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3.42 AVERAGE
3.42 AVERAGE
Another fun Sharon McCone mystery. In this enjoyable read, McCone proves herself to be a capable, intelligent female private eye that successfully solves the case!
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
2.5 because there are many flaws but it is still readable (partly because it is so short).
Sharon’s cop friend s insufferable - continues to call her by a nickname she’s already said is offensive and pressures her to make more of their relationship.
Her divorced friend who comes to stay is very poorly written- not believable
Sharon adopts the cat owned by the murder victim and then is gone from her apartment most of the time after that. The car is basically forgotten - probably deceased from neglect by the end of the book.
The “action” scenes are not well written. The final confrontation with the killer is one of those scenes where the person has to explain everything instead of just killing someone’s.
Other reviewers indicate that the books get better later in the series so I might read another.
Sharon’s cop friend s insufferable - continues to call her by a nickname she’s already said is offensive and pressures her to make more of their relationship.
Her divorced friend who comes to stay is very poorly written- not believable
Sharon adopts the cat owned by the murder victim and then is gone from her apartment most of the time after that. The car is basically forgotten - probably deceased from neglect by the end of the book.
The “action” scenes are not well written. The final confrontation with the killer is one of those scenes where the person has to explain everything instead of just killing someone’s.
Other reviewers indicate that the books get better later in the series so I might read another.
This was a nice installment in the series, but I am starting to see two major issues which have gotten worse in this book and are making me doubt this series as a whole:
1. The police is useless, which is a problem all by itself, but it also casts the detective interested in the heroine in a very unavailable light, and makes even the proposition of her considering him a shadow on her character (his constant use of racial slurs, however self aware and ironic, is not helping his case).
2. The heroine has too much personal and immediate exposure to all sorts of criminal activity, which makes no sense, given her background and current job (which job we haven't seen her perform at all even after 2 full books!). The amount of sordid relationships in her immediate circle is also starting to look wonky.
I get that it's the 70's, but still.
1. The police is useless, which is a problem all by itself, but it also casts the detective interested in the heroine in a very unavailable light, and makes even the proposition of her considering him a shadow on her character (his constant use of racial slurs, however self aware and ironic, is not helping his case).
2. The heroine has too much personal and immediate exposure to all sorts of criminal activity, which makes no sense, given her background and current job (which job we haven't seen her perform at all even after 2 full books!). The amount of sordid relationships in her immediate circle is also starting to look wonky.
I get that it's the 70's, but still.
Muller gets better in the later books in the series. For now, her dialogue is of epic proportions of tin ear silliness, her characters tend to reveal all when asked what they are doing, and the brevity of her writing, while making this a good choice for a beach read, is not actually much better than a DIY cable channel show.
Still, drama, trauma and murder. A good choice for mild entertainment on a rainy Sunday.
Still, drama, trauma and murder. A good choice for mild entertainment on a rainy Sunday.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Fun older style murder mystery. Nice light read.
The last time I listened to this on audio was probably 20 years ago, and a lot of it "came back to me" while listening this time around. I appreciated that there was an actual mystery here and not simply a serial killer running amok. Stylistically Muller is still in her late 70s/early 80s mode, and I spent the whole book wanting to tell the Linnea character to "snap out of it!" - but entertaining listen with a "slice of life" feel to the depiction of McCone's neighborhood.
Reading some of the early books in this series, you see how the author has matured as a writer when compared with newer work. Unless you are interested in the entire series, it is probably not essential to read some of these early books.