Review by Booklist Review
San Francisco private eye Sharon McCone returns in a superbly plotted, briskly paced mystery. Investigating a series of threatening letters sent to her brother-in-law, country singer Ricky Savage, McCone gets embroiled in a chilling case involving someone determined to halt his rising star. Suspects range from higher-ups at the singer's former record label, who resent Savage for starting his own record company, to a former lover, who holds him accountable for alleged promises never kept. Whoever it is has unique access to Savage, his family, and his band; leaves plenty of clues; and jeopardizes the release of Savage's latest record and the launching of his promotional tour. To complicate things further, Savage's marriage to McCone's sister is on the rocks, and he takes up with one of McCone's agents. Despite the assistance of McCone's lover, Hy Ripinsky, and his high-powered security firm, the threats multiply. In the seventeenth McCone caper, Muller reveals the underbelly of the recording industry, showing how success makes strange bedfellows and how fame can take a terrible toll. As the story races to a stunning climax, its aura of paranoia becomes nearly palpable. (Reviewed April 1, 1996)0892966211Benjamin Segedin
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Muller surpasses herself with this vigorous and trenchant mystery thriller, exploring stardom and family life, ambition and revenge, loneliness and conflicting loyalties. In her 17th appearance (after A Wild and Lonely Place and Wolf in the Shadows), the continuously evolving San Francisco PI Sharon McCone, now the head of her own small firm, learns from her brother-in-law, country music megastar Ricky Savage, of increasingly incoherent anonymous notes being sent to his unlisted address, all asking the same question: "Whatever happened to my song?" Agreeing to investigate, Sharon is propelled into both the twisted, oversized world of celebrity and the more intimate devastation occurring within her sister Charlene's family. At the Savage mansion in San Diego hills, Sharon and her lover, security specialist Hy Ripinsky, find the family in turmoil, with Ricky and Charlene, who has found someone new, on the verge of divorce. As the threats escalate to include the six Savage children, safeguards are breached and Ricky's manager is injured in a shooting. With Ricky's major tour approaching, Sharon links the notes to an aspiring singer with whom Ricky had a one-night stand in Texas years before, a woman who pursued him so relentlessly he sent two of his band members, now deceased, to rough her up. While Sharon's associate and friend Rae Kelleher is increasingly involved in tracking down the Texas singer-and with Ricky-Sharon wonders if she and Hy might also be drifting apart. Leading Sharon into the rocky psychological terrain of families, Muller gives her meticulously plotted story, with its absorbing picture of the music industry, a commanding emotional authenticity. Mystery Guild selection. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Sharon McCone's latest brings danger close to home as McCone attempts to protect her brother-in-law, country singer Ricky Savage. Threatening letters disturb his already disintegrating marriage, but McCone can help only if Savage comes clean about his past. A necessary purchase. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Sharon McCone's 17th case (A Wild and Lonely Place, 1995, etc.) is a family affair in all the worst ways. The client who's been getting cryptic threats (six different notes asking, ``Whatever happened to my song?''), country-music sensation Ricky Savage, is married to her sister Charlene. Even before he left giant Transamerica Records to strike out on his own, Ricky's marriage was under a strain, and now it looks as if his three- year-old affair with hopeful Austin singer Patricia Terriss will wreck it for good--if vengeful Patricia doesn't return from the past to kill Ricky first. Ricky's kids, including McCone's computer expert Mickey Savage, are shattered by their parents' impending split, and Charlene is already taking comfort with a new man. And the latest lover in Ricky's life is none other than Rae Kelleher, McCone's #1 operative and longtime friend. As Transamerica plots a nationwide radio blackout of Ricky's latest single, and McCone and her pals ferret out the secrets of Ricky's affair with Patricia Terriss and try to identify her contact inside Ricky's inner circle, the threats slowly escalate from letters to toxic bouquets to gunshots. But it isn't till a climactic concert in Albuquerque on a date forever immortal to Patricia that McCone & Co. will finally put the pieces together. Like all of McCone's recent cases, this one has the architecture of Ross Macdonald, but now without his economy or insight. It's still well worth reading, though, as a piercing study of the smashup of a fictional detective's family.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
