1982 mystery; second in Muller's series about Sharon McCone, private
investigator in San Francisco. One of Sharon's neighbours in her
apartment building is strangled, and it looks worryingly as if
Sharon's house-guest, who's prone to alcoholic amnesia, might have
done it.
There are plenty more suspects, of course, including "Madame
Anya", the local psychic, who gives the book its title. To me the real
theme of this book is sudden mutual distrust in an area that thought
of itself as a local community in the big city, but which discovers
that it doesn't really know its members terribly well.
This is a twisty story of the "everyone has a secret" school, though
the non-murderous ones are still related to the general situation. The
mystery may not challenge the expert, but it satisfied me, and the
side stories are powerfully-told too. There's a particularly effective
sequence as Sharon stalks/is stalked through a darkened disused
church.
This is more of a character piece than the first book, but
unfortunately most of the characters aren't terribly interesting. It
has its moments nonetheless. Followed by Cheshire Cat's Eye.
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