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Sharon McCone #19.5
McCone & 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 1950's jukebox in a rundown hotel, 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. The McCone Files shows why Marcia Muller is one of the greatest mystery writers of our generation.
203 pages, Paperback
Published February 1, 2000
8 people are currently reading
228 people want to read
About the author
Marcia Muller
165 books724 followersMarcia Muller is an American author of mystery and thriller novels.
Muller has written many novels featuring her Sharon McCone female private detective character. Vanishing Point won the Shamus Award for Best P.I. Novel. Muller had been nominated for the Shamus Award four times previously.
In 2005, Muller was awarded the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master award.
She was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in Birmingham, Michigan, and graduated in English from the University of Michigan and worked as a journalist at Sunset magazine. She is married to detective fiction author Bill Pronzini with whom she has collaborated on several novels.
Muller has written many novels featuring her Sharon McCone female private detective character. Vanishing Point won the Shamus Award for Best P.I. Novel. Muller had been nominated for the Shamus Award four times previously.
In 2005, Muller was awarded the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master award.
She was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in Birmingham, Michigan, and graduated in English from the University of Michigan and worked as a journalist at Sunset magazine. She is married to detective fiction author Bill Pronzini with whom she has collaborated on several novels.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
August 19, 2018
McCone and Friends by Marcia Muller is book 19.5 of the Sharon McCone mystery series set in late 20th-century San Francisco. The short stories feature Sharon's colleagues at All Souls legal cooperative. While focused on solving a crime, each story also reveals the investigator's personality.
All Souls was clearly a supportive, nurturing workplace. When an employee hits a dead end or questions the need for surveillance (as Mickey Savage does), Sharon is an excellent mentor. She listens to case details and suggests lines of inquiry, rather than taking over and doing the job; thereby helping her employees to grow their skills.
Rae Kelleher starts out merely trying to identify a young deaf mute boy, to return him to his family. To her horror, she uncovers a sweatshop slavery racket. Plenty of suspenseful action as Rae and her boyfriend take huge risks to rescue the victims.
Sharon solves a fraud case by clever intuition, after flying with the suspects in a small airplane.
Rae solves a missing-person case by repeatedly returning to the teenager's bedroom and studying the wall. Rae comes to identify with the girl through the seemingly random eclectic decorations which actually describe a personal crisis and desperate action. Rae reveals much of herself in the story, too.
Hy relates how Sharon's intuition solves a case at the dump, where she recognizes the murder weapon used to kill a reclusive sculptor who was known to have hidden a treasure.
Sharon and her brother John together work a missing person case. At first very simple: a college student out of touch with his parent. Once they uncover his extravagant lifestyle, it becomes a dangerous dive into a world of high-stakes scams and violent gangsters.
Hy relates his concerns to Sharon over a promising pilot student, who unexpectedly crash-landed on his first solo. To alleviate Hy's anguish, Sharon investigates the days leading up to the crash. Her background check explains what happened and why: not just a sad event, but a double crime.
Sharon's business manager collects antiques. In search of a rare jukebox, they travel to an historic inn, where they meet the embittered partners. Sharon's curiosity compels her to research the events that led to good friends dividing their co-owned building down the middle. She digs into past archives, solves a decades-old murder, and ends the feud.
All Souls was clearly a supportive, nurturing workplace. When an employee hits a dead end or questions the need for surveillance (as Mickey Savage does), Sharon is an excellent mentor. She listens to case details and suggests lines of inquiry, rather than taking over and doing the job; thereby helping her employees to grow their skills.
Rae Kelleher starts out merely trying to identify a young deaf mute boy, to return him to his family. To her horror, she uncovers a sweatshop slavery racket. Plenty of suspenseful action as Rae and her boyfriend take huge risks to rescue the victims.
Sharon solves a fraud case by clever intuition, after flying with the suspects in a small airplane.
Rae solves a missing-person case by repeatedly returning to the teenager's bedroom and studying the wall. Rae comes to identify with the girl through the seemingly random eclectic decorations which actually describe a personal crisis and desperate action. Rae reveals much of herself in the story, too.
Hy relates how Sharon's intuition solves a case at the dump, where she recognizes the murder weapon used to kill a reclusive sculptor who was known to have hidden a treasure.
Sharon and her brother John together work a missing person case. At first very simple: a college student out of touch with his parent. Once they uncover his extravagant lifestyle, it becomes a dangerous dive into a world of high-stakes scams and violent gangsters.
Hy relates his concerns to Sharon over a promising pilot student, who unexpectedly crash-landed on his first solo. To alleviate Hy's anguish, Sharon investigates the days leading up to the crash. Her background check explains what happened and why: not just a sad event, but a double crime.
Sharon's business manager collects antiques. In search of a rare jukebox, they travel to an historic inn, where they meet the embittered partners. Sharon's curiosity compels her to research the events that led to good friends dividing their co-owned building down the middle. She digs into past archives, solves a decades-old murder, and ends the feud.
January 22, 2021
Short stories, some told from secondary character points of view (Rae, Hy, and Ted) with varying series timelines (Rae is still dating Willie Whelan, one story featuring Sharon as lead takes place sometime after Wolf in the Shadows etc.) - and it was fun to figure out exactly "where" in the series each story fell. Like most anthologies some stories were better than others, but this was pure comfort listen for me - revisiting old friends and entertaining me while I walked/exercised.
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September 2, 2018If I were Marcia Muller, I’d have pulled this out of print long since. It’s one of the worst publishing jobs I’ve ever seen. Every story is marred with multiple misprints. Wrong words. Words left out. Extra words that make no sense. It’s infuriating that I actually paid money for this. I suspect it was converted, perhaps from a spoken word file, into an ebook and nobody cared enough to actually proofread the damn thing. That trick never works.
June 10, 2021
This was an interesting collection of short stories. I liked them because they were mostly set in the SF Bay, a place I am very familiar with, so I can visualize the setting well. I thought each of the stories was quite well done. Great reading if you like detective stories.
February 5, 2025
A short-story collection by an author could be an excellent way to help you decide whether you want to tackle the entire series. This book serves that ambassadorial function for this author. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
Each story features either McCone or her employees. One features her lover. In “If You Can’t Take the Heat,” McCone solves a mystery that involves an airplane two highly attractive young women, and some cargo dressed up to look like lunch.
“The Holes in the System” features McCone’s private investigator employee, Rae Kelleher. Rae reunites a mute kid with his mother.
“One Final Arrangement” features the perspective of McCone’s nephew and on-staff computer whizzkid. A woman whose daughter disappeared hired McCone to find her. They’re on a deadline, since a court is about to declare the woman dead, and the husband gets all the assets, and they are significant. Read this to see the clever trick McCone uses to solve the case.
You get Office Manager Ted Smalley’s perspective in “Up at the Riverside.” This is a great story about a gay couple who inherited an aging hotel, the feud they have over whether to remodel and reopen the building, and the secrets that caused the feud in the first place. If you read this, you’ll get a small, encapsulated history of the pride flag. I found it a fascinating bit of history.
You get Sharon’s perspective in “Knives at Midnight”, a story that sends Sharon scrambling for her old lawbooks on 19th-century California law. I’ve made it sound boring; it isn’t.
Rae Kelleher is back in “The Wall”, the only novella in the book. A teenage girl has disappeared, and Rae realizes the solution to the case rests in a collage the girl painted on her bedroom wall. This is the best entry in the book.
There’s a super short story from the perspective of her lover, and it frankly didn’t do much for me. The final story involved the death of a young man who was flying solo in preparation for his pilot’s license.
Each story features either McCone or her employees. One features her lover. In “If You Can’t Take the Heat,” McCone solves a mystery that involves an airplane two highly attractive young women, and some cargo dressed up to look like lunch.
“The Holes in the System” features McCone’s private investigator employee, Rae Kelleher. Rae reunites a mute kid with his mother.
“One Final Arrangement” features the perspective of McCone’s nephew and on-staff computer whizzkid. A woman whose daughter disappeared hired McCone to find her. They’re on a deadline, since a court is about to declare the woman dead, and the husband gets all the assets, and they are significant. Read this to see the clever trick McCone uses to solve the case.
You get Office Manager Ted Smalley’s perspective in “Up at the Riverside.” This is a great story about a gay couple who inherited an aging hotel, the feud they have over whether to remodel and reopen the building, and the secrets that caused the feud in the first place. If you read this, you’ll get a small, encapsulated history of the pride flag. I found it a fascinating bit of history.
You get Sharon’s perspective in “Knives at Midnight”, a story that sends Sharon scrambling for her old lawbooks on 19th-century California law. I’ve made it sound boring; it isn’t.
Rae Kelleher is back in “The Wall”, the only novella in the book. A teenage girl has disappeared, and Rae realizes the solution to the case rests in a collage the girl painted on her bedroom wall. This is the best entry in the book.
There’s a super short story from the perspective of her lover, and it frankly didn’t do much for me. The final story involved the death of a young man who was flying solo in preparation for his pilot’s license.
January 4, 2017
A collection of short pieces mostly reprinted from various magazines. The usual competent Sharon McCone tales, but some are told from POV of other continuing characters in Muller's novels. My only complaint is that there is a sameness in the language of the stories whether by man or woman -- no real verbal quirks or differentiation.
Still a nice read over a couple weeks when I wanted a break from something longer or just had a few minutes. She and husband Pronzini both evoke memories of California with their spot-on takes of various locations. This book had one story set in Mono County, although Mono Lake was renamed Tufa Lake and the airport had a different name. I wrote about that airport [Mammoth-Yosemite MMH] for PRIVATE PILOT magazine more than a dozen years ago when it was general aviation only. The Internet now shows Alaska Air and United serving it with commercial service.
As you land, you can see steam rising from a nearby river with hot springs feeding it. A neat place to take a dip because it can go from cold to warm within a few feet as you drift around.
Still a nice read over a couple weeks when I wanted a break from something longer or just had a few minutes. She and husband Pronzini both evoke memories of California with their spot-on takes of various locations. This book had one story set in Mono County, although Mono Lake was renamed Tufa Lake and the airport had a different name. I wrote about that airport [Mammoth-Yosemite MMH] for PRIVATE PILOT magazine more than a dozen years ago when it was general aviation only. The Internet now shows Alaska Air and United serving it with commercial service.
As you land, you can see steam rising from a nearby river with hot springs feeding it. A neat place to take a dip because it can go from cold to warm within a few feet as you drift around.
October 31, 2018
I have not read anything by Marcia before. The ideas for these short stories were decent. The execution was not well done. Even though most of these were really short I thought some were too long. It was a quick read and you don't have to endure any one story for too long. I would pass on this if you are considering a read. Maybe one of her other books is better.
July 17, 2025
Stories themselves are pretty good, a comfortable revisiting of the series characters and setting.
But the e-book is riddled with typos, many so bad that the sentences no longer make sense. Either track down a hard copy (and hope it's better edited), or just skip this collection.
But the e-book is riddled with typos, many so bad that the sentences no longer make sense. Either track down a hard copy (and hope it's better edited), or just skip this collection.
April 23, 2019
Read 2009
September 13, 2016
Revealing
Nice to get some insight into Sharon's friends and coworkers Especially liked the story about the old hotel and its feuding owners
Nice to get some insight into Sharon's friends and coworkers Especially liked the story about the old hotel and its feuding owners
June 6, 2012
Eight short stories centered around P.I. Sharon McCone, several of them from the POV of her associate, Rae Kelleher, her nephew Mick Savage, office manager Ted Smalley and her lover, Hy Ripinsky. The quality is a little bit of a mixed bag. Some are well plotted, some rely too much on coincidence. The first Rae Kelleher story had some neat humor in it and back-and-forth jibes between Rae and Sharon. It's the kind of humor that Muller had in her earlier books but has been lost for years now.
I read the e-book (Kindle) version and toward the end of the book found an increasing number of typos and a couple of sentences that just did not make sense. The first half of the book was relatively free of these problems, as if someone had proof-read the first four or five stories and made corrections, but didn't check the rest of the book very well. I don't know if these problems exist in the paperback as well, and am just assuming that they crept in when the book was converted to e-book format.
I read the e-book (Kindle) version and toward the end of the book found an increasing number of typos and a couple of sentences that just did not make sense. The first half of the book was relatively free of these problems, as if someone had proof-read the first four or five stories and made corrections, but didn't check the rest of the book very well. I don't know if these problems exist in the paperback as well, and am just assuming that they crept in when the book was converted to e-book format.
October 13, 2015
Great stories, in theory they are told from different viewpoints, by different characters - but I really didn't notice any difference in voice from story to story. What this collection of short stories really needed was a good proofread. There were countless errors in spelling and word choice that became rather annoying after awhile.
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December 7, 2010Comments to come...
March 31, 2011
short stories advancing many of the series characters
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August 4, 2011Duplicates alot of stories from Muller's other short stories collections. New ones aren't bad, but don't cry if you miss them.
August 10, 2012
These short stories are mostly from the point of view of the other characters in the mystery series, and I did enjoy hearing their voices. The stories were mostly predictable, though.
March 21, 2015
Interesting POVs as MM suggests in the intro. Nice touches. Enjoyable
April 25, 2015
I thought it ended abruptly. Although Sharon did resolve her case.
Actually this book is essentially about 3-4 different cases, handled by her and her staff.
Actually this book is essentially about 3-4 different cases, handled by her and her staff.
July 13, 2015
This was a compilation of short stories narrated by different characters from the Sharon McCone series. It was a fun read...but many typos!
December 7, 2015
Fun short stories. From earlier in the series, but still worth it
April 2, 2012
Not as much fun as the full mysteries.
March 27, 2017
A collection of short stories, told from various perspectives of those close to Sharon.
I especially enjoyed Rae’s investigation The Wall, for its length allowed more insight into Rae.
I especially enjoyed Rae’s investigation The Wall, for its length allowed more insight into Rae.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews