Customer Reviews

A Walk Through the Fire (Sharon McCone Series)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have read all of Marcia Muller's books and this one was one of the best. I am never disappointed but A Walk Through Fire kept me on the edge of my seat. I sent this one to my sister and now she is a Muller fan. Sharon McCone is a great character and just grows better and better with each new book. I love the way Muller takes us through McCone's changes in lifestyles and boyfriends. I almost feel like I know this woman and could call on her to help me in any situation. She is not as flippant as Grafton but I can hardly bear to put the books down to go to sleep or to work. Muller is one of the best writer's of the mystery/private eye genre that I have come across and I have read quite a lot. This one was all the better because it took us out of the usual setting of San Francisco to Hawaii. Love it!

What on earth happened here?! One of my favorite writers, Marcia Muller, has converted one of my favorite characters, Sharon McCone, into some sort of lame-brained "damsel" victimized by her lusting hormones, conniving acquaintances, and short-circuited brain cells. I grew up reading way too much of this genre -- the "Gothic romance mystery" of the '60s & '70s was vacuous and insulting to the reader's intelligence then and this book proves it still is! Most readers will have figured out more than half the "mystery" before they've read half the book; but reading isn't really necessary or desirable. This book is perfect for the Summer Beach Reading category, the type you can just skim and not miss a thing in doing so.

Please, Marcia, promise us this McCone entry was just a brief summertime aberration and that you'll be bringing back the intelligent, independent and forthright Sharon we all know in your next book. I promise not to give up on you just because of this one disappointment!

I had eagerly looked forward to reading the newest Marcia Muller book. i truly felt she had slept-walked thru writing this. Never having been to Kauai ( just Maui, an island i love very much ) i didn't care if i ever went there by the time i finished the book. i don't know how much this will improve the much needed tourist business. to sum up, a thin book with a thin plot that was a great disappointment.

Some Sharon McCone readers may be put off by the plot for this book. Set in Hiawaii, it has many elements not commonly found in the McCone series. The storyline somehow manages to become McCone, herself, since many readers will figure out the ending before they reach it. The book does introduces the reader to some interesting characters. As McCone romantically teeters back and forth, fans will be tempted to pull for one suitor over the other. I found the author's different approach to this book a good read once I decided I liked the plot. I am glad things ended the way they did. Like McCone, I hate things left unresolved.

Most of the other reviewers have said what needs to be said concerning this book. It's a good read for the beach, yet that in itself is a bit of criticism because most fine authors want to be better than that (I would think). This genre is supposed to be entertaining, and this book is exactly that. No less worthy of spending your time then sitting in front of the boob-tube for hours at a time!

It's hard, I'm sure, to continue writing about a single protagonist all the time. And it's difficult to ask readers to suspend belief over certain things happening constantly to one person (though I can testify that bad things do happen constantly to good persons). Not enough effort put into the plot, and newcomers to Muller's books usually get a better introduction into the characters, and so the characters seem rather cardboardish at this point.

Karen Sadler

Private Investigator Sharon McCone gets tough duty in this 20th. book of the series when she is asked to go to Kauai. Glenna Stanleigh, a friend from San Francisco, has asked Sharon to investigate the strange happenings on the set of the documentary she is filming in Hawaii. Sharon takes the job and flies over with her significant other, Hy Ripinsky. When she arrives, she begins investigating the family whose patriarch is at the center of the film. Glenna has used his notes and research about some of the folk tales of the native Hawaiins as a starting point for her documentary. As Sharon's investigation proceeds, several skeletons begin to come out of the closet and family secrets are revealed. At the same time, Sharon is being romanced by a local helicoptor pilot and Hy leaves the island in order to give Sharon some time and room to consider her relationships with the two men. The plot has some intriguing twists and turns and at last all of the secrets are revealed. Marcia Muller and her heroine have matured over the 20-plus years that this series has been written, and this book does not disappoint.

Someone's trying to sabotage the making of a documentary. I thought it might be interesting. I'm sorry, I was wrong. Unfortunately, the book was downright predictable. In some areas, it was just plain contradictory. The characters lacked depth and the plot was extremely weak. When you see this book on the shelf, just keep walking.

Being married to an estate planning attorney I was unhappily aware that all aspects of the plot that were tied to wills were nonsensical. It's not unreasonable to simplify a complex subject, but there should be some connection with reality.

When Patricia Cornwell had Kay Scarpetta fly on the Concorde, I thought, ah Patricia wants to fly on the Concorde and write it off. I had similar thoughts about this novel - Marcia wants a write-off on a trip to Kauai.

However, she does provide a pretty good sense of place. Her characters are rather thin, though; I missed the usual San Francisco crowd. As often happens in this type of novel, the end seems rushed.

I've given up on Kay, but I'll stick with Sharon.

I have read quite a few Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone books lately, and have enjoyed them all. But overall, A Walk Through the Fire is not as good as some of the previous books that I've read. While it gets off to a good start, I think Muller has just way too much going on in terms of plot in the second half the book.

Private investigator, Sharon McCone, gets a call from a professional neighbor who is working in Hawaii. Glenna Stanleigh is a documentary filmmaker and calls McCone in a panic when it appears that someone is trying to sabotage her present project. She convinces McCone and McCone's boyfriend, Hy Ripinsky, to leave San Francisco to provide her with some security and to discover who and why someone wants the film halted. McCone finds herself embroiled in a family feud with the rich and spoiled Wellbright family--Hawaiian natives for many years.

In the course of A Walk Through the Fire, McCone must deal with missing Wellbright family members, a suicide, drug dealers, kidnappings, a romantic love interest, massive cover-ups and of course, Hawaiian spirits. The plot is unwieldy and terribly convoluted. I wonder where her editor was on this one.

Overall, I did enjoy the change of locations from San Francisco to Hawaii. Muller has an obvious love of these islands and it shows in her writing. I just wish the plot was a little more believable.

This installment in Muller's Sharon McCone series takes our heroine to Hawaii. Office neighbor Glenna Stanleigh is attempting to film a documentary on Kauai, but filming has been plagued by a series of "accidents" that may not have been very accidental. Overall, the plot of this story is pretty good. There are some pretty transparent aspects to it, and not too many big surprises, but it kept me turning pages right up to the end.

As I write this, the average rating among reviewers here for A WALK THROUGH THE FIRE is below average for the books in the series. While I agree that this isn't one of the best McCone mysteries I've read, I also don't think it's as much of a letdown as others have indicated. I have just two criticisms. First, the attempt to inject additional melodrama into the story through the invocation of the mystical "spell" of the islands and through the romantic entanglement with the helicopter pilot really didn't work for me. Second, Ms. Muller took up flying some years back and since flying has become a significant element in every McCone mystery. Ms. Muller apparently likes flying. Great, but give it a rest in the stories. Sometimes is OK, but it's gotten overworked. Once in a while it would be nice to get a story that stays on the ground. I always thought that her use of San Francisco as her setting was part of the charm of the McCone mysteries. A return to that sometimes would be welcome.

A WALK THROUGH THE FIRE isn't the best McCone mystery I've encountered, but it kept me turning the pages to the end. My routine rating for books in the series is four stars and that's what this one is getting, as well.

Casual readers may not be greatly impressed, but most fans will find this another enjoyable episode in the on-going saga.