Skip to Main Content

Is It Available?

Title

Looking for Yesterday

by Marcia Muller

Review

There are two authors whose books I anticipate like a kid on Christmas morning:  Sara Paretsky, who writes the long-running V.I. Warshawski detective series, and Marcia Muller, author of the even-longer-running Sharon McCone mysteries.  Unlike movie franchises that get old after the second or third installment (George Clooney as Batman, anyone?), but Muller’s series, like Paretsky’s, has only improved with age.  Through some hard lumps, Muller’s hero Sharon (Shar) McCone has matured from a kid with good instincts into a modern detective about to merge shops with a multi-national security firm.

That’s right – big changes are afoot at McCone Investigations.  Long-time characters have taken on new roles in the background while others rotate into the spotlight.  The businesses at Pier 24-1/2 have all moved on and the agency needs a new home.  Ted Smalley, Shar’s office manager, has located “charming” new digs in a historic building with a dark history.  Long time readers will recognize the resemblance to the old Victorian that was the backdrop of early McCone.  But this is definitely not a return to the hippie-grass roots agency of 35 years ago.

On the first day in the new location, McCone picks up a new client, Caro Warrick, who is out to prove she didn’t kill her best friend three years before.  Warrick is not a particularly likeable person, which causes Shar to continually question whether Caro’s declarations of innocence are truth or mere theater.  Nonetheless, she is intrigued and sets out to find the truth, whatever that may be.  She just didn’t quite imagine that so much theatrics would get in the way – like finding Caro Warrick, beaten and left for dead on Shar’s own doorstep.

Soon after moving in, the historic charm of the old elevator gives way to increasingly cranky and uncooperative machinery.  The parking garage, which at the time had seemed like an nice amenity, becomes a dark and scary place, even for someone used to the sinister.  As these problems close in and the investigation gets personal, McCone has decisions to make and questions to answer.  Is her client innocent, as she claims to be?  And what is the future for McCone Investigations? ~ Jana Atkins

Review Date

Reviewed March 2013