Customer Reviews

Vanishing Point (Sharon McCone Series)

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

While I enjoy reading any novel involving the character of Sharon McCone, I thought this one was a little weak. Hy is used for just windw dressing. The mystery is not as riveting and involved as others in the series.

I have read every novel in the Sharon McCone series and have them all in my collection. When I found this book at Barnes and Noble and read the description I was giddy with anticipation. I wanted to read about the relationship between Sharon and Hy as man and wife. I was very disappointed.

The plot line is basic and good. A daughter wants to find her mother who disappeared over twenty years ago. Closure is all she wants although her sister would just as soon let it be. Thus begins the chase all around the northern California coast, ending in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Whew! So little time was spent in San Francisco that the office people who I have come to know and adore, were virtually non-existent. Most of the conversation is stilted and the majority is done over the telephone. The cell phone being turned off is a recurring distraction. Is this supposed to have an allegorical meaning? I don't know.

Sharon's adopted mother and biological mother rate a paragraph or two in the novel. Hy appears once or twice and I highly doubt that a newly married man would allow his wife to be so distant from him. Irregardless of their "evolved" relationship, I think it was cold on Sharon's part to proceed on her own when she has such available talent at the home office, just waiting for such an assignment.

My main complaint about this novel is there are two many one-dimensional characters. I got so confused as to who was who and how they were relevant to the story. I never got to "know" them and motivations were sometimes so closeted I was in the dark. There was a very good potential plot in the Mark Aldin/Ricky relationship and yet it was briefly dealt with in sentences. His death was related by phone call. (again, the phone)

Hence the title of my review, the point vanished. I was bored reading the book and just was not interested nor did I particularly care what happened to Laurel Greenwood. I don't think she was intelligent enough to do what she did and I do not think she was an artist. I will read the next book in the series and if it presents the same types of problems for me, I will probably give up reading them as I gave up on VI Warshawski years ago. When you don't like the main character, no point in reading the novel.