While Other People Sleep (Sharon McCone Series #18)

by Marcia Muller, Jean Reed Bahle (Read by)

Overview

It starts when Sharon McCone's acquaintance tells her that someone was pretending to be McCone at a party. The mysterious woman is handing out McCone's business cards, advising clients, and picking up men for intimate encounters. The woman's physical resemblance is uncanny. Her knowledge of McCone's life is chilling. To make matters worse, McCone's office manager, Ted Smalley, has been acting oddly. As she reluctantly decides to investigate Ted's behavior, McCone's double breaks into her house, interferes with her family, and leads McCone in a terrifying game of cat and mouse through the bizarre nightlife of San Francisco. McCone begins to uncover Ted's desperate problem, but the imposter escalates her dirty tricks. The determined PI must pull out all the stops to defeat the criminal hitting too close to home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501298318
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	09/01/2015
Series:	Sharon McCone Series , #18
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 6.75(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

MARCIA MULLER has written many novels and short stories. Her novel Wolf in the Shadows won the Anthony Boucher Award. The recipient of the Private Eye Writers of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award - their highest accolade - she lives in northern California with her husband, mystery writer Bill Pronzini.

Jean Reed Bahle has been involved in the arts in West Michigan for over 40 years as an actor, director, writer, and teacher. She has also done freelance voice and on-camera work in film and television, most notably in the Emmy award-winning children's TV show,"Come On Over". She has taught in the theatre department of Hope College since 1996.

Editorial Reviews

Many mystery fans out there will be familiar with this long-running series that helped establish the female detective genre. If you're notyou will probably still enjoy While Other People Sleep – Muller does a credible job of providing a sketchy background for the characters – but you certainly won't be sorry if you read a handful of the earlier books as well. —The Mystery Reader.com

Susan Scribner

Sustains Muller's stature as virtual founder of the contemporary, hard-boiled, female private-eye genre....A plot enlivened by twists and counter-twists.

Chicago Sun-Times

That's when Sharon McCone, ace San Francisco PI, grapples with nightmares in this gripping 19th outing in 20 years (following Both Ends of the Night, 1997). Someone is impersonating Sharon, wearing her name-tag at parties, sleeping with unsuitable men, committing crimes of which the detective can be accused, erasing her phone messages, using her credit cards, even breaking into her apartment, mistreating her cat and opening a bottle of her favorite wine. The imitator seems to want to become the PI, but why? McCone's mood isn't helped when one of her assistants, Ted Smalley, starts acting weirdly, and her lover, Hy Ripinsky, seems to be pinned down in a mysterious kidnapping in Latin America and is out of touch for far too long. McCone has to work hard to stay afloat under fearful pressure, and only the loyal teamwork of her crew and her determination to run her nemesis to earth brings a hard-won release. Her new flying skills are put to good use in a nail-biting climax as her doppelgnger steals her and Ripinsky's cherished Citabria plane . As always, Muller's straightforward, no-nonsense writing and fully dimensioned characterizations lend credibility and color to her deftly plotted tale. (July)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The renowned Sharon McCone finds life and livelihood threatened by a malicious look-alike. When police detain Sharon for a crime committed by the imposter, anger spurs her to find her double. An essential purchase from the author of Both Ends of the Night.

Library Journal

Someone is stalking Sharon McCone. Not merely stalking but impersonating. Not merely impersonating but trying to improve on her—trying to be, in Sharon's phrase, "a better McCone." At first the experience is little more than annoying to the ace investigator in her 19th adventure (Both Ends of the Night, 1997, etc.). It puts her out, for instance, to learn that she wore this clingy, very chic teal gown to a party she didn't happen to attend. Soon enough, though, annoyance gives way to fury as matters escalate wildly: Sharon discovers she's gone to bed with a man she's never set eyes on; then there's the handing out of spurious McCone business cards, the unwelcome counseling of prospective McCone clients, and, worst of all, the nasty phone calls to members of the McCone family—all acts perpetrated by McCone's would-be clone. When the real Sharon is almost arrested for petty larceny, she knows she better do something proactive. It's about then that a promising idea gets needlessly sabotaged. Instead of the crisp, lean action piece Muller was well on her way to producing, she diverts to a Ross Macdonald'like journey into the pretender's past. Bad decision. The past turns out to be lengthy, derivative, and dull. And narrative muscle converts to flab. Starts well, stumbles, never recovers.

Kirkus Reviews