|
[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
Marcia Muller should be a lesson to any crime writer on how to keep a long-running series fresh. This is a series that never seems to flag. New characters appear, but the old ones move and grow convincingly. In VANISHING POINT it struck me for the first time (duh!) just how well Sharon has done for herself. The PI firm is expanding at a rate of knots and she's having to sub-contract work out. She and Hy have finally got hitched, and you realise just how well off they are with a plane and three houses. Rae, Ted, new boy Patrick and Sharon's weird extended family are all there and playing significant parts in the story. It's probably sacrilege to say so, but the least satisfying character is Hy -- I've never felt I knew him well, or have taken to him. He always seems like rent-a-hunk/action man. And every time he's described, I think of something out of Village People! Oh well, at least he spends a lot of time out of the spotlight in VANISHING POINT (presumably moonlighting as a traffic cop or builder) which is fine by me . . . The plot is fine, although not one of the more memorable ones. Housewife and artist Laurel Greenwood went missing, presumed dead, 22 years ago, but her daughter Jennifer wants Sharon to find her. But someone takes exception to the enquiries. And within days the daughter too has disappeared. This is almost like a case study investigation, showing how PIs get results and how there's a lot of hard graft and behind-the-scenes work. Sharon and her crew are out on the road interviewing witnesses, as well as hammering away on a computer. Muller's series has always has a strong sense of place, rooted firmly as it is in San Francisco and the area south of there. It's an area I've visited several times, so I take pleasure in tracing Sharon's tracks through Monterey, Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo and the like. VANISHING POINT isn't an action read and it's not the best in the series. Instead, though, it's thoughtful, intelligent crime fiction with that underlying theme of how families interact.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, June 2006
[ Top ]
QUICK SEARCH:
Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]
| 
