BURN OUT
Marcia Muller
Grand Central Publishing
Mystery
ISBN: 9780446581073
When Sharon McCone started the All Souls Detective Agency in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, its purpose was altruistic. Her team of family and friends set a goal to help people who fell through the cracks of the criminal justice system. They tracked down the bad guys the old-fashioned, gumshoe way: door knocking, rummaging through public records, mind- and butt-numbing stakeouts in unsavory places. Her clients tended to fly below the radar of the media and often the police.
Over the years Sharon’s reputation grew until she attracted a clientele who actually paid their bills. Her success coincided with the gentrification of San Francisco’s waterfront until she now headed a large, high-tech agency out of a classy Pier office condominium. Listening devices, tracking sensors and a staff of computer geniuses who could hack into private systems were at her beck and call. They had hung up their gumshoes for night vision glasses and laptop computers connected via satellite. Her recent marriage to Hy Ripinsky, a former CIA operative with a worldwide clientele of his own, was partially responsible for the expansion. Business was booming, but did the personal risks outweigh the thrill of success?
Their most recent breaking news, TV bulletin, media event capture of The Burning Man left her burned out. The terrorist bomber had killed one of her employees, destroyed her home and office, and she almost lost her own life. The incident also nearly ended her marriage.
Depressed and suffering from nightmares, Sharon retreats to the peace and isolation of her ranch in the High Sierras, where she can come to terms with her future. She finds that the ranch caretakers, Ramon Perez and his wife, are facing a family crisis. Their drug-addicted niece, Hayley, disappears, then is found murdered. Hayley’s promising younger sister also vanishes, and their mother commits suicide. Sharon offers to help find Amy and immediately is pulled into a dangerous situation that is much more complex than it seems.
This time, she doesn’t need her high-tech employees to help Ramon and his family. When two more local people die mysteriously, Sharon calls upon family members from her American Indian roots, and through the “moccasin highway” she finds the connection between these lost souls and the wealthy property owners near her ranch. The trail leads from Las Vegas to the vast reaches of the Toiyabe National Forest as Sharon finds herself right back in harm’s way.
Award-winning author Marcia Muller’s tightly plotted mysteries continue to please her fans. BURN OUT shows us a favorite heroine uncharacteristically out of control at a stage in life nearly all of us reach at some point. She is able to return to her roots of helping people who would otherwise fall through those same cracks, whose lost lives might go unnoticed except by those closest to them. We might not have the resources to bounce back through such an adventurous re-entry into reality, but it certainly makes for a great escape for mystery lovers everywhere.
--- Reviewed by Roz Shea
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