Someone Always Knows

May 2, 2016
The return of the presumed dead Gage Renshaw, the treacherous former business partner of Hy Ripinksy, Sharon McCone’s husband, kicks off MWA Grand Master Muller’s diverting but lightweight 33rd outing for veteran San Francisco PI McCone (after 2014’s The Night Searchers). Initially playing his cards close to the vest, Renshaw begins tailing and harassing McCone, Ripinsky, and their operatives as they pursue a full plate of cases, including a new assignment from deep-pocketed Chad Kenyon to secure a derelict and squatter-overrun but potentially valuable Victorian house that he has just purchased. By the time it becomes apparent Renshaw has a very particular interest of his own in the property, there’s already one dead body—and very real peril to McCone. Aided by her protagonist’s pilot’s license, Muller keeps the action literally flying, moving from vividly detailed Bay Area neighborhoods down to a Baja fishing village and up to Ripinsky and McCone’s high desert ranch, but she proves less sure-handed when it comes to providing a satisfying denouement. Agent: Molly Friedrich, Friedrich Literary.

This thirty-second book in the Sharon McCone series assumes one is familiar with the characters. There's no subtlety in the plot, characters, or narration. Laura Hicks reflects McCone's brash "in-your-face" attitude in her dealings with friends, clients, and strangers alike. She and her husband/business partner have finally re-established their home and private detective agency office after a fire uprooted them when her former partner, thought to be dead, appears to cause trouble. Hicks introduces a few glimpses of vulnerability at appropriate places but generally proceeds full-steam-ahead, leaving no doubt that McCone intends to take matters in hand. J.E.M. � AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine