sharon finds that her heart won't follow where her logic leads. It takes a final explosive confrontation and a hard look at her own darkest impulses to solve the most disturbing case of her career.
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A Sharon McCone Mystery #13
Pennies on a Dead Woman's Eyes
Marcia Muller
Feeling guilty for testifying against her mother more than thirty years ago in a trial for the murder of a wild San Francisco debutante, a young woman asks Sharon McCone to help reopen the case. 25,000 first printing.From Publishers WeeklyThe 13th Sharon McCone mystery brings good luck to readers as Muller's veteran San Francisco PI explores crimes of passion and politics as they were played out in the Bay Area during the pre-Beat 1950s. In an intricate plot, McCone agrees to help lawyer Jack Stuart, her colleague at All Souls Legal Cooperative, build a case he will retry in the legal profession's Historical Tribunal. Stuart will defend Lisstet Benedict, who was recently released from prison after doing time for killing and mutilating her husband's young lover in 1956. Benedict was convicted on the testimony of her then-10-year-old daughter, now Stuart's lover, who hopes a new trial will turn up evidence, clearing her mother and exonerating herself. McCone finds herself emotionally drawn into the decades-old crime, especially to the murder scene--a now-uninhabited Seacliff mansion that then housed the Institute of North American Studies, a conservative think tank where Benedict's husband worked. Anti-Communist sentiment and personal betrayal figure large in the resolution of the 36-year-old crime and contemporary deaths that its revisiting inspire. Vintage Muller. Mystery Guild dual main selection; Reader's Digest Condensed Book selection. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalIn another lawyer-oriented mystery, established series investigator Sharon McCone uses her wiles to solve a 36-year-old slaying. The recently released woman convicted of killing a beautiful San Francisco socialite asks McCone to prepare her defense for a mock trial at the Historical Tribunal--a task that McCone approaches with some misgivings until phone threats, confrontations, and another murder prove that someone doesn't want the case reopened. Steadily mounting tension climaxes in the re-created trial. Sure to interest series regulars and even draw a few new fans. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/92.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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A Sharon McCone Mystery #15
Till the Butchers Cut Him Down
Marcia Muller
P.I. Sharon McCone has struck out on her own and needs all the clients she can get - even a shady character from her Berkeley days. From the moment T.J. "Suitcase" Gordon whisks her off in his private helicopter, complaining of death threats, her life will never be the same....From Publishers WeeklyWhile Muller continues to reveal new facets of character in her San Francisco PI, Sharon McCone, this latest case, the 15th, is considerably tamer than the Mexican border skirmishing featured in her 1993 Edgar-nominated A Wolf in the Shadows. McCone has just left the All-Souls Legal Cooperative and opened her own business when an eccentric friend from her UC-Berkeley days, who now specializes in rescuing failing corporations, asks her to find out who is sabotaging his efforts to save a San Francisco shipping firm and threatening his life. T. J. "Suitcase" Gordon reports some odd accidents, but McCone suspects that the obsessively private man may also be paranoid. She meets Gordon's wife Anna, who could have been her sister ("we looked that much alike"), but then an explosion destroys the Gordons' secluded northern California home, leaving Anna dead. With Gordon in reclusive mourning, Sharon investigates two of his past projects, one in a revived Nevada ghost town and another at a moribund steel center in Pennsylvania. Unearthing possible revenge motives and another murder victim, she draws the killer's malevolent attention to herself back in San Francisco. A final, abrupt climax caps this adventure, whose cast--outside of always amiable Sharon, her eager, troublesome nephew/assistant and her barely glimpsed lover, Hy Ripinsky--is a generally unengaging lot. Mystery Guild selection. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalProblems of the heart, ambivalent feelings of independence, and acute observations of reality lend investigator Sharon McCone a solid and enduring foundation of credibility. The San Francisco series heroine opens McCone Investigations with the bizarre case of a long-ago friend and onetime lover who believes someone wants him dead. McCone must first separate truth from fantasy, since the highly paid but lonely corporate turnaround man may just be paranoid, imagining several attempts on his life. Muller (Pennies on a Dead Woman's Eyes, LJ 6/1/92) maintains her exemplary high standards: great female private eye, smooth flowing narrative, and riveting plot.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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A Sharon McCone Mystery #17
A Wild and Lonely Place
Marcia Muller
It's worth a $1 Million reward to Sharon McCone if she catches the man called the Diplo-bomber, who has set off bombs at consulates all over the U.S. Now he's in San Francisco--and that's McCone's turf. When he misses his latest target, the embassy of a small Arab emirate, McCone's on the spot--and soon discovers some disturbing things about this strange, forbidding embassy. One is the American woman kept a virtual prisoner there by her Arab mother-in-law. The other is a mischievous, lonely nine-year-old girl who's in grave danger not only from the terrorist but also from her estranged playboy father. Went the child disappears, McCone follows her trail to a desolate Caribbean island. Here McCone's rescue mission takes her dangerously close to death and the hidden motive behind the Diplo-bomber's explosions. Now, with a child's life hanging in the balance, what McCone plans to do may either be called cold-blooded murder...or justice.
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A Sharon McCone Mystery #24
Dead Midnight
Marcia Muller
Sharon McCone has decided to throw herself into work so she can get past her brother's suicide, but the wrongful-death suit she is working on hits too close to home. It's a civil case in which the family of a young 'zine employee claims his suicide was the result of his company's treatment of him. In his final journal entry, Roger Nagasawa describes his fatal plunge from the San Francisco Bridge as being "swept away from sadness." With the help of her friend, J.D. Smith, McCone investigates the InSite offices and soon learns of its publisher's less-than-professional activities. She also learns that Roger had been afraid for his life since he was a witness to computer espionage. Faced with the death of her friend, Smith, and the sudden disappearance of Roger's associate, McCone must keep one step ahead of the game and solve this mystery -- or else become the next victim.Amazon.com ReviewSharon McCone, Marcia Muller's street-smart, San Francisco PI, is still dealing with the emotional aftermath of her brother Joey's suicide when she's hired by Roger Nagasawa's parents to prove that their son died of overwork, and that he was driven to kill himself by the brutal, high-pressure atmosphere at Insite, the hip online magazine that employed him. Enlisting the help of her reporter friend J.D., McCone learns that the magazine is failing, despite the millions in venture capital that's supposedly financing it. The mystery deepens when she retrieves deleted files from Roger's computer suggesting that he knew who was sabotaging the magazine and shared that information, which he characterized as "insurance," with Jody Houston, a close friend, before he jumped off the Bay Bridge. Tracking Houston to an isolated cabin on the Oregon coast, McCone stumbles over the dead body of her friend J.D., and then finds herself framed for his murder. By the time she uncovers the truth about Roger's suicide and unmasks J.D.'s killer, she's confronted her remorse over Joey's death and put a painful part of her own past behind her. As usual, Muller turns in a solidly plotted, well-paced mystery with a heroine who grows in self-awareness and complexity with every new adventure. --Jane AdamsFrom Publishers WeeklyMuller and her private eye Sharon McCone have come a long way since Edwin of the Iron Shoes (1977), which introduced McCone and inspired a generation of female mystery writers. Since then Muller's writing has become richer and her novels more complex, with many startling changes in the socially conscious San Francisco detective's life. This is Muller's best yet, with a case that parallels a personal tragedy McCone is trying to understand her brother Joey's recent suicide. Roger Nagasawa, scion of a wealthy Japanese-American family, has killed himself. Roger's heartbroken parents plan to sue his employer, a hip online magazine, for wrongful death because of rumored brutal working conditions. As usual in McCone mysteries, greed and corruption lie beneath the surface. First, Jody Houston, Roger's friend to whom he'd revealed illegal financial activities at the magazine, disappears. Then Max Engstrom, Roger's maniacal boss, tells Sharon that someone is sabotaging his business and one of his backers has vanished. More deaths ensue. After McCone retrieves Roger's computer files detailing his discoveries, she's almost killed. Muller deftly uses familiar devices electronic embezzlement and shady real estate deals in a convoluted but provocative plot. Her love of San Francisco is evident from her vivid descriptions of the city and its history. Although her villains are often obvious, she delves deeply into the human psyche for motivation. Readers will be thoroughly satisfied.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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A Sharon McCone Mystery #25
The Dangerous Hour
Marcia Muller
Marcia Muller's beloved heroine Sharon McCone is back to investigate a personal betrayal by one of her operatives that has put her business and reputation on the line.From Publishers WeeklyIn Muller's 23rd page-turner about scrappy, smart PI Sharon McCone (Dead Midnight, etc.), McCone now heads her own firm, McCone Investigations, a successful, established agency with a growing staff and more work than they can keep up with. But someone from her past would like to see her fail and is willing to take out her close associates to do so. When Julia Rafael, a young investigator whom McCone decided to take on despite her checkered youth, is accused of stealing the credit card of Supervisor Alex Aguilar, the man being groomed to be San Francisco's first Hispanic mayor, the criminal investigation could have dire implications for McCone Investigations. McCone's initial doubts about her employee quickly give way to a determination to discover who's trying to sabotage her company. Muller has a knack for painting a full picture of McCone's life without getting too cutesy (even when discussing cat health care), and readers with a taste for romance will enjoy the direction her relationship with the dashing Hy Ripinsky is taking. While the plot is a bit by-the-book and the high-stakes confrontations could be more compelling, fans should be well satisfied. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistPI Sharon McCone has barely had time to appreciate the hard-won success of her firm when one of her operatives is arrested, putting the whole agency at risk. Is reserved, almost standoffish Julia Rafael, who has a juvenile record, guilty? If not, why in the world would Alex Aguilar, one of San Francisco's up-and-coming Hispanic politicians, accuse her of stealing his credit card? It doesn't take Sharon long to recognize that it's up to her to sort out the mess, and when she begins digging into Aguilar's past, she finds that he has some unpleasant secrets--one of which leads her to the realization that a vengeful killer is out there, and Julia isn't the real target. Muller's plotting isn't quite as tidy as usual (she has to stretch pretty far to bring everything in line by the end), but once again she gives us a solid slice of a San Francisco community and a protagonist with character. Fans of the sturdy, ongoing series will be especially pleased with the final scene, which opens the way for a new chapter in McCone's personal life. Stephanie ZvirinCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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A Sharon McCone Mystery #31
Coming Back
Marcia Muller
In Locked In, San Francisco private eye Sharon McCone was shot in the head and suffered from locked-in syndrome: almost total paralysis but with an alert, conscious mind. Now, as Sharon struggles to regain control over her body, she wants everything to go back to normal, but realizes that it may not be possible to return to her old life. Meanwhile, Sharon's relationships are suffering. Her husband is impatient with her refusal to accept help and some of her colleagues doubt her abilities after the accident. But when Sharon's friend from physical therapy goes missing, she must call upon those closest to her to find out the truth behind the disappearance. The investigation soon points to issues of national security and proves to be the most dangerous and critical case yet for Sharon and her colleagues.ReviewOn LOCKED IN:"Throughout her many McCone novels, Muller has displayed a knack both for keeping the series fresh and for allowing her character to grow. She accomplishes both goals this time by taking McCone out of the spotlight but giving her fans a chance to root for her to recover. After all these years, Muller's series remains a gold standard for female detective stories." (Kirkus, starred review)"Top-notch mystery and more from one of the genre's Grand Masters." (Library Journal)"Seeing Sharon McCone come back is a special pleasure-don't miss it." (Library Journal, starred review) About the AuthorMARCIA MULLER has written many novels and short stories. Her novel WOLF IN THE SHADOWS won the Anthony Boucher Award. The recipient of the Private Eye Writers of America's Lifetime Achievement Award and the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award--their highest accolade--she lives in northern California with her husband, mystery writer Bill Pronzini.
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A Sharon McCone Mystery #32
City of Whispers
Marcia Muller
Private eye Sharon McCone receives an e-mail asking for help from her emotionally disturbed half brother Darcy Blackhawk. She replies . . . but gets no response. As Sharon digs deeper, she discovers that Darcy sent his message from an Internet café in San Francisco, a city he's never been to before. Sensing that her brother is in terrible danger, Sharon begins a search for him throughout the city.The investigation leads her to the body of a woman at the Palace of Fine Arts, where a witness had told her that Darcy was headed. Then, as she digs deeper, Sharon uncovers a connection to the unsolved murder of a young heiress to a multimillion-dollar banking fortune. Now Sharon must race to solve both murders and ensure her brother's safety, despite the imminent danger that lurks within her own family.ReviewOn Locked In:"Muller's series remains a gold standard for female detective stories." (Kirkus (starred review))"Top-notch mystery and more from one of the genre's Grand Masters." (Library Journal) About the AuthorMarcia Muller is the author of more than thirty–five novels including twenty–five featuring PI Sharon McCone. She's been recognized with the 2005 Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America, the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award, a Ridley Award, an American Mystery Award, and the Anthony Award.
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A Sharon McCone Mystery #33
Looking for Yesterday
Marcia Muller
Three years ago, Caro Warrick was acquitted for the murder of her best friend Amelia Bettencourt, but the lingering doubts of everyone around Caro are affecting her life. Sharon McCone is confident that she can succeed where other detectives have failed (though at times it's hard to shake her own misgivings about what happened), but when Caro is brutally beaten right at Sharon's doorstep, the investigation takes on a whole new course. How many more people remain at risk until Amelia's murderer is finally caught?ReviewOn LOCKED IN:"Throughout her many McCone novels, Muller has displayed a knack both for keeping the series fresh and for allowing her character to grow. She accomplishes both goals this time by taking McCone out of the spotlight but giving her fans a chance to root for her to recover. After all these years, Muller's series remains a gold standard for female detective stories." (Kirkus, starred review )"Top-notch mystery and more from one of the genre's Grand Masters." (Library Journal ) ReviewOn LOCKED IN:"Throughout her many McCone novels, Muller has displayed a knack both for keeping the series fresh and for allowing her character to grow. She accomplishes both goals this time by taking McCone out of the spotlight but giving her fans a chance to root for her to recover. After all these years, Muller's series remains a gold standard for female detective stories." (Kirkus, starred review )"Top-notch mystery and more from one of the genre's Grand Masters." (Library Journal )
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