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A review of Dead Midnight

by Marcia Muller

The 21st installment of Muller's Sharon McCone detective series, "Dead Midnight" involves the death of a prominent young "techie" in a venture capital business.

Reviewed by: Lynne Quido
About Lynne Quido

Dead Midnight Not only does Muller not allow her series to become stale, I really am of the opinion that each successive book in the Sharon McCone series is better than the last. McCone is a satisfying heroine who has grown into her success as the head of her own investigative agency in San Francisco. Unmarried, McCone has not fallen prey to the lack of family ties and relationships that many other females in detective series seem to have in common. McCone's family is large and seems to be in a state of crisis, as most real families are.

In Dead Midnight, Sharon must investigate a suicide before she has fully recovered from her reaction to her own brother Joey's suicide just one week before. The Nagasawa family has decided to open an inquiry into the apparent suicide of their son Roger, some two months after his death. Their actions are provoked by a friend of Roger's, Jody Houston, who claims Roger's employers at dot.com magazine "InSite" were somehow entwined with the reasons Roger's life was ended.

Through Roger's journal and the eyes of his family and friends, McCone comes to know a self-absorbed young man who is over his head in the secrets that permeate the Insite company. Working with investigative reporter and friend J.D. Smith, McCone unveils unethical business practices, petty office hierarchies and eventually, the reason for Roger's death. Along the way, brief appearances from McCone's cast of comrades (Hy, Ricky and Rae, Charlotte and Mick, and the gang) help her stay grounded while narrowing the search, and trying not to shoulder the blame for Joey's death.

A lot of the bitterness and loneliness that invades the female private detective stereotype is not present in McCone, who has taken a lot in stride, both professionally and personally, throughout the long tenure of the popular series. McCone seems to gather wisdom and strength from the bumps in her particular road, much as real women do in middle age. Lastly, the identity of Roger's enemy continues to be a mystery, right up until the very end, keeping the reader engrossed far into the night! At novel's end, McCone is able to come to terms with her own loss and move on with her life.

Marcia Muller is an award-winning author because her timing, plotline, and ability to weave familial story lines into police procedurals are unique and satisfying. Dead Midnight leaves you hungry for more! If you haven't read Muller, it's worth a trip back to see a much younger (and more "unwise") McCone in the first novel of the series "Edwin of the Iron Shoes".

Click here to buy this book, or read more about it at Amazon.com: Dead Midnight

Copyright © by Lynne Quido, 2003

Reviewed by Lynne Quido:
-- The Whore's Child: And Other Stories - by Richard Russo
-- The Murder Book - by Jonathan Kellerman
-- Tuesdays with Morrie - by Mitch Albom
-- Girls' Poker Night - by Jill A. Davis
-- Dead Midnight - by Marcia Muller
-- The Jesus Thief - by J. R. Lankford
-- The Prettiest Feathers - by John Philpin, Patricia Sierra
-- Wherever You Go, There You Are - by Jon Kabat-Zinn
-- Demolition Angel - by Robert Crais
-- The Eight - by Katherine Neville
-- Mystic Rivert - by Dennis Lehane









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