Customer Reviews

Locked In (Sharon McCone Mysteries)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Written with the precision of a master craftsman, Locked In, by Marcia Muller will excite her fans, just as her previous works have stirred and thrilled them in the past.

In this book, Detective Sharon McCone is shot in the head by an unknown gunman. The devastating injury leaves her unable to move or speak. She can only blink her eyes in response to questions, but her mind is as sharp as ever. The reader enters Sharon's thoughts and misery as she confronts her fears and her frustration. Is she going to die? Will she be taken off of life support? She cannot communicate, so how can she save herself, or find the person who did this to her? Sharon is on a rollercoaster ride between death and life.

Ms. Muller's latest mystery is well-developed, unique, suspense filled, and very moving. It was also a fast read. I finished it within 24 hours.

Sharon "Shar" McCone has worked so many cases from Private Investigation firm she owns and always thought the best case was the resolved case. But she never thought that she would solve the case that involved her own shooting and all this without a voice but being she is pivotal to solving this crime.

This nightmare all starts one night when Shar being at the wrong place at the wrong time results in receiving a bullet to the head. Though her team is frantic for answers and at first scramble for direction they never lose the focus of finding whoever did this to her. While they have to watch Shar in a medically frozen condition known as "locked-in" syndrome where she has rational thought but cannot move or communicate in any fashion. But even without an ability of physical movement or a voice it is apparent that she was going to help them solve the crime and Shar is trying very hard to get someone; especially her husband Hy to hear her and figure out that she has a voice even without words.

What Shar has filled her life with multi-faceted family member and friends who she has over the years help save and reconstruct their own lives. Now that it is her turn to be the victim and the crime to be solved everyone in the agency from the top down strives to find the person who shot Shar and bring them to justice one way or another. There is no one on her team from her nephew Mick, her complicated biological and adoptive parents to everyone one at the office. They all share bloodlines whether by relation or devotion to one another.

But every time an answer seems to reveal itself another problem arises and when the individual pieces of the case collide headlong into each other it appears there may be more than embezzlement problems at city hall to investigate there may be a traitor amongst the team. How could someone slip past the background check, is it possible that a devoted employee is really a snake in the grass?

This long running series has always been a winner but this book has so many twists and a story within the story that you are totally enthralled with the way everything plays out. You go down one road only to hit a dead end but that dead end takes you through the woods where you find evidence that may lead to yet another clue. The multiple point-of-views may distract at first from following the plot but trust me there is not one moment where you feel you are missing any of the action because there is so much of it and allot of people to tell the story. For Shar to go from case solver to the victim completely throws everyone off balance but every member of her team proves they are a group of individuals that can act as one.

Mary Gramlich (The Reading Reviewer) [...]

If you aren't already a Sharon McCone fan, don't read this book. Locked In assumes the reader recognizes members of Sharon's biological, adopted and professional family. Part of the charm of this book is seeing the way these folks respond to Sharon's accident and assume new roles.

Sure we get a few details as each character is introduced, just enough to remind us who they are. But if you're new to the series, you will probably be confused and maybe even bored.

I was dismayed when I first opened the book and realized the premise. I didn't like it. I like Sharon McCone as tough investigator, not hospital patient. But, encouraged by other reviewers, I dipped back into the novel and soon got hooked.

Muller introduces each piece of a complex puzzle. She does a masterful job of keeping the different characters, suspects, leads and stories straight and consistent. As you read each character's involvement, you see the pieces come together, with an intricate plot and generally plausible motives. Part of the political subplot seemed a little over the top. It's not as deeply satisfying as my favorite in the series, Listen to the Silence. We don't get the character depth of other Muller novels because each character zips in and out, like actors in an ensemble production.

But as contemporary mystery novels go, this one is one of the best. I was never tempted to peek at the ending and I had to force myself to stop and do some work. That's what a good mystery does.
Highly recommended to Sharon McCone fans. Otherwise, start with some of the earlier novels...you've go a lot to read and you are lucky to be discovering this series.

But it's definitely a solid piece of writing and a suspenseful novel.

There is no doubt that Marcia Muller is one of the top mystery writers working today. She has the Grand Masters Award from the Mystery Writers of America plus a host of other honors to prove it. However, her army of readers don't need these affirmations to know that a Muller book is going to intrigue and entertain them.

Best known for stories featuring private investigator Sharon McCone this author suprises us with her latest, Locked In. McCone has been a top favorite since her debut in 1977; we think we know her pretty well. Nonetheless, this title's opener is a real shocker: on a misty July night in San Francisco McCone's vintage MG runs out of gas. Fortunately, she's not too far from her office on the Pier and she takes off for it on foot. Once at the security grille to the Pier she called for the security guard, Lewis, a problem alcoholic. He's not to be found. She uses her security code to open the door to the Pier's entrance, climbs the stairs to the office's catwalk, and finds the door unlocked. It's dark inside, there's a sudden motion -she is shot.

The bullet has entered her brain leaving her in a comatose state known as locked-in syndrome. She cannot speak or move, totally paralyzed and can communicate only by blinking her eyes in response to a question. So, for once McCone is not at the leader of a crime investigation but the center of it as her team rallies, scurrying for clues, determined to find out who shot McCone and why.

What this scenario does in the talented hands of author Muller is allow the reader not only to be fascinated as the reasons for the shooting are revealed but also to become better acquainted with the major players in this series as each one turns over every rock searching for the assailant.

Of course, McCone series readers are familiar with Hy Ripinsky, partner and husband to McCone yet here he is revealed in utter anguish as he remembers his past and articulates his hopes for a future with McCone. There is Latina Julia Rafael who'd "been hooking and dealing on the tough streets of the Mission district when she was a teenager,"but McCone saw so much more and placed confidence in her, helping Julia to turn her life around.

There's Mick Savage, McCone's nephew who had pulled some pretty dumb stunts, but his aunt "had been solid as a rock, taking him seriously, treating him like a man when he was only a kid." He loved her and he owed her.

These and others are united by their determination to catch whoever had almost killed McCone. Revelations of what they are finding are interspersed with thoughts running through McCone's mind as she is by turns discouraged, enraged, and bent on somehow escaping the prison that her body has become.

For this reader Locked In is the best of the McCone series, and that's saying quite a bit!

- Gail Cooke

I have read all of the Marcia Muller Sharon McCone novels and this has to be one of my favorites. I like the way all the characters get their own chapters and their own missions. To see how the investigation comes together and all the pieces fit together is riveting. I did not want the story to end but it ended well and now I have pre-ordered the new book. Thank you Marcia for making the locked in syndrome so real and from a unique perspective.

Sharon McCone is paralized in this story and that's a first for any of the McCone series books. It's almost a shock because you know her so well and ask yourself how can she live the rest of her life this way. Not be able to talk, breathe on her own, confined to a bed with Hy at her side. Read Read Read. She is paralized, but not in her brain and the team supports her and Hy loves her beyonds words. What a curious twist for a story. I loved it. Enjoy.

In San Francisco private investigator Sharon McCone is returning to her office late at night when she interrupts a burglary in progress. The thief shoots her.

When she regains consciousness, McCone finds herself totally paralyzed in a bed at San Francisco General where she realizes she can only move her eyelids by blinking. The staff at her workplace McCone Investigations worries about their boss who is diagnosed with Locked-In Syndrome and taken to specialized Brandt Neurological Institute. Her crew and her spouse Hy Ripinsky look at the recent caseload and communicate with McCone through her use of her eyelids answering yes and no questions even as she is about to undergo emergency surgery.

Although the ending is fully expected, this is one of the best McCone thrillers that Marcia Muller has ever written as the sleuth is LOCKED IN her body while trying to help her spouse and her employees solve the cases she was working on which includes the assault. The story line is fast-paced and filled with action, which affirms Marcia Muller's skills as much occurs in the hospital room with the paralyzed heroine. Fans will be spellbound by a frustrated McCone who can only blink her way to help solving the mysteries.

Harriet Klausner

This is certainly one of the most interesting and intense McCone books I have read! So interesting the way Ms. Muller changes voices in each chapter and how fast the action in the book moves! I could not wait to finish the book and then wished there was more!!!!

"When I kept silent, my bones grew old
Through my groaning all the day long." -- Psalm 32:3

Imagine that you are the victim of a terrible crime and awake from the trauma to find that no one knows you are conscious. How could you track down the people who did it to you?

That's the fascinating premise of this latest entry in the distinguished Sharon McCone mystery series. It opens the doors for using the little gray cells, as M. Hercule Poirot would say. It also opens the doors for Sharon McCone's family and friends to take center stage in doing the sleuthing to find out who broke into the agency and attacked Sharon.

Like most detective agencies, there is more than the average number of sleazy characters among the clientele. Can running down the agency's cases turn up the criminal? Everyone surely hopes so.

At the same time, each person finds himself or herself tested by the desire for making things right or for seeking revenge. The result is a fascinating series of character studies that will only be appealing to those who are long-time fans of the series and know the characters well. Otherwise, the delicate developments may not mean much to you as a reader.

Although I liked the story very much, it felt a little contrived and a little too neat in the plot development for me. There needed to be more blind alleys and frustrations than the plot offered to make the reader feel as frustrated as the fictional McCone should have felt.

I admire, as always, Marcia Muller's astonishing ability to involve lots of continuing characters into a single story in meaningful ways. It's no wonder that her colleagues view her as a Grand Master. I heartily concur.

Marcia Muller (and her husband Bill Pronzini) are hands down my two favorite authors. My theory (proven until now) is that I can pick up a book from either of the two written in one of their series and just know it will be great. This latest book, unfortunately, let me down in that regard. It's not that it is a bad read - a mediocre Marcia Muller still beats most any other author, but compared to her other books in this series it was just so-so. I found it very distracting that it jumped from character to character to character after barely a couple pages of writing. It was tedious to keep up with the story line and remember who was taking the current lead. I also found myself very frustrated in dealing with the locked-in syndrome consequences. In fact, I did something I NEVER do with her books - I jumped to the last chapter to see if she came out of it ok. I presumed she did, but was not sure if this was Marcia's creative way of saying good-bye to her character. SPOILER ALERT. Fortunately, she comes out of it ok as I presumed she would, but it was a big relief. I LOVE this series as a whole.

I confess part of my angst is that I am currently dealing with a relative recovering from a serious stroke. Frankly, I read to escape my troubles and just didn't want to deal with Sharon's medical issues as well. As I presume many of her readers are also Baby Boomers and dealing with similar issues, I suspect others feel the same as I do.

So - worth a read? Yes, but don't expect the sterling work you usually see from this author.