A review by perednia
Burn Out by Marcia Muller
3.0
Sharon McCone has been through plenty since she first graced the pages of a book in 1977's EDWIN OF THE IRON SHOES. Her life is far more complicated than could have been foreseen and, after her last case, far more than she thinks she can handle.
So McCone, bone weary and questioning whether she can stand going into work again, where it's a big agency and not just her, hides at her husband Hy's mountain ranch. Whether it's cooking for herself or standing up to an arrogant stallion, McCone would rather not. But life has a way of not letting her get away with it.
Ramon, Hy's longtime foreman and friend, has a missing niece. McCone sees a young woman kicked out of a truck and looking lost outside a grocery store. The missing girl and the forelorn woman are the same person. McCone sets out to bring the girl home. The more she learns about how broken the family is and how old injuries keep coming back to inflict further wounds, the more McCone gradually finds herself involved.
BURN OUT features a terrific case in its own right. The story of Amy, Ramon's niece, and how she and her family got into their situation, is fascinating, a sock in the gut and revealed in a textbook example of superb pacing.
Add onto that the story of Sharon McCone, the Sharon McCone, questioning herself, hiding away from the world and to letting that horse get the better of her, and BURN OUT is one of the best mysteries of the year. Not many writers can keep a series fresh for more than a half dozen books. For Marcia Muller to come out with a book like this after decades of steady, sure writing, is cause to celebrate.
So McCone, bone weary and questioning whether she can stand going into work again, where it's a big agency and not just her, hides at her husband Hy's mountain ranch. Whether it's cooking for herself or standing up to an arrogant stallion, McCone would rather not. But life has a way of not letting her get away with it.
Ramon, Hy's longtime foreman and friend, has a missing niece. McCone sees a young woman kicked out of a truck and looking lost outside a grocery store. The missing girl and the forelorn woman are the same person. McCone sets out to bring the girl home. The more she learns about how broken the family is and how old injuries keep coming back to inflict further wounds, the more McCone gradually finds herself involved.
BURN OUT features a terrific case in its own right. The story of Amy, Ramon's niece, and how she and her family got into their situation, is fascinating, a sock in the gut and revealed in a textbook example of superb pacing.
Add onto that the story of Sharon McCone, the Sharon McCone, questioning herself, hiding away from the world and to letting that horse get the better of her, and BURN OUT is one of the best mysteries of the year. Not many writers can keep a series fresh for more than a half dozen books. For Marcia Muller to come out with a book like this after decades of steady, sure writing, is cause to celebrate.