cbsundance's review
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
ncrabb's review
Nobody knows who killed Jane Anthony. She grew up in a small northern California fishing village, and that’s ultimately where she brutally and violently died.
But before Jane died, she went missing. Abe Snelling, a renowned San Francisco photographer, contacted Sharon McCone, hoping she could help find the missing Jane. Snelling and Anthony weren’t doing the I’ll-show-you-mine-if-you-show-me-yours routine between the sheets, but they were apparently friendly enough that Snelling wanted to know where she went.
McCone tracked Jane down, but it was, as they say, too little too late. But why did she have to die? McCone turns her attention to that question in the rest of this short book, and she discovers that Jane had a disturbing past as an employee of a hospice in the small town. Jane’s isn’t the only body someone finds. Another man turns up brutally murdered as well, and before it all ends, McCone’s life is on the knife-edged line.
I never liked any of the characters, including McCone. They all reminded me of armpit-sweat-saturated people who ineffectually attempt to cover their stink with a half-hearted swipe at the underarms with cheap dollar-store pit rub. Sorry for the grungy description, but if you read it, you know people like that. They function in civil society, but somewhere below the lowest standard yet too high to be qualified as social misfits. We either know, or we are, those kinds of people, and reading about them doesn’t do much for me. I’ll continue to read this series, but it won’t draw me back in that life-satisfying way that a visit with Rabbi Small would or a quiet afternoon in the rectory with Father Dowling while a Cubs game plays on the TV, and heck, folks, I even dislike baseball. But you know the feeling. It’s about time spent with Andy Carpenter or Melanie Travis or even Casey Duncan of Rockton fame. These are all quality fictional characters who are better than the half-hearted dollar-store pit rub users featured in this book.
But before Jane died, she went missing. Abe Snelling, a renowned San Francisco photographer, contacted Sharon McCone, hoping she could help find the missing Jane. Snelling and Anthony weren’t doing the I’ll-show-you-mine-if-you-show-me-yours routine between the sheets, but they were apparently friendly enough that Snelling wanted to know where she went.
McCone tracked Jane down, but it was, as they say, too little too late. But why did she have to die? McCone turns her attention to that question in the rest of this short book, and she discovers that Jane had a disturbing past as an employee of a hospice in the small town. Jane’s isn’t the only body someone finds. Another man turns up brutally murdered as well, and before it all ends, McCone’s life is on the knife-edged line.
I never liked any of the characters, including McCone. They all reminded me of armpit-sweat-saturated people who ineffectually attempt to cover their stink with a half-hearted swipe at the underarms with cheap dollar-store pit rub. Sorry for the grungy description, but if you read it, you know people like that. They function in civil society, but somewhere below the lowest standard yet too high to be qualified as social misfits. We either know, or we are, those kinds of people, and reading about them doesn’t do much for me. I’ll continue to read this series, but it won’t draw me back in that life-satisfying way that a visit with Rabbi Small would or a quiet afternoon in the rectory with Father Dowling while a Cubs game plays on the TV, and heck, folks, I even dislike baseball. But you know the feeling. It’s about time spent with Andy Carpenter or Melanie Travis or even Casey Duncan of Rockton fame. These are all quality fictional characters who are better than the half-hearted dollar-store pit rub users featured in this book.
amalyndb's review
4.0
In the fourth of the Sharon McCone mysteries, she has been hired by a reclusive photographer to find a missing roommate. A small destitute fishing village, a hospice facility with suspicious deaths and then the woman in question turns up dead.
Seems to be an awkward pattern of perpetrators ending up dead before the police can question them...
Seems to be an awkward pattern of perpetrators ending up dead before the police can question them...
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