Sharon McCone Series Books 23 – 31 & short Stories – Marcia Muller Free Audiobook

Written by Marcia Muller
Format: MP3
Unabridged

.2 – The McCone Files. Marcia Muller is, as Sue Grafton pointed out, the creator of the modern female private eye story, and Sharon McCone is one of the finest and most sensitive of all current sleuths. Sharon came upon the scene in 1977 with Edwin of the Iron Shoes, the first of 15 novels and 15 short stories filled with cluing and caring. The McCone Files gathers all of Sharon’s short cases into a single volume covering her entire career as staff investigator at All Souls Legal Cooperative in San Francisco.

From the death of a clown in Diablo Valley to the disappearance of a young socialite on the Golden Gate Bridge, from the murder of a teenage gang leader in San Francisco to the drowning of an aged Japanese herb-gatherer, and from streets filled with juvenile runaways to the quietness of a mausoleum, Sharon investigates not only who committed the crimes but also what they say about the world toward the end of the 20th century

.5 – McCone and Friends. Creator of the modern female private eye story, Marcia Muller has been writing novels and short stories about Sharon McCone since 1977. In the process, McCone has gained a host of associates and formed her own detective agency. Some seven years ago, Marcia Muller decided to show readers different views of her sleuth by relating cases through the eyes of McCone’s colleagues. McCone and Friends contains three stories told by McCone herself, as well as a novella and a short story narrated by the agency’s investigator, Rae Kelleher, a story from the viewpoint of its office manager Ted Smalley, an investigation conducted by McCone’s nephew Mick Savage, and one by her long-term lover Hy Ripinsky.

The settings range from small planes to a sweatshop which puts Asian women into virtual slavery, and the mysteries surround a 1950s jukebox in a rundown hotel and a sculpture welded together by a long-missing and now very-dead artist. In perhaps the most moving story of all, a teenage girl has vanished leaving as a clue only a collage on her wall. McCone and Friends shows why Marcia Muller is one of the mystery writers of our generation. Some of the stories are a double of the first book of short stories.

23 – The Dangerous Hour. Complacency can make a person careless, and Sharon McCone, who makes crime her business, should know that better than most. One minute she’s riding high with her detective agency expanding, her bank account growing, and her only “problem” a marriage proposal from her lover, Hy Ripinsky, that’s kicking up her longtime fears of commitment. The next minute, in the time it takes for a single phone call to bring bad news, she stands to lose everything.
McCone is stunned to learn that a favorite employee, streetwise and savvy Julia Rafael, has been charged with credit-card fraud. She thinks there must be a mistake – until she finds the goods charged to the stolen credit card in the firm’s mailroom. As she starts to dig into the facts of the case, McCone realizes that someone is out to ruin her business, blacken her reputation, and harm those close to her…

Reaching back into her past to look for answers, she must come to grips with the violent twists and turns of her career, the choices she’s faced, and the enemies she’s made. How does the formerly trustworthy Julia fit into the big picture? And how does this new crisis tie into the recent murder of a popular Mission District fund-raiser? But when someone breaks into her car, invades her home, and upsets every aspect of her life, McCone knows one thing for sure: Now it’s her turn to prove how tough she really is, and how far she’ll go to get justice…and some payback of her own.

24 – Vanishing Point. For a Nevada wedding, the nuptials between Sharon McCone and sexy fellow investigator Hy Ripinsky are downright tasteful: no Elvis impersonators, no plastic flowers, no embarrassing last-minute bailout by a bride well known for her phobia to commitment. This time, McCone has displayed the smarts she uses in her successful detective firm and chosen a guy who respects her as a professional and shares her passions. But living together in her beloved little house on Church Street may be another matter entirely, especially when Hy suggests they need a bigger place.
The looming crisis of who will compromise first is delayed when Hy heads out of town on business and McCone dives into one of her most baffling cases yet – the disappearance of Laurel Greenwood, who vanished 22 years before without a trace. Laurel’s grown-up daughter is desperately seeking closure and wants McCone to find out the fate of the young mother and artist who never returned from a day of landscape painting in a Central California coastal town.

The case is cold, and the evidence McCone begins uncovering is chilling. Secrets kept for two decades now emerge to create a portrait of a woman who’s perfect on the surface and anything but a paragon beneath it. And when someone takes potshots at McCone to scare her into dropping her inquiries, the detective’s resolve hardens. She intends to uncover the truth – the whole truth – even when it awakens her suspicions that the bonds of marriage can easily become chains, and that escaping them may lead to desperate acts…or murderous ones.

25 – The Ever-Running Man. Sharon McCone is hired by her husband’s security firm to track down the “ever-running man”, who has been setting off explosive devices at their various offices. She doesn’t have to look for long. When McCone narrowly escapes an explosion in her apartment building, she catches a glimpse of his retreating figure. The ever-running man is dangerously close – and it seems that anyone connected to the firm is within his deadly range.
Complicating matters is McCone’s discovery of the firm’s shady past. Forced to question her reluctant husband, Hy, about its history of corruption, she puts her marriage in jeopardy. But uncovering the secrets of the firm may be the only way she can save her husband’s life – and her own.

26 – Burn Out. Traumatized by a recent life-or-death investigation, Sharon McCone flees to her ranch in California’s high desert country to contemplate her future. Deep depression shadows her days and nights, and a chance encounter with a troubled, highly secretive Native American woman begins to haunt her dreams.
Even though she is determined not to investigate anything during her stay – and perhaps not ever again – McCone is drawn into the plight of the young woman and her dysfunctional family. A murder and traces of violence at a deserted resort lead her across the desert and into Nevada, and finally to a remote and isolated ranch, where danger lies closer that she expects and where her future and life itself may hang in the balance.

27 – Locked In. Shot in the head by an unknown assailant, Sharon McCone finds herself trapped by Locked-In Syndrome: almost total paralysis but an alert, conscious mind. Since the late-night attack occurred at her agency’s offices, the natural conclusion was that it was connected to one of the firm’s cases.
As Sharon lies in her hospital bed, furiously trying to break out of her body’s prison and discover her attacker’s identity, all the members of her agency fan out to find the reason why she was assaulted. Meanwhile, Sharon becomes a locked-in detective, sorting through the clues her colleagues discover.

As the case draws to a surprising and even shocking conclusion, Sharon’s husband, Hy, must decide whether or not to surrender his own violent past and exact final vengeance when the person responsible is identified

28 – Coming Back. In Locked In, San Francisco private eye Sharon McCone was shot in the head and suffered from locked-in syndrome: almost total paralysis but with an alert, conscious mind. Now, as Sharon struggles to regain control over her body, she realizes that it may not be possible to return to her old life. But when Sharon’s friend from physical therapy goes missing, she must call upon those closest to her to find out the truth behind the disappearance. The investigation soon points to issues of national security and proves to be the most dangerous and critical case yet for Sharon and her colleagues.

29 – City of Whispers. Private eye Sharon McCone receives an email asking for help from her emotionally disturbed half-brother, Darcy Blackhawk, but he fails to reply to her response. As Sharon digs deeper, she discovers that Darcy sent his message from an Internet café in San Francisco, a city he’s never been to before. Sensing that Darcy is in terrible danger, McCone begins a search for him throughout the city. The investigation leads her to the body of a woman at the Palace of Fine Arts, where a witness told her Darcy was headed. As her search widens, Sharon uncovers a connection to an unsolved murder of a young woman who was heiress to a multi-million dollar banking fortune. Sharon must race to solve both murders and ensure her brother’s safety, despite the imminent danger that lurks within her own family.

30 – The Night Searchers. When new clients Jay and Camilla Givens come to Sharon McCone with Camilla’s stories of devil worshippers performing human sacrifices in San Francisco, the detective is skeptical, to say the least. However, when she discovers that Jay is involved with the treasure hunting group the Night Searchers, she starts looking into what exactly he and the other participants are up to after dark. As she digs deeper into the Searchers, Sharon joins their ranks in order to find out more – while someone is searching for her.

31 – Looking for Yesterday. Three years ago, Caro Warrick was acquitted for the murder of her best friend, Amelia Bettecourt, but the lingering doubts of everyone around Caro is adversely affecting her life. Sharon McCone is confident that she can succeed where other detectives have failed (though at times it’s hard to shake her own misgivings about what happened), but when Caro is brutally beaten right at Sharon’s doorstep, the investigation takes on a whole new course. How many more people remain at risk until Amelia’s murderer is finally caught?