“The Night Searchers”
When new clients Jay and Camilla Givens come to Sharon McCone with Camilla's stories of devil worshippers performing human sacrifices in San Francisco, the detective is skeptical, to say the least.
However, when she discovers that Jay is involved with the treasure hunting group The Night Searchers, she starts looking into what exactly he and the other participants are up to after dark.
As she digs deeper into the Searchers, Sharon joins their ranks in order to find out more-while someone is searching for her.
Things seem to be going smoothly for Joanna Stark; she is beginning to get over the fear that has haunted her since her near-fatal encounter (in There Hangs the Knife) with Antony Parducci, former lover, art forger, thief. But arriving home after lunch at her son's winery-to-be in their town of Sonoma, Joanna finds her house broken into and a painting—one of no value but of great significance to Joanna—has been stolen.
The painting has been taken, and other subtle clues left, she knows, on purpose in order to frighten her. She is convinced that Parducci, whom she had left for dead in England, has been there, has come to kill her.
Joanna is alone with her fear. Her stepson, E.J., convinced the man is certainly dead, will urge her to put him out of her mind; it's unhealthy, he's told her, to dwell on past fears. Moved to confide in a woman friend, Joanna is drawn into another mystery—the provenance and ownership of two very valuable paintings that no one had known about. Oddly, mysteries and anomalies begin to match, one with the other; and, like a giant spider, Parducci seems to be at the center of it all.
The future’s looking bright for Sharon McCone and the staff of McCone Investigations—until one of the firm’s operatives, Julia Rafael, is arrested for major credit card fraud.
A former juvenile delinquent, Julia was a risky hire, but by all accounts had been turning her life around. Banking on her innocence, Sharon goes to work looking for the real thief—only to discover a cache of illegal merchandise stashed in Julia’s apartment.
Is it the damning evidence that will seal her employee’s fate, or the key to a larger conspiracy? Sharon must find out the truth...or lose her firm and reputation in the process.
“The Ever-running Man”
Sharon McCone is hired by her husband's security firm to track down "the ever-running man," a shadowy figure who has been leaving explosive devices at their various offices.
She doesn't have to search for long. When McCone narrowly escapes an explosion at the security firm's San Francisco offices, she catches a glimpse of his retreating figure.
The ever-running man is dangerously close--and anyone connected to the firm seems to be within his deadly range. To complicate matters, McCone is forced to question her intensely private husband, Hy, about his involvement in some of the firm's dark secrets.
The history of corruption may jeopardize their marriage, but uncovering the secrets of the firm may be the only way she can save her husband's life, and her own.
“Looking for Yesterday”
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?
The Spook Lights Affair and Both Ends of the Night
These two books were a disappointment for me.
“Looking for Yesterday”
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?
These two books were a disappointment for me.
Her literary aspirations were put on hold, however, in her third year at the University of Michigan, when her creative writing instructor told her she would never be a writer because she had nothing to say.
Instead she turned to journalism, earning a master's degree, but various editors for whom she freelanced noticed her unfortunate tendency to embellish the facts in order to make the pieces more interesting.
In the early 1970s, having moved to California, Muller found herself unemployable and began experimenting with mystery novels, because they were what she liked to read. After three manuscripts and five years of rejection, "Edwin of the Iron Shoes," the first novel featuring San Francisco private investigator Sharon McCone, was published by David McKay Company, who then cancelled their mystery list.
Four more years passed before St. Martin's Press accepted the second McCone novel, "Ask the Cards a Question." In the ensuing 30-some years, Muller has authored over 35 novels--three of them in collaboration with husband Bill Pronzini.
