Dead Midnight

Not only does Muller not allow her series to become stale, I really am of the opinion that each successive book in the Sharon McCone series is better than the last. McCone is a satisfying heroine who has grown into her success as the head of her own investigative agency in San Francisco. Unmarried, McCone has not fallen prey to the lack of family ties and relationships that many other females in detective series seem to have in common. McCone's family is large and seems to be in a state of crisis, as most real families are. In Dead Midnight, Sharon must investigate a suicide before she has fully recovered from her reaction to her own brother Joey's suicide just one week before. The Nagasawa family has decided to open an inquiry into the apparent suicide of their son Roger, some two months after his death. Their actions are provoked by a friend of Roger's, Jody Houston, who claims Roger's employers at dot.com magazine "InSite" were somehow entwined with the reasons Roger's life was ended. Through Roger's journal and the eyes of his family and friends, McCone comes to know a self-absorbed young man who is over his head in the secrets that permeate the Insite company. Working with investigative reporter and friend J.D. Smith, McCone unveils unethical business practices, petty office hierarchies and eventually, the reason for Roger's death. Along the way, brief appearances from McCone's cast of comrades (Hy, Ricky and Rae, Charlotte and Mick, and the gang) help her stay grounded while narrowing the search, and trying not to shoulder the blame for Joey's death. A lot of the bitterness and loneliness that invades the female private detective stereotype is not present in McCone, who has taken a lot in stride, both professionally and personally, throughout the long tenure of the popular series. McCone seems to gather wisdom and strength from the bumps in her particular road, much as real women do in middle age. Lastly, the identity of Roger's enemy continues to be a mystery, right up until the very end, keeping the reader engrossed far into the night! At novel's end, McCone is able to come to terms with her own loss and move on with her life. Marcia Muller is an award-winning author because her timing, plotline, and ability to weave familial story lines into police procedurals are unique and satisfying. Dead Midnight leaves you hungry for more! If you haven't read Muller, it's worth a trip back to see a much younger (and more "unwise") McCone in the first novel of the series "Edwin of the Iron Shoes".

San Francisco P.I. Sharon McCone returns: this time with the personal crisis of her brother's suicide to cope with in the midst of the usual crime scenes at work. A seemingly straightforward case to occupy her mind turns into a puzzling investigation of a talented young man's suicide. Excellent drama and swift action provide satisfying plots.

Marcia Muller is the mother of the modern female private eye. Sharon McCone has evolved in fascinating ways since her debut in Edwin of the Iron Shoes. Dead Midnight continues this evolution of this most important of contemporary fictional characters. McCone's counter-cultural roots are slowly vanishing into the abyss of time. She is now an independent business woman and her clients are representative of moneyed San Francisco. In Dead Midnight, McCone tackles a puzzling case that provides intriguing details about our corporate world and today's society. McCone might be a child of the sixties, but she has smoothly made the switch to the new century. Dead Midnight is a great book.

Beginning a Sharon McCone novel is like meeting with old friends: you enjoy finding out what's new with familiar characters and meeting new ones, visiting familiar haunts in San Francisco and knowing you will be entertained from the very first page.This is the 22nd Sharon McCone novel and Marcia Muller is still at the top of her game. Lots of things have happened to Sharon recently, particularly the suicide death of her brother Joey, only a short time after her father's death. Sharon is wondering if she could have done more to help Joey, when she is offered a case involving another suicide. This case, involving Roger Nagasawa, a young employee in a hip, online magazine, is to investigate whether overwork and mistreatment caused his death and thus could be the basis of a lawsuit against the company. Sharon almost refuses to take the case since it is so close to real life. But she does take it and is soon caught up in the vicious dog-eat-dog world of a dot.com struggling to survive. What did Roger find out about a conspiracy to sink the company and what did this have to do with his suicide? A number of clues surface which show Roger had found things someone wanted to hide Before Sharon finds the answer, an old friend is murdered and some of the evidence points to her.Woven integrally into the story are threads of venture capital business, computer security, personal privacy, and greed--all which add interest and intrigue to a very fast paced story.Over the years Sharon McCone has kept the elements that we have enjoyed--her feistiness, ingenuity, and independence but she has also matured, developing a good-sized PI firm and lots of interesting coworkers and supporting characters that we have come to know and love. It just keeps getting better and better....

As everyone is wont to say: time does fly. It's a quarter of a century since ace mystery author Marcia Muller brought San Francisco private eye Sharon McCone onto the literary scene. McCone was one of the first female PIs, and one of the most compelling. She still is. It's hard to believe that Muller is getting better because, for many, she started at the top rung of this genre. Nonetheless, "Dead Midnight" is superb, above and beyond her past work. With this, the 22nd McCone adventure, McCone is still trying to recover from the suicide of her brother. Then, there is another suicide. A talented, hip, young man who has a good job with an online magazine takes his own life. What caused him to leap from the Bay Bridge? His family's sorrow pierces McCone's heart as she relives the grief she felt and still feels at the loss of her brother. Perhaps it is this empathy that enures her to the danger she soon finds herself in. Muller is one in a million and so is McCone. - Gail Cooke