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.
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.