Review by Booklist Review
PI Sharon McCone and her business-partner husband, Hy, are happily settled into their new home and, finally, a shared office space. Enter Gage Renshaw, Hy's former partner, a shady character missing so long he was presumed dead very much alive and as unsettling as ever. When Hy is seconded by the FBI for a delicate hostage negotiation, Sharon must deal with Gage on her own. Several plotlines converge in an abandoned house targeted for demolition. In addition to the unfolding mystery, author Muller shares her reflections, via Sharon, on the radical changes in her beloved San Francisco. This is the thirty-third installment of this classic series (after 2014's The Night Searchers), and much has indeed changed since it began in 1977. MWA Grand Master Muller, however, never changes, except to get better. She consistently maintains her award-winning style. This series is highly recommended for mystery fans of all ages. Sharon is timeless, and Muller always surrounds her with an engaging cast of characters to keep the iconic PI in top form.--Murphy, Jane Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
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. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Sharon McCone and Hy Ripinsky have melded their personal and professional lives, getting married and forming -McCone-Ripinsky Investigations. But when Hy's old nemesis Gage Renshaw shows up, Hy disappears and Sharon has to deal with Gage alone. The latest in Muller's enduring series follows The Night Searchers. © Copyright 2016. 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 latest case resurrects a miscreant long thought dead with plenty of mischief left in him. McCone and Hy Ripinsky, her husband and partner, think their biggest problem on moving into their brand-new office building is the hideous sculpture noted Latino artist Flavio St. John stuck over the entryway. They're disillusioned by the apparition of Gage Renshaw, a creep who once joined Ripinsky in private flights delivering dubious people and goods to shady locations in Southeast Asia. Against all odds, Renshaw is still alive and as creepy as ever. He makes no secret of the fact that he's dropped in at McCone and Ripinsky's new office to torment them but refuses to say what he knows or wants or plans to get the revenge he thinks he's due. While she's waiting to find out, McCone takes a case for an apparently unrelated client: omnivorous merchant Chad Kenyon, whose latest purchasea decrepit house on Webster Street, in San Francisco's Western Additionseems a lot less canny when he learns that it's infested with lowlifes who aren't paying rent or following several other laws. McCone, who'll eventually remind her partner that "elder statesperson isn't what either of us is cut out to be," goes to check out the building and gets shoved down a flight of stairs. But it isn't until the place burns to the ground that she begins to suspect that her two cases may not be that unrelated after all. Fans can expect the workmanlike, uninspired plotting typical of the franchise (The Night Searchers, 2014, etc.), with lots of room for the heroine's and hero's ubiquitous friends and contacts and a particularly neat solution to the opening problem. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
