Customer Reviews

Vanishing Point (A Sharon McCone Mystery)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Vanishing Point is the latest instalment in the Sharon McCone mystery series. This time, just as she agrees to marry her longtime love Ripinsky, McCone is asked to investigate the disappearance of Laurel Greenwood, a mother and artist who vanished from San Luis Obispo County two decades ago. Did the woman commit suicide? Was she murdered? Or worse yet--did she abandon her husband and two young daughters out of her own free will?

As McCone sets out to unravel one of the town's most mysterious, unsolved cases, a grim picture begins to emerge. Then things get more complicated when her client--Laurel Greenwood's daughter--also disappears. Is the story repeating itself all over again? Or is Greenwood's daughter searching for her own answers?

The Vanishing Point is a fine novel written by one of today's most popular mystery authors. Muller keeps an even suspense all the way to the end without too many overly commercial cliffhangers. The dialogue sparkles with authenticity. The best thing about the story, however, is how the author interweaves the mystery element with the psychological one. Sharon McCone is a very sympathetic private-eye--sharply intelligent and intrepid, yet with a soft spot for "kittens, puppies, children, [and] grieving widows." How can you not like a beautiful detective vulnerable enough to drool while sleeping in the back seat of a car during an investigation? Recommended for anyone who enjoys a good mystery with strong characterization.

Marcia Muller began writing the Sharon McCone Mystery Series in 1977. Twenty-four books later, her heroine is still interesting and her plots and characters are more multi-layered and complex than ever. In this installment, McCone is called upon by a daughter to find her mother who disappeared over 20 years ago. Sharon's investigation is sandwiched between her marriage to Hy Ripinsky and a reception put on by her ever-dysfunctional family. Muller weaves these subplots nicely together with the mystery of the woman's disappearance in a book which should be pleasing to her many long-time fans.

I've read all the Sharon McCone books over the years. Muller's stories are terrific and I've enjoyed watching Sharon grow and develop. I always look forward to the next one.

All these years later, there's still no one who can hold a candle to Marcia Muller when it comes to writing mystery/suspense novels. Sharon is still the best P.I. out there, and the supporting cast is the best the genre has to offer.

I was dreading this book a little bit due to how the last one ended (I don't much care for the character Hy), so I was glad to see that it focused on the mystery and that Sharon hadn't changed due to marriage.

Now if we could just see the character Rae fade off into the sunset, I'd be very happy.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I especially like the Sharon McCone character. I would recommend it to my friends.

Long-time fans of the series will enjoy many elements of this book: Sharon and Hy finally marry; Sharon's birth mother and adopted mother meet one another; Sharon's agency expands with some new operatives; and Rae finds herself back doing some detection. In addition, there's a dark, detailed plot that builds from a very old, cold case.

One of the strengths of this story comes in Ms. Muller's deft handling of so many past characters and weaving them the on-going story line. It adds a rich texture to the book that builds depth. That texture is nicely developed also by Ms. Muller's strong ability to build a sense of place as almost another character in the story.

The cold case is quite complex and requires an extensive investigation using many resources. But it's not a classic mystery in that you'll be able to put three clues together in the beginning and figure out who did what to whom. Instead, you'll be able to figure out the next plot development in the procedural about 5-15 pages ahead of time.

The book's main drawback comes in its unappealing characters. Most readers like either sympathetic characters or disgusting villains. This book lacked both. The characters were either completely flat, highly superficial or just plain selfish. But there was nothing about them to attract our interest other than the role they played in the plot development.

Authors often have to choose between developing their plots and their characters. While we get lots of character development concerning the missing Laurel Greenwood, it's ultimately unrewarding. The plot's needs won, but it's an unsatisfying victory.

The book's overall theme is about what it takes to make a good marriage. I thought that element was done well. I especially appreciated the nods to Bill Pronzini's nameless detective as part of that message.

But any long-time fan will enjoy the book. New fans should go back to the beginning of the series and delay this book.

Private Investigator Sharon McCone has just returned from Carson City, Nevada, after surprising herself and her large circle of family and friends by eloping with longtime significant other, the dashing Hy Ripinski. They attend a hastily arranged reception and the champagne is still bubbly when Hy is called away on business and Sharon is cornered by her friend Rae to dig up a cold case for a friend.

Sharon's PI business is booming. She has come a long way from the Lost Souls agency in the 1970s. She has expanded her investigative staff to handle all the new business piling up, even during her brief escape to Nevada. Digging into the 22-year-old sudden disappearance of Laurel Greenwood --- wife and mother of two small daughters --- is not at the top of her priority list.

She agrees to interview the now-grown daughter and is given a large retainer and reluctantly consents to talk to authorities and other family members. It is quickly apparent that things don't quite add up. As the case unfolds, the daughter vanishes as suddenly and mysteriously as her mother. Members of Sharon's extended family find themselves entwined in the mystery that begins to point away from suicide or murder to something more sinister. Meanwhile, Sharon and Hy's unconventional marriage, off to anything but an idyllic start, seems downright stable and normal compared to the fractured relationships among the family members of the missing woman.

The complex emotional relationships that surface are skillfully woven into the plot, which twists and turns like the scenic wine country roads along the Northern California coastal region Sharon travels as she embarks on the search.

Laurel Greenwood may be one of Marcia Muller's more complicated and interesting characters, and she treats the complexities of Laurel's troubled past with page-turning intrigue. McCone fans can look forward to Muller's increasingly polished style of storytelling, and they will be treated to a travelogue of some of America's most beautiful country.

--- Reviewed by Roz Shea

San Francisco private investigator Sharon McCone shocks family, friends, colleagues, herself and her significant other corporate security specialist Hy Ripinsky when she agrees to marry him. The wedding is planned to be held in Nevada where before saying yes no one would have taken bets on McCone agreeing to marry even if she loves Hy though they respect one another as professionals.

Meanwhile Jennifer Aldin hires McCone to investigate the disappearance of her mother Laurel Greenwood, who abruptly vanished over two decades ago. Apparently Laurel, a San Luis Obispo County landscape artist never came home from painting a California coastal scene; she left behind two preadolescent daughters and a spouse. McCone explains that the case is beyond cold to absolutely frigid, but agrees to make inquiries as Jennifer explains how it would have felt to be the older at ten years old and your beloved mom never came home. As McCone digs up the past, she uncovers a different portrait of Laurel, a much darker person than that described by Jennifer. When someone tries to frighten her off the case. McCone obstinately digs deeper even as she reconsiders Reno with Hy.

The twenty-fourth McCone mystery is the sleuth at her best as her investigation into the missing mom makes her reconsider marriage. The story line is as always owned by McCone whose personal commitment issues enhance a terrific cold case investigation. Fans of the series will want to read this one sitting novel like yesterday and newcomers will scramble for the backlist. Perhaps the only negative point is that those of us who have followed McCone from the days of her one person office will feel middle age drifting away as thirty years have passed; thank goodness that Marcia Muller has made the years fun.

Harriet Klausner

During her third year at the University of Michigan Marcia Muller's creative writing prof said she would never be a writer because she had nothing to say. How wrong he was! To date she has penned 32 novels and several short story collections. Among her most popular (and plentiful) tales are those featuring detective Sharon McCone, and here's the 24th, sure to keep us glued to our CD players.
At long last Sharon has tied the knot with erstwhile suitor Hy Ripinsky (he, too, is an investigator). They haven't even unpacked after their honeymoon before Sharon is asked to look into the 22-year-old disappearance of an artist, Laural Greenwood. It seems she had gone off one day to paint an outdoor scene and never returned leaving a husband and two young daughters.
Now, of course, the girls are adults and daughter Jennifer wants to know what happened to her mother whom she describes as a model mom, devoted to her family. However, as Sharon begins to investigate she has reason to believe that Laural was not the woman Jennifer describes. In fact, she's beginning to believe that Laural might have been leading a double life and that her marriage was not all it might have been. This raises more questions, very personal ones in the mind of the newly wed Sharon.
Voice performer Susan Ericksen gives her usual sterling narration of this story of a marriage gone awry and a woman who mysteriously vanished.

Fresh, different, and engaging is what Marcia Muller brings to a Sharon McCone mystery. For thirty years she has managed to keep us enthralled and coming back for more.
Newly weds Sharon and Hy Ripinsky barely (literally) have their feet on the ground before during their wedding reception Sharon is asked to investigate the disappearance of a missing mother. A mother who disappeared twenty-two years prior to her daughter's search.
A long into the night page turner as you visit with old friends and make new ones.
Nash Black, author whose books are available in Kindle editions.
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