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Summary
Summary
The bestselling author of Both Ends of the Night adds a timely and terrifying new entry to her award-winning Sharon McCone series, as the San Francisco P.I. pulls out all the stops to find a criminal who is impersonating her.
Author Notes
Marcia Muller, novelist, short-story writer and anthologist, was born in Detroit in 1944. She attended the University of Michigan, where she studied writing.
Edwin of the Iron Shoes (1977) was her first book featuring Sharon McCone, a female private eye strong enough to compete in the male-dominated crime genre. In 1993, Muller was given the Private Eye Writers of America Life Achievement Award, and the following year her novel Wolf in the Shadows won the Anthony Boucher Award and was nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Crime Novel.
Muller is the co-author of the Carpenter and Quincannon Mystery series with Bill Pronzini.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
That's when Sharon McCone, ace San Francisco PI, grapples with nightmares in this gripping 19th outing in 20 years (following Both Ends of the Night, 1997). Someone is impersonating Sharon, wearing her name-tag at parties, sleeping with unsuitable men, committing crimes of which the detective can be accused, erasing her phone messages, using her credit cards, even breaking into her apartment, mistreating her cat and opening a bottle of her favorite wine. The imitator seems to want to become the PI, but why? McCone's mood isn't helped when one of her assistants, Ted Smalley, starts acting weirdly, and her lover, Hy Ripinsky, seems to be pinned down in a mysterious kidnapping in Latin America and is out of touch for far too long. McCone has to work hard to stay afloat under fearful pressure, and only the loyal teamwork of her crew and her determination to run her nemesis to earth brings a hard-won release. Her new flying skills are put to good use in a nail-biting climax as her doppelgnger steals her and Ripinsky's cherished Citabria plane . As always, Muller's straightforward, no-nonsense writing and fully dimensioned characterizations lend credibility and color to her deftly plotted tale. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Someone is stalking Sharon McCone. Not merely stalking but impersonating. Not merely impersonating but trying to improve on her--trying to be, in Sharon's phrase, ``a better McCone.'' At first the experience is little more than annoying to the ace investigator in her 19th adventure (Both Ends of the Night, 1997, etc.). It puts her out, for instance, to learn that she wore this clingy, very chic teal gown to a party she didn't happen to attend. Soon enough, though, annoyance gives way to fury as matters escalate wildly: Sharon discovers she's gone to bed with a man shes never set eyes on; then there's the handing out of spurious McCone business cards, the unwelcome counseling of prospective McCone clients, and, worst of all, the nasty phone calls to members of the McCone family--all acts perpetrated by McCone's would-be clone. When the real Sharon is almost arrested for petty larceny, she knows she better do something proactive. It's about then that a promising idea gets needlessly sabotaged. Instead of the crisp, lean action piece Muller was well on her way to producing, she diverts to a Ross Macdonaldlike journey into the pretender's past. Bad decision. The past turns out to be lengthy, derivative, and dull. And narrative muscle converts to flab. Starts well, stumbles, never recovers.
Booklist Review
Someone is impersonating Sharon McCone, making big trouble for the Bay Area investigator and threatening her impeccable reputation. When her double escalates from a troublemaker to a menacing stalker, McCone finds herself in a personal contest with a woman who thinks just like her and is also one step ahead of her. Muller, in her nineteenth outing with PI McCone, who made her debut in 1977--before Warshawski, before Millhone, before the scores of other female detectives--has produced another in a series of fast-paced, superbly crafted mysteries featuring an eminently appealing protagonist. McCone is extremely professional and quite thorough but not immune to rage, as her foe breaks into her home, violates the sanctity of her beach retreat, and hijacks her precious private airplane. With her lover, Hy, absent and unreachable, McCone even reveals a touch of vulnerability. Inevitably, her stalker, a brilliant but demented nemesis, issues the challenge that sets up a thrilling one-on-one finale. (Reviewed April 15, 1998)0892966505Benjamin Segedin
Library Journal Review
It seems like a sick prank when savvy private investigator Sharon McCone discovers that someone is impersonating her, sleeping around with guys the impostor picks up at various high-profile social soirees, and maxing out McCone's credit cards. But what initially appears to be an attempt to sully her reputation escalates into a threat to her life, and McCone finds herself in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse as she delves into the psychology of stalking to uncover the identity and motives of her tormentor. This latest installment in the McCone series will not disappoint readers who have come to rely on Muller (Both Ends of the Night, Audio Reviews, LJ 11/1/97) to provide a deftly crafted plot revolving around a timely issue, and a cast of multidimensional characters operating in a richly drawn atmosphere. Narrator Jean Reed Bahle's affable reading is a nice match for the likable McCone, although infrequent but bothersome sound effects should have been skipped. A solid core of readers of the McCone series makes this a worthy choice for popular fiction collections.Linda Bredengerd, Hanley Lib., Univ. of Pittsburgh, Bradford, PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.