While Other People Sleep - Hardcover

Muller, Marcia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0892966505 ISBN 13: 9780892966509

Publisher: Mysterious Pr, 1998

Synopsis

San Francisco P.I. Sharon McCone suffers as an imposter takes over her credit cards and even her home, but when she is framed for a murder she did not commit, Sharon pulls out all the stops to find the woman responsible. 40,000 first printing.

About this title

Reviews

That's when Sharon McCone, ace San Francisco PI, grapples with nightmares in this gripping 19th outing in 20 years (following Both Ends of the Night, 1997). Someone is impersonating Sharon, wearing her name-tag at parties, sleeping with unsuitable men, committing crimes of which the detective can be accused, erasing her phone messages, using her credit cards, even breaking into her apartment, mistreating her cat and opening a bottle of her favorite wine. The imitator seems to want to become the PI, but why? McCone's mood isn't helped when one of her assistants, Ted Smalley, starts acting weirdly, and her lover, Hy Ripinsky, seems to be pinned down in a mysterious kidnapping in Latin America and is out of touch for far too long. McCone has to work hard to stay afloat under fearful pressure, and only the loyal teamwork of her crew and her determination to run her nemesis to earth brings a hard-won release. Her new flying skills are put to good use in a nail-biting climax as her doppelg?nger steals her and Ripinsky's cherished Citabria plane . As always, Muller's straightforward, no-nonsense writing and fully dimensioned characterizations lend credibility and color to her deftly plotted tale.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Someone is stalking Sharon McCone. Not merely stalking but impersonating. Not merely impersonating but trying to improve on her--trying to be, in Sharon's phrase, ``a better McCone.'' At first the experience is little more than annoying to the ace investigator in her 19th adventure (Both Ends of the Night, 1997, etc.). It puts her out, for instance, to learn that she wore this clingy, very chic teal gown to a party she didn't happen to attend. Soon enough, though, annoyance gives way to fury as matters escalate wildly: Sharon discovers she's gone to bed with a man shes never set eyes on; then there's the handing out of spurious McCone business cards, the unwelcome counseling of prospective McCone clients, and, worst of all, the nasty phone calls to members of the McCone family--all acts perpetrated by McCone's would-be clone. When the real Sharon is almost arrested for petty larceny, she knows she better do something proactive. It's about then that a promising idea gets needlessly sabotaged. Instead of the crisp, lean action piece Muller was well on her way to producing, she diverts to a Ross Macdonaldlike journey into the pretender's past. Bad decision. The past turns out to be lengthy, derivative, and dull. And narrative muscle converts to flab. Starts well, stumbles, never recovers. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The renowned Sharon McCone finds life and livelihood threatened by a malicious look-alike. When police detain Sharon for a crime committed by the imposter, anger spurs her to find her double. An essential purchase from the author of Both Ends of the Night (LJ 3/1/97).
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Mysterious Pr
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0892966505
• ISBN 13: 9780892966509
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 344