When private detective Sharon McCone is hired by fence Willie Whelan to investigate the man who has been watching him, she finds herself involved in the murder of Jerry Levin, a man attempting to recover stolen Torahs
Marcia 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.
A St. Martin's Press first edition hardcover signed by Marcia Muller.
In this 1984 mystery also taking place in 1984 and the fifth in Muller's series about Sharon McCone, private investigator in San Francisco titled “Leave a Message for Willie”. We visit the world of San Francisco’s flea market scene We have 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 the attention of a group of fanatical killers. When private investigator Sharon McCone helps one flea market kingpin fend off a stalker, she's drawn into the underworld of crooked deal making and thievery, a dangerous concoction seldom seen by outsiders.
For her client Willie Whelan, the sidewalk sales are a game: Trick the customer, outsell the competition, and stay one step ahead of the cops. But Willie's enemies have something more sinister in mind - a conspiracy so heinous it threatens the religious artifacts, Willie's freedom, and McCone's life.
As well as the material on the flea-markets, there's an interesting early look at what would become paintball, in its incarnation as the National Survival Game, though as Muller has done before this oddity is readily dismissed as something fit only for weirdos, in this case right-crazies.
3 1/2 stars. This story has Sharon McCone, our protagonist, trying to find out why once of the local flea market vendors is being stalked. The story quickly then takes off when there is a murder. Why was this person killed, and why were they there? Who is really behind the thefts and for what purpose. Sharon must uncover these answers and more while being undercover while she is still trying to figure out what is happening in her own personel life? Why is she holding back from the man in her life? All in all an interesting story and one that makes me want to continue with some of the other books in this series I picked up in a lot purchase on EBAY. Since this virus started I have been shopping for different detective series in lots from that source since the libraries are closed. Now what to do with all these books once they open?????
Another entry in the series where I seriously suspect Muller is a clairvoyant. Originally published in the early 1980s, our "bad guy" is part of a movement/organization that really didn't gain widespread national attention until the mid-1990s. Once again there's some dated character depictions (this time around it's an illegal immigrant character) but again, not nearly as offensive as I've read in some other 35-year-old fiction.
This is another older series that I started “late” and have put aside for several years. In an attempt to clean up my list of ongoing series, I’m making an effort to read the next book in some of these neglected series to figure out if I want to continue them or drop them.
I like Sharon, the MC of this series, and the way she doesn’t let men tell her what she can and cannot do. As a solo female PI, she has to work twice as hard as men would – and work smarter than many of them too. Fortunately for her, she does both very well. We get to see some of her personal life as well, but only a small part, and it doesn’t take over the narrative. This series, set in the 1980s, reminds me a bit of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone series – besides the female PI aspect, Sharon doesn’t have computers or cell phones to help her, so she has to rely on old-fashioned legwork to find her clues.
It was fun to see the beginnings of what would become the paintball craze in a few years. Some of the background issues in this book seem like early warning signs for a lot of today’s headlines, which made me shiver more than once as I listened.
This book took a while to get going, but once it did, it didn’t let up. The murder victim was not a nice guy, so there were quite a few characters on my list of suspects, and I wasn’t surprised to learn who the killer was. I would not have guessed the motive early on, but as the story developed, it got easier to figure out.
As with many of the other series I’m revisiting this year, I will be reading more from this one – hopefully, with less than a three-year gap between them.
PI Sharon McCone works for a co-op law firm in San Francisco in the 1970s. She's investigating for a fence who's being tailed by a wimpy young Jewish guy and uncovers something big and completely unexpected but very much on topic in today's world. I wish I'd read these way back when. The author constructs very carefully crafted mysteries; always plays fair with the reader, but you have to be on your toes!
Private investigator Sharon McCone is sent out to the swap meet to meet a potential client and against his better judgement he agrees to work for a seller who deals in stolen goods. The man has seen someone following him and wants McCone to find out why. But the man soon turns up dead and McCone's client seems to be the number one client, according to the police police.
A nicely shaped mystery and a good read. Muller seems to have settled down to her character and that makes it a far more interesting read. Nothing psychological, nothing heavy but good relaxing reading.
McCone keeps a guy around from last book, solves a mystery involving a flea market fence and some other, more sinister crimes. What does Muller have against rock music, though? 1984 hardly seems the nadir of pop rock.
We get another teeny glimpse into Sharon McCone in this book, besides the fact she has a bird phobia. We know she avoids her family, we know the two oldest brothers got into minor criminal scrapes, one sister is soccer mom and the other is counterculture. Her mom calls her occasionally. This is stuff dribbled out in the previous books in the series. Plus she has a sociology degree, but because of her first job as a department store security guard she decided to become a PI and went back to school. We know she is very independent and she can't let cases go even when in pursuing her case to finish it, she screws up her professional and private relationships. The cop boyfriend left because he wanted to control her and she wasn't having it; now her new boyfriend is moving into the neighborhood and she is fearful about that.
All of these girl detectives have the same characteristics. According to the cover blurbs, McCone is the original template. Some of the others have drinking problems, too, but not McCone, although she likes Bourbon. She knows martial arts, carries a .38, and she can take physical punishment.
I like her. And now I like the series because Marcia Muller has settled down and learned her craft. If poor writing early in a series annoys you too much, avoid the first three books. Muller was still learning how to write a mystery novel, and they show it. #4 was a big step up and this one, #5, is the most professional of these early books. Muller got there, and from here on out you can see she is worth reading.
In this one, we learn alot about flea markets and the people who rent tables to sell you stuff. All I can say is if you don't want to see how the soup is made, don't go into the kitchen. Willie may be a real sweetheart, but I for one find selling stolen goods reprehensible. A lot of nice, hardworking people do not deserve to come home to find their house broken and their expensive stuff gone. Those people may not be able to earn the money to replace that stuff for years, so I can't really manage to see Willie in such a 'cute not-so-bad guy' role, and I'd have a problem being nonjudgmental. For McCone, the job supersedes her qualms, so she ends up in the middle of two murders.
In the 5th installment of the Sharon McCone PI series from Marcia Muller, Leave A Message for Willie, Sharon McCone returned in this latest mystery. This time, she dealt with the world of flea market. When shady vendors sell junk and priceless antiques, one of them was a collection of priceless sacred Torah scrolls that were gathering dust and attracting a group of fanatical killers. It was up to Sharon to fend off a stalker for the flea market kingpin, when she was drawn into the netherworld of flea markets. And his enemies have something more sinister planned for Willie that might threatened his freedom and Sharon's life, too.
The writing in this series is getting better and better - this is the best book so far. The theme for this 5th in the series is flea markets and fencing in San Francisco. Private Eye Sharon McCone's boss, Hank Zahn, has asked her to contact a friend of his named Willie Whelan from his Vietnam war days. It turns out Willie is a flea market vendor and a fence for stolen goods. Willie thinks of fencing as a game where he likes to trick the customer, outsell his competitors, and avoid the police by mixing his goods with legitimate stuff and making out phony receipts. He wants to hire Sharon because he is being stalked by a small Jewish man wearing a yarmulke named Jerry Levin who follows him everywhere. In her contract with All Souls Sharon has the option of turning down jobs she doesn't like, and she has reservations about working for a fence. But she likes Willie and decides to investigate and find out what Levin is up to. When she confronts him, he claims to be a member of The Torah Recovery Committee and is searching for some priceless sacred Torah scrolls. What he doesn't tell her is that he stole them in the first place, has now turned religious, and is trying to get them back.
Sharon goes undercover as one of Willie's runners. She visits three different flea markets where he has tables manned by his runners named Sam Thomas, Roger Beck, and Monty Adair. She also meets Mack Marchetti who leases land and sells table space for the vendors. When Jerry Levin doesn't show up for a meet, he is found dead in Willie's flea market and fencing storage garage at his house where everything has been ransacked. The Homicide inspector's name is Leo McFate who is positive Willie is the murderer - Sharon doesn't think so. McFate seems to have a deep-seated dislike for women and doesn't acknowledge Sharon as an investigator. Later Willie's girlfriend, Alida Edwards, is also found murdered near Willie's garage. Knowing he will be considered a suspect, Willie takes off and secretly tries his own hand at investigating to clear his name. Sharon discovers that there are others out to get their hands on the missing Torahs for a much more sinister reason - one that involves paint balling and the National Survival game which has morphed into a "rougher and more challenging" version. How is Jerry Levin connected to all of this?
A subplot involves Sharon's current boyfriend named Don Del Boccio who works at KPSM radio in Port San Marco as a disc jockey. He has applied for a new job at KSUN and may be moving to San Francisco. Sharon is apprehensive about their relationship, how intimate it may get, and fears that he may want to move in with her. It takes a life threatening kidnapping to help her see clearly what she has and wants to happen.
This takes place in the early 80's. I really like detective series where there are no cell phones, computers, or internet. It's just good old-fashioned leg work and coincidence that lead to the murderer(s). A fast action-packed read.
The 5th Sharon McCone book is set in and around the San Francisco flea market scene. It turns out to be a fast-paced story that serves as an indication that Marcia Muller is really starting to hit her straps with the series.
In this book, McCone is hired by flea market stall owner Willie Whelan to investigate a man who has been following him. Willie is a fence and sells stolen goods through his network of market stalls. Each stall is operated by a runner and McCone is to become one of these runners as she performs her investigative role undercover.
Stolen Torahs become the primary focus of the case, but this is quickly overshadowed by a couple of murders. A list of suspects is gathered and the story turns into a classic whodunnit style of story. We have met all of the main suspects but are left to unravel the subtle clues that they may dropped to determine their guilt or innocence in the crimes committed.
Although Willie initially appears as a good-natured and easy-going guy, by necessity the nature of the business he’s in means he has to play hardball quite often. This means there is every chance someone will have an axe to grind and, in this case, there are a number of grinders.
The pace of the story is quite rapid as we deal with a handful of possible suspects, all of whom may have the motivation to commit the crimes. The fact that the entire story unfolds over only 150 pages adds to the rollicking nature in which it is told.
Sticking as many characters into what is really quite a short book means that the character development is not going to be overly complex. But what there is provides the reader with a good sense of each of the main characters. Certainly, we are given enough to feel part of the case.
There is plenty here for private detective fans to enjoy. McCone’s personal life continues to develop, as does her professional one. Leave A Message For Willie leaves the reader with the strong message that the series will be well worth reading in future entries.
The story involves San Francisco flea markets that serve as fencing centers for stolen goods; some stolen Jewish Torahs that people are after; and a nasty group of right wing survivalists. The main characters include: Sharon McCone, a former police officer who now works as a private detective for a small legal firm; Willie Whelan, a likeable fellow who is the self proclaimed “king of the flea markets” and a major fence; three less likable minions who work as Willie’s runners and have their own agendas; and a Jewish thief who stole the Torahs but now has found religion and is trying to get them back. Quite a group. What starts out as a fairly straightforward case gets muddied when a murder takes place and not much later a second one. Sharon tries to make sense of the goings on while attempting to clear Willie, who is on the run, of both murders. A bit confusing at times but it finishes up nicely.
Even mix of personal drama and self searching coupled with 80's criminal problems.
I guess I miss the simplicity of religious theft that supplements paintball profiteers that dream of bigger sales through "rougher" game play. Neither would have justified McCone's presence nor followup in this predictable procedural of a local Magnum P.I. However, it felt lighter than watching 2021 cable news channels.
The rudimentary leg work alone drags out the premise (and barely filled 200 pages) that felt lackluster. Nice touch with the Vietnam brotherhood for employment in the flea market scene, without the war tropes that normally accompany such tales. The player piano in the truck felt forced, btw. And everyone seems to be having relationship problems.
Someone is stealing Jewish temple scrolls, and Willie Whelan may know who that is. Willie has a booth at a flea market in a small California town, and he’s a fence. Willie wants Sharon McCone to investigate a mysterious flea market hanger-on who wears a yarmulke and who hangs around Willie’s stall. Willie wants Sharon to determine how much the yarmulke-wearing Jerry Levin knows about the scrolls. But before she can investigate much, someone murders Levin, and Willie is a suspect. Hours after that murder, an unknown assailant stabs Willie’s girlfriend to death in a nearby park.
I’ll keep reading this series, but not much longer if the books are as lackluster as this one. It wasn’t horrible, but I’m not going to remember it 12 hours after I post this review.
The stories in this series are good, solid mysteries with a variety of characters rather than the tropes so often written.
That said, they were first published in the 1980's and certainly reflect the time they were written in. I lived in San Francisco then and the descriptions here bring back memories of the city I knew, sometimes pleasant and sometimes not.
They are also rife with concepts that were prevalent at the time, but which now feel blatantly racist, sexist, fatphobic and homophobic. I can look at that and feel relieved that in 40 years society has progressed to a place where these things are not acceptable to many people, but fair warning to others who may not want to purchase this kind of content.
I think the books are getting better as time goes on. This one had a great character in Willie. He is a great salesman on the flea market circuit and is even referred to as the flea market king. Well Willie has someone following him and he doesn't want to go to the law because he is also a fence. So he calls All Souls and Sharon is on the job. But things aren't always what they seem. And of course there is a murder or two. And there is a couple of developments in Sharon's personal life as well...
Wonderful listening 🎧 Due to eye issues and damage from shingles Alexa reads to me. Another will written entertaining romantic thriller mystery adventure in the Sharon McCone book 5 in the series. The characters are interesting and will developed. The story line is located in San Francisco where murder and violence involve Miss McCone racing to solve the case. I would recommend this series to readers of mysteries. Enjoy the adventure of reading 2021 🎉✨🕵️♀️💕
Sharon McCone is like Kinsey Millhone - written in the '80s, there are no computers or cell phones; reporting a crime means finding the nearest pay phone. There's a lotta legwork involved, and visiting municipal clerk's offices. Enjoying the series, although not many characters reappear from book to book. Plenty left after this one, though, so - who knows?
I’m rereading this old series. I like the oldest ones including this book but I can also see how Muller improved as she went. There were some elements of the plot that seemed implausible, particularly the relationship with the friend. The Sharon of the later books would have been much more direct and would have pushed her to deal with her issues instead of drinking herself into oblivion.
It was pretty good, though I am finding Sharon McCone's dislike of rock-n-roll, new wave, etc., to be irritating (this comes up in the context of her DJ boyfriend). The story takes place around the flea market scene in San Fransisco - I would bet that scene has now completely vanished (not in SF myself) ....
Besides being a good mystery that kept me guessing up til the end, the book also gave me info on the earthquake cottages and areas surrounding San Francisco. i enjoy everything about these Sharon McCone mysteries!
3.5 stars. A short and very good mystery by an author I’ve heard of but never read before. The main character, a PI who works for an agency is given a job helping a fence who’s being followed. Recommended
This is a chillingly relevant story to the current times — more than 40 years later. And one of best stories in the series so far: the characters have more complex than usual and the story has a lot to say beyond the mystery plot.