Sharon McCone mysteries

It's Sharon McCone's first case as staff investigator for All Souls Legal Cooperative. She knows nothing about antiques, yet she has an affection for Salem Street with its charming mix of antique and curio shops. Now elderly dealer Joan Albritton has been found dead, stabbed with an antique dagger. Her neighbors are shocked. Recurring vandalism has them frightened. Ferreting out the facts will take Sharon from the chaotic jumble of the junk dealer's...

To tourists, bay-windowed Victorian mansions are quaint, peaceful symbols of old San Francisco, but on the secluded hill above Steiner Street, the gingerbread has sparked a bitter battle. Ambitious developers are pushing for restoration, and residents are fighting for their homes-until a controversial restorationist is found dead on the job, awash in garish house paint. Private investigator Sharon McCone is called in only to discover a second bitter...

Amid the shifting world of San Francisco flea markets, shady vendors sell junk, precious antiques, and stolen goods side by side. Somewhere in the mix, a priceless collection of sacred Torah scrolls is gathering dust-and attracting a group of fanatical killers. When private investigator Sharon McCone helps one flea market kingpin fend off a stalker, she's drawn into the netherworld of deal-making and thievery, a dangerous milieu seldom seen by outsiders....

Appleby Island, once the magnificent home of a tycoon and planter, is a place of history and mystery in the Sacramento delta. Its story includes hints of tragedy, fueling rumors that ghosts still walk its derelict orchards. Now Patsy McCone, her new lover, and a group of investors are turning the old mansion into an elegant bed and breakfast. Summoned by her eccentric younger sister, San Francisco's number one PI Sharon McCone arrives in the teeth...

Bobby Foster, carhop at the chic Cafe Comedie, is going to the gas chamber. He's already confessed to the murder of Tracy Kostakos, the club's rising star. But two years after the crime, Tracy's body is still missing and Bobby's confession is full of holes. All Souls Legal Cooperative's final appeal sends San Francisco's number one PI Sharon McCone behind the footlights into the super-charged arena of anxious club owners and aspiring young hopefuls,...

Since the Gold Rush, California prospectors have siphoned off the waters of isolated Tufa Lake, exposing the fragile, otherworldly mineral formations of the lake basin. Now a local environmental group seeks to block the latest incursion by developers-a massive mining operation funded by TransPacific, a US-Hong Kong interest that seems to be behind a series of break-ins, disappearances, and shady land deals. Into this stark, lunar landscape treads...

After a traumatic investigation, private eye Sharon McCone flees to her ranch in California's high desert country to contemplate her future. Even though she is determined not to investigate anything during her stay, she is drawn into a case concerning a troubled, highly secretive Native American woman and her dysfunctional family.

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...

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...

"Finally settled into their new home after losing their house in a fire, and fully established in their new shared offices, private investigator Sharon McCone and her business partner husband Hy are starting to feel comfortable. That calm is shattered when Hy's former colleague Gage Renshaw--a shady troublemaker who they had presumed dead reappears, and it's unclear what he wants from his prosperous former associate. Meanwhile, Sharon has a new client...

On a foggy summer morning, private investigator Sharon McCone receives a call from her former neighbors, the Curleys. Their usually dependable daughter Chelle hasn't been answering their calls for weeks. Would Sharon check on her? Sharon arranges to visit the building Chelle had been living in and rehabbing in southwest San Francisco. Once the Breakers was a nightclub and bar, she learns, and a favorite destination for the city's elite during Prohibition....

"San Francisco is home to more than 200 privately owned streets. Most are alleyways, but a select few look torn straight from the pages of a magazine. Lined with mansions and elaborate gardens, the properties are luxurious and perfectly maintained; security guards patrol the grounds to keep the curious at bay. Few know of these exclusive enclaves, but those who do prowl for availability, ready to make a grab for the precious real estate if opportunity...

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 fifteen novels and fifteen 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...