Publisher's Weekly Review
With this extraordinarily complex, gripping novel, Muller surpasses the previous stories of Sharon McCone, San Francisco-based private eye. Sharon relates details in the case that takes her to meet Bobby Fisher in San Quentin where he's doomed to the gas chamber for the murder of Tracy Kostakos, a popular comic. Hoping to save Bobby, the investigator questions the owners of the Club Comedie, Jay Larkey and his partner, Rob Soriano, Soriano's wife and everyone else who had known Tracy, including her parents, fiance and roommate. The consensus is that the witty monologuist paradoxically lacked a sense of humor but had created hilarious routines by cruelly parodying people close to her. Digging deeper into the said already, ok? entertainer's past, Sharon unearths evidence that she may pay for with her own life. Evoking the atmosphere of San Francisco's special places, Muller makes one feel particularly the ``shape of dread'' on death row and provokes thought on the finality of capital punishment. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Once again, San Francisco detective Sharon McCone (The Cheshire Cat's Eye, etc.) is faced with what seems an impossible mission--to find what really happened to up-and-coming comedienne Tracy Kostakos, for whose murder young, black Bobby Foster awaits execution. Tracy's body was never found; Foster's lawyer is convinced of his innocence--despite a confession--and so is Sharon as she digs into the events of two years ago. Tracy, daughter of university professors Laura and George, now separated, seemed a model of probity and purpose. But Sharon soon discovers that she was an unscrupulous user of the people in her life--Cafe Comedie owner Jay Larkey; lesbian waitress Lisa McIntyre, who vanished soon after Tracy's disappearance; ambitious comic Marc Emmons; and Foster, then a car valet at the club. Tracy slept with all of them--grist to her act--but seemed to be troubled by some other mysterious transgression just before the fateful night. Within days, Sharon has uncovered evidence that seems to clear Foster and has found a body--Tracy? Lisa?--at the remote shack owned by Tracy's roommate Amy Barbour, who's now living with Emmons. Too many wheels-within-wheels confuse and diffuse this story's impact after a gripping start. Sharon's unconvincing affair with George Kostakos and a melodramatic, tangled finish don't help. Overall, then, more than readable but just average for the often superior Muller. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
