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It's a case that private eye Sharon McCone seriously doesn't want to take. The parallels between Robert Nagasawa's suicide and that of her own brother's months earlier are too heart wrenching. They force her to think of her own reactions after her brother's death, and the regrets and anger she has. It also makes her the perfect detective for the job. She is able to empathize with the family, with their anger and sadness. The Nagasawa family, with its Japanese roots, is familiar with a lawsuit that was upheld in Tokyo, where a family sued a company for killing their son though overwork. They know Robert's job had terrible pressures and want to follow this route. Sharon's job is to gather evidence for the suit.

What unfolds is much worse than anyone would have thought. The high stress world of the Internet 'Zine brings on physical as well as emotional attacks on employees, and according to Robert's journal, someone at the company is doing some really shifty dealings. He was determined to find proof of InSite's real agenda, and show the world; but his determination crumbled one night, when he jumped off a bridge on St. Valentine's Day. What changed? Sharon needs to find out, before the people running the scheme Robert wanted to unmask kill his neighbor, Jodi, who knows more than is good for her.

The underlying current of how people deal in the aftermath of a successful suicide really affects the prose of this book. We hear it through the main character's own thoughts, we see it through her own eyes as the other members of Nagasawa's family and friends deal with what, in some ways, is the ultimate betrayal. It pins the story down, making it a commentary on this type of loss and a rare point of view. Often these suicide victim stories are focused on proving that the victim was actually murdered; but these people in this book, we discover pretty much right away, are not given this cold comfort. It is an unusual tact for a mystery, and it makes the story stronger, forcing McCone to go after the reasons leading up to the event, instead of working backward from the death. This hinges heavily on learning more about the Internet magazine InSite, a place more rife with hatred and back stabbing than most major governments. The characters we meet here are complex, and any of them could have been the one to give Robert the proverbial last straw.

The main strength in this series is Sharon's support group at her detective agency. She has an office filled with interesting people, each who has their own areas of expertise (even though sometimes the expertise is totally wrong for a detective firm). The dynamics between them are a tiny bit confusing sometimes because I don't have the background of the earlier books (and there are lots of them) to give me the proper links. I liked them though; especially street-wise Julia Rafael, whose past would give anyone nightmares, and who has taken control of her life with grim determination. These people work well with McCone, strengthening her for us as a character.

I found myself really enjoying this latest installment in the series; the ending was really quite cool, and watching Sharon unravel the clues made for good reading.

[Reviewed by Cindy Lynn Speer 09-08-02]

• Amazon readers rating: from 12 reviews

Read a chapter excerpt from Dead Midnight at MostlyFiction.com

Bibliography (with links to Amazon.com):

Sharon McCone Mysteries:

• Edwin of the Iron Shoes (1977)
• Ask the Cards a Question (1982)
• The Cheshire Cat's Eye (1983)
• Games to Keep the Dark Away (1984)
• Leave a Message for Willie (1984)
• Double (written with Bill Pronzini) (1984) (out-of-print)
• There's Nothing to Be Afraid Of (1985) (out-of-print)
• Eye of the Storm (1988)
• There's Something in a Sunday (1989)
• The Shape of Dread (1989)
• Trophies and Dead Things (1990)
• Where Echoes Live (1991)
• Pennies on a Dead Woman's Eyes (1992)
• Wolf in the Shadows (1993)
• Till the Butcher's Cut Him Down (1994)
• A Wild and Lonely Place (1995)
• The McCone Files: collection of short cases (1995)
• The Broken Promise Land (1996)
• Both Ends of the Night (1997)
• While Other People Sleep (1998)
• A Walk through Fire (1999)
• McCone and Friends: collection (1999)
• Listen to the Silence (2000)
• Dead Midnight (July 2002)

Elena Oliverez Mysteries

• The Tree of Death (1983) (out-of-print)
• The Legend of the Slain Soldiers (1985) (out-of-print)

Joanna Stark Mysteries:

• The Cavalier in White (1986) (out-of-print)
• There Hangs the Knife (1988) (out-of-print)
• Dark Star (1989) (out-of-print)

Standalone Novels:

• Point Deception (2001)
• Cyanide Wells (July 2003)

Collections:

• Deceptions: 7 Stories (1991) (includes a Sharon McCone, Eleana Oliverz)
• Time of the Wolves: Western Stories (July 2003)

Written with Bill Pronzini:

• Double (1984) (A Sharon McCone and Nameless Detective Mystery) (out-of-print)
• Beyond the Grave (1986) (A John Quincannon/Elena Oliverez Mystery)
• The Lighthouse (1987) (out-of-print)
• Duo: Collected Stories (1998)

• Go to MostlyFiction.com's other Marcia Muller page
• A unofficial resource for Marcia Muller
• Books 'n Bytes interview with Marcia Muller
• MysteryGuide.com review of Trophies and Dead Things
• BookPage review of Listen to the Silence
• MyShelf.com review of Dead Midnight

Marcia Muller was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1944. She received her bachelor's degree in English (1966) and master's degree in journalism (1971) from the University of Michigan. Upon graduation she moved to San Francisco Bay area to work as merchandising supervisor for Sunset magazine and then freelanced feature articles for a number of publications.

Muller published her first mystery, Edwin of the Iron Shoes, in 1977. The novel introduced Sharon McCone, investigator for the All Souls Legal Cooperative in San Francisco. It is generally acknowledged that Muller is the first American author to write a mystery series featuring a female private eye.

She has written more than twenty-five novels and many short mystery stories and has also established a brilliant reputation as an anthologist and critic of mystery fiction. In 1993 she was awarded the Private Eye Writers of America Life Achievement Award, and Wolf in the Shadows was nominated for the 1994 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Crime Novel and won the Anthony Boucher Award.

She lives with her husband, mystery writer Bill Pronzini, in northern California.

• A biographical article on Marcia Muller
• Read the short story The Broken Man by Marcia Muller

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