A Walk Through the Fire - Hardcover

Muller, Marcia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0892966882 ISBN 13: 9780892966882

Publisher: Mysterious Pr, 1999

Synopsis

While investigating sabotage on the set of a controversial film in Hawaii, San Francisco sleuth Sharon McCone, in her latest mystery, finds a violent world of long-buried family secrets, drug dealing, political machinations, and murder. 40,000 first printing.

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Reviews

Marketing strategy for Sharon McCone's San Francisco investigative agency seems confined to waiting around for friends or relatives to get in trouble. Not to worry, they never fail her. This time out, in Sharon's 18th case (Both Ends of the Night, 1997, etc.), it's Glenna Stanleigh calling. She's in a state (Hawaii) because someone's trying to stop her from filming her documentary. There have been accidents (rigged), stolen equipment, and finally a near-death experience. All warnings, Glenna feels certain. She wants Sharon to hire on as resident sleuth. As special inducement, she suggests that Sharon bring along hunkish Hy Ripinsky, Sharon's long-time lover and make it ``a vacation of sorts.'' (Marlow, Spade, cover your ears.) Sharon, who is in the p.i. because helping people, she tells us, ``makes me feel valuable,'' finds the proposition irresistible. Glenna's film is about Ellson Wellbright, an anthropologist of considerable renown. Wellright family members take a dimmer view: not much of a husband, low marks as a father, is the consensus, thus it's there that Sharon first looks for Glenna's nemesis. But her investigation soon widens to include a coterie of militant Hawaiian radicals and the inevitable gaggle of plot-thickening drug dealers. For a time, a charming and virile helicopter pilot has the detective in a whirl. Sharon, usually so locked into Ripinsky that thoughts of straying never enter her mind, entertains thoughts of, well, straying. There are murders, a sting, a chase, and a gasp-free surprise ending, during which the killer is unmasked. The plotting is heavy-handed, the pace heavy-footed, but McCone admirers will remain unshakeable. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

YA-In this 20th book in the series, detective Sharon McCone and her lover Hy Ripinsky are called to Hawaii when a friend's film crew is plagued with accidents. The documentary he is making about the island's gods and goddesses has awakened the ire of someone or something, and it's up to McCone and Ripinsky to discover who or what is threatening this potentially award-winning work. As the PI delves into the accidents, she finds that the family of the film backer has more than its share of secrets, each of which could have an impact on the project. Smooth writing, an entertaining plot, and sustained suspense contribute to Muller's reputation as a top-notch writer of gumshoe mysteries.
Pam Spencer, Young Adult Literature Specialist, Virginia Beach, VA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In the 20th Sharon McCone mystery, the San Francisco-based PI leaves her usual haunts for Hawaii. McCone's downstairs office neighbor, Glenna Stanleigh, is a documentary filmmaker with a project on the island of Kauai. Glenna and her partner, Peter Wellbright, are making a film about Hawaiian legends and myths, based on the writings of Peter's father, Elson Wellbright, a descendant of early missionaries to the islands. There have been a series of accidents on the film set, and Glenna suspects that someone is trying to kill her or a member of her crew. Can McCone help? McCone is not licensed to operate in Hawaii, so she takes along her lover, Hy Ripinsky, and finds a way to work with the local branch of his security company, RKI. As she delves into the curious circumstances on the set, McCone keeps running into trouble with the large, influential and badly dysfunctional Wellbright family. Two family membersAElson himself and his youngest sonAhave gone missing for some years, and nobody seems to care much. As her inquiries lead her inevitably into learning more about the local folklore and history, McCone falls under the spell of the islands. She also fights an attraction to Russ Tanner, a local helicopter pilot and distant relative of the Wellbrights. Along with a taut, expertly plotted story, Muller conveys the magical appeal of Kauai, as well as the long-simmering resentment of some of the islanders toward white settlers. The Hawaiian setting, so well employed by Muller, reinvigorates a veteran, if a consistently entertaining and imaginative, PI series.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Fans of the female PI genre who haven't met Muller's Sharon McCone--one of the first to appear in print--are missing a real treat. McCone is smart but not intimidating, down-to-earth but not dull, and daring but not foolish. She's also one helluva good detective. In McCone's latest outing, documentary filmmaker Glenna Stanleigh employs her to come to Hawaii to investigate a series of frightening accidents plaguing the cast and crew of Glenna's new documentary. Glenna fears that someone is staging the "accidents" to keep the documentary from being made. When Sharon and her longtime love interest/investigative partner, Hy Ripinsky, arrive in Hawaii, they find the situation has gone from bad to worse. On top of everything else, McCone finds herself attracted to a handsome helicopter pilot, and her relationship with Ripinsky founders. There's passion, danger, and drama aplenty as McCone works to solve the case and bring her relationship with Hy back on an even keel. As usual, Muller's concocted yet another winner in this highly successful series. Emily Melton

In her 20th appearance, Sharon McCone is seduced by the legends of Hawaii and nearly by one particular Hawaiian. Brought to Kauai initially to investigate "accidents" on the set of her filmmaker friend's documentary, McCone finds herself dealing with murder, Hawaiian militants, and drug dealers. At times deliciously devious, the plot, which combines past and present ? la Ross MacDonald, ultimately may be too complex even for diehard mystery readers. Nevertheless, Muller fans will await this.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Mysterious Pr
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0892966882
• ISBN 13: 9780892966882
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 293