When Sharon McCone’s elderly father travels from Montana to spend Christmas with his known private investigator daughter in San Fransisco, California, the holiday season goes from festive to devastating in a heartbeat.
Sharon’s father, Elwood, is a semi-famous Shoshone artist. After traveling to San Fransisco, he goes shopping in the exclusive Marina district, looking for the perfect gift to get his daughter. Instead, he’s targeted in what originally appears to be a racially-charged attack and is violently beaten into a coma.
While her father lies in a hospital bed, stuck somewhere between life and death, Sharon decides to take matters into her own hands after the understaffed local police force does little to find Elwood’s attacker.
After pursuing the attack as a hate crime, Sharon eventually suspects that the attack might instead be related to her. That theory seems to take hold when Sharon’s office is tossed, forcing her to question who might want to take a shot at her through her father.
While the characters have obviously developed over the course of Muller’s long-running series, there isn’t a ton of backstory laid out in this book. Newcomers may struggle to understand the characters at first, before settling in once the plot takes off. While the pacing is quick, it’s also a tad choppy at times early on, though it does settle down as Muller finds her groove around the midway point.
Marcia Muller’s thirty-second Sharon McCone novel features a fast-paced plot that twists, turns and winds its way to an explosive ending. Fans of Muller’s series will appreciate another adventure with McCone, who takes on one of her most personal cases yet.
Book Details
Author: Marcia Muller
Series: Sharon McCone #32
Pages: 272 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 1455538922
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: August 8, 2017
Book Spy Rating: 6/10
Order Now!