A Wild and Lonely Place

Starred review from July 31, 1995
Flying solo, swimming in the dark and losing her heart to a nine-year-old girl, the nearly-40 Sharon McCone tests her strength and her principles in this action-packed, affecting 16th adventure (after Till the Butchers Cut Him Down). A series of bombings at embassies, consulates and U.N. delegation offices in the U.S. over the last five years is the work of someone the feds and the San Francisco police call the Diplo-bomber. A $1-million reward has been offered, and Sharon signs on with the slick security office of RKI, where her boyfriend Hy Ripinski is loosely connected, to investigate. Recently targeted is the local consulate of Azad, a small Arab emirate; during an interview with the woman consul general, Sharon meets her granddaughter Habiba, whose isolated loneliness reminds Sharon of her own childhood. Unmet is Habiba's father, who disappeared years before, apparently after getting in gambling trouble. More bombings, a murder and a kidnapping lead Sharon to a small Caribbean island, a dramatic late-night rescue and then a desperate flight from Miami to California as she tries to stay a step ahead of the kidnappers. The Diplo-bomber case promises more violence and, not incidentally, craters the career of a policewoman friend before its resolution. A mellow, engaging and determined Sharon here heads a diverse and intriguing supporting cast, notably members of the family that once owned the island. Major ad/promo.

April 1, 1995
Muller's most recent whodunit, Till the Butchers Cut Him Down (LJ 7/94), managed to sell more than 30,000 copies in hardcover. Here, gumshoe Sharon McCone is hot on the trail of a missing nine-year-old girl.

May 15, 1995
Hard to believe that fearless P.I. Sharon McCone is grappling with world-weariness, approaching the "big four-oh," and lamenting the distance she's traveled from her innocent early days at All Souls Legal Co-op. But even a midlife crisis doesn't stop McCone from getting involved in the case of the "Diplo Bomber," a terrorist who has maimed or killed half a dozen foreign diplomats. San Francisco homicide cop Adah Joslyn enlists McCone's help when the bomber warns that his next target will be the San Francisco^-based consulate of Azad, an oil-rich Arab emirate. But it's not until McCone meets the engaging nine-year-old granddaughter of the Azad consul that she gets hooked. The case is as puzzling and frustrating as any she's worked on, taking her from San Francisco's seamy underworld to the sparkling beauty of a remote Caribbean island. And just when McCone thinks she's finally figured out who the bomber is, even "she"'s surprised by one final, macabre twist. Once again, Muller, the reigning queen of the female P.I. genre, gives her readers the kind of superbly crafted, riveting thriller they've come to expect. ((Reviewed May 15, 1995))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1995, American Library Association.)