Somewhere in the City: Selected Stories [Paperback]

Marcia Muller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2007

"Her stories crackle like few others on the mystery landscape."-San Francisco Chronicle

"One of the treasures of the genre."-Chicago Tribune

A new collection of Marcia Muller's best short fiction from the past twenty years, including hardboiled private-eye, horror, western, and psychological suspense stories.

Marcia Muller, a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, is the author of more than twenty novels. She has been awarded the Private Eye Writers of America Life Achievement Award; her books have been nominated for Best Crime Novel at the Edgars, and she has won the Anthony Boucher Award. She lives in California.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fans of hard-boiled PI Sharon McCone will welcome the first story collection from MWA Grand Master Muller, who shows she's just as adept at writing western and ghost tales as detective fiction. Several of the 19 selections feature McCone or her engaging apprentice, Rae Kelleher. In the harrowing title story, McCone seeks a mentally disturbed man trapped somewhere in the rubble of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. The volume's best tale, The Wall, focuses on the search for a missing teenager and the clues Kelleher unearths in a massive collage on the girl's bedroom wall. Notable among the western tales, mostly set in turn-of-the-20th-century California, is The Indian Witch, about a boy's brief encounter with a reclusive Native American woman. Muller's penchant for social commentary may strike some readers as too politically correct, but all will appreciate her gift for good storytelling. (Sept.)
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From Booklist

In this collection, acclaimed mystery novelist Muller (she holds the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, the Private Eye Writers of America Life Achievement Award, and the Anthony Boucher Award) has assembled 30 years' worth of her short fiction, including vignettes, traditional short stories, and one novella. The 19 stories range from horror tales and westerns to a variety of crime fiction, including a Muller trademark, "place" mysteries, in which the action is confined to and defined by its setting, whether a Victorian home, or a decrepit hotel, or Fort Point, at the southern base of the Golden Gate Bridge. The novella, "The Wall," is a masterpiece of condensed place—the discovery of a missing teen girl hinges on the private eye's reading of the clues on the girl's bedroom bulletin board. The various investigators at the All Souls Legal Cooperative take star turns doing first-person narratives in several gripping mysteries.Wide-ranging and satisfying, with an introduction by the author that gives some fascinating insight into her work methods and sources of inspiration. Fletcher, Connie

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Product Details

• Paperback: 372 pages
• Publisher: Pegasus Books (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933648341
• ISBN-13: 978-1933648347
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,340,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars MANY REPEATS, October 6, 2007

By 

Desert Woman (Arizona USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Somewhere in the City: Selected Stories (Paperback)

I love Marcia Muller and hate to write anything negative, but I was excited about getting a book of new short stories, and so many are repeats. There are 19 stories in the book, and ten were already published in other collections: The Place that Time Forgot, Somewhere in the City, Final Resting Place, Silent Night, Benny's Space, The Lost Coast, and Deceptions are in "The McCone Files." The Holes in the System, The Wall, and Up at the Riverside are in "McCone and Friends."

I'm sure I'll enjoy the remaining nine stories, but I'm going to read them carefully and then give this book to someone for Christmas. At least I've started my holiday shopping!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Somewhere in the City, September 14, 2007

By 

Sandra Cusack "biblioholic" (Illinois) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Somewhere in the City: Selected Stories (Paperback)

I've been a fan of Marcia Muller for more than 15 years now and she continues to delight me! This collection of short stories fills in some of the holes in the McCone series that the novels sometimes don't address. A great read that can be enjoyed in small bites.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Somewhere in the City by Marcia Muller, February 18, 2008

By 

Mrs. M. Drennan (scotland) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Somewhere in the City: Selected Stories (Paperback)

Good reading because of the variety of stories included,and the different main characters,not always Sharon McCone.Gives you a chance to compare the authors writing style when different characters are speaking.Really good for picking up and leaving again which isn't always such a good thing to do with a novel.