RogerBW's Blog

Pennies on a Dead Woman's Eyes, Marcia Muller 20 August 2018

1992 mystery, twelfth in Muller's series about Sharon McCone, private investigator in San Francisco. Thirty-six years ago, Lis Benedict was convicted of the gruesome murder of her husband's mistress; she's just been let out of prison on grounds of ill health, and her daughter's vowed to clear her name at a trial re-enactment. But as McCone investigates the long-buried case, it becomes clear that people still have something to lose.

The motivation is weak at first – the Historical Tribunal has no legal force, it's just a show to attract attention to old cases, and although it might give some closure to the family it's Lis's daughter who's pressing for it more than Lis herself. But Lis is being harrassed with graffiti and phone calls, and Sharon's informer suddenly clams up after he tries to find out who did it.

The people work very well – they're reasonably reluctant to talk to Sharon about embarrassing things, and they each try to make themselves look good in their contradictory statements. The case is a bit less convincing: the eventual resolution is just one of many possible ones, and with key evidence withheld by the narrator I don't think there's a way for the reader to be sure they've got the right solution. More seriously, a particular death is declared to be a suicide on what seems to me desperately insufficient evidence, but nobody ever questions it.

Communication is made an ongoing problem in a way that pegs this as an historical mystery: all the business of asking to borrow people's phones, and leaving numbers and getting messages, has become obsolete far faster than corrupt lawyers and memories of communist subversion. But there's plenty of local colour, and the story is well-rooted in its San Francisco setting.

I wouldn't choose to start here, but I'm still enjoying this series. Followed by Wolf in the Shadows.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Previous in series: Where Echoes Live | Series: Sharon McCone | Next in series: Wolf in the Shadows

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech aviation base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2022 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1