Trophies and Dead Things

Sharon McCone #10

by Marcia Muller

Investigator Sharon McCone probes the strange will of murder victim Perry Hilderly, who had disinherited his children to leave his fortune to four strangers, and uncovers a tangled web of old secrets leading back to the Vietnam War

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Crime, Audiobook, Thriller, Detective

266 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1990

About the author

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.

Reviews

[SuperWendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book I first read as a teenager and while I'm *pretty sure* I listened to it on audio (::cough:: cassette ::cough::) in my early 20s - it's easily been 25 years since I've read it. I only had a vague recollection that it was "one of my favorites" at the time - and it's still got one of the best titles I've ever seen on a mystery novel. It's definitely a product of it's time - having been published in the early 1990s and the mystery involving what I call The Ghosts of 1960s Radicals Past - but read as a time capsule, it's still a really good story and dang - I tore through it. Devoured would be an apt description. Muller does have a couple of different threads going in this story, so things do bog down a bit at the end as she's wrapping those up - but I loved this. The whole the past is never really dead and buried and can come back to bite you in the butt.

[Lisa C · Rating 2 out of 5]

While it might have been a perfectly enjoyable mystery when first released, this book just didn't hold up over time. Weak characters and dated issues dragged the work down rather than adding to the story, which could have been 5-10 chapters shorter and been more enjoyable.

Tired tropes like an overly-confident investigator with no professional experience in tactics or police procedures and a bull-headed policeman incapable of doing his job as well or as ethically as the protagonist simply don't hold up in today's market of mysteries featuring highly skilled professionals or detailed historical backgrounds written by authors with corresponding skills and knowledge.


Stale stock characters, armchair politics and a weak understanding of real police procedures could not shore up the story long enough to draw out the action. As a result, once the killer, past secrets and motivations had all been revealed and there was still 40 minutes of the story left for in order to attempt a thriller-style effort to save the lives of characters no one cares about and dressing down of a ridiculous officer in an unprofessional and unbelievable manner by an unqualified heroine, I nearly strained my eyes from rolling them so hard and so often.

[Tessa Nadir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sharon McCone este varianta feminina a lui Philip Marlowe. O carte cu un mister solid, bine construit si cu o excelenta prezentare a orasului San Francisco ( cum nu am mai citit la nimeni). Traducerea insa este un fiasco... este groaznic de enervant ca la fiecare pas sa te intrebi de ce jazz este scris "jaz"( care inseamna total altceva) de ce hobby este scris "hoby" si de ce costumul Chanel este scris "Chanell" ( care iarasi inseamna altceva)!!! Cel mai mult m-a enervat faptul ca personajele suna la noua sute unsprezece atunci cand vor sa apeleze politia... cand oricine stie ( mai ales din filmele americane) de celebrul "nine-one-one"!! :)

[Denise Spicer · Rating 1 out of 5]

An anti-war screed in the form of a mystery novel with the villain a “superpatriot nut nob” (page 196.) PI Sharon McCone solves this mystery which includes a sniper subplot and the murder of a sleazy attorney.

[Elaine Nickolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow this was one of the best installments yet in this series. There is a sniper loose and Sharon and Hank stumble across a second will the latest victim had written only two months prior to their death. The people named in the will are unknown to Hank, who also happened to be a friend of the victim, with their friendship going back to Viet Nam. Sharon is given the task of locating them and trying to figure out what relationship they had with the victim, since they all claim not to have known him. At the same time there is something else going on. Is it connected? and if so, how? Things get really out of hand when the sniper starts up again. Why is he/she choosing these people? Are they random or connected in some strange way? Will Sharon figure it out before the ones she cares about can come to harm. Great twists and turns in this one. Looking forward to the next installment of Sharon McCone

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a sniper on the loose in San Francisco but that is not all that PI Sharon McCone has to contend with in this book by Marcia Muller. One of the victims was a friend of McCone's boss, who is handling the man's estate until a second, more recent will is discovered, and it disinherits the man's two children in favor of four unknown and seemingly unconnected parties. McCone starts sifting through the man's past to find out who are his beneficiaries and why.

This is the 10th in the McCone series and while still have objections to the emphasis on McCone's love life (or lack of one - why is it important?), Muller has crafted an interesting mystery. These are easy fast reads with clues if you wish to solve the mystery yourself, but still an interesting reading if you want to be surprised.

[Pattie Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sharon McCone, San Francisco investigator for All Souls Legal Cooperative. Her boss, Hank Zahn, asks her to help settle the estate of an old friend. They met during the Berkeley Free Speech Movement and kept in touch. Now Perry Hilderly is victim of a sniper on the street. More surprising is that Hank finds a new will naming 4 beneficiaries he does not know.

It all can be traced back to the 60’s antiwar movement but the connections are murky. Good characters and the legacy of that era. Also nice descriptions of SF

[Alysan Azman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another action-packed story featuring Sharon McCone -

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 3 out of 5]

At its heart this is a genre mystery, not a dissection of the aftermath of 1960's radicalism.

Sharon McCone is helping her boss clean up a deceased client's house. Her boss, Hank Zahn, is a lawyer who runs All Souls Legal Cooperative, which provides legal services in San Francisco. One of their clients, Perry Hilderly, was shot dead while walking on a street, another victim of a serial killer randomly shooting people -or so it seems. Carrying out the requests of his will, registered by Zahn, is why they are going through his worldly goods. But while cleaning out his refrigerator another newer will is discovered in the freezer compartment disinheriting his family and naming 4 strangers. Why? McCone, suffering from a deep depression caused by the accumulation of human disaster she routinely comes across in her job as a private detective, takes on the job of tracking down these new beneficiaries.

The skip tracing and research soon reveals a linking of all these people to a 1960's Berkeley University protest group, which was connected to the violent Weatherman organization which promoted the bombing of buildings which housed organizations supporting the Vietnam War. McCone finds them currently living ordinary lives, but not untouched by their activism. One has turned hardcore right, a woman hater, while another is drinking himself to death, an impoverished addict. She is certain their present life choices were caused by their radical past, but why? McCone wants to know. Then, a beneficiary is murdered! Two people, both members of the old radical group, both murdered, is too much of a coincidence for McCone to ignore. And then, someone tries to shoot Hank, who was also a radical leftist from Berkeley, but not connected to this group.

WHAT is happening? If McCone is going to save her boss, and their client's inheritors, she must find the killer and uncover the secrets from the past....

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, the shortcomings in the previous McCone caper are amplified in this one. It sort of ends not twice, but three times. Only the first pseudo-ending is unpredictable. For the most part, the reader knows what's coming, even down to the last sentence of the book which adds a final small plot twist.

I'm a little tired of Muller's writing style. There are occasional foot chases, for instance, and every step is detailed. What makes this interesting? And on countless occasions, McCone seems able to read people's eyes for deeper meaning (they flash, go blank, etc), even in the dark. Give me a break!

And McCone's love life is a bit tedious. There is no pattern to the men she picks. Here we have the usual reprise of her connection to Greg Marcus, an ongoing theme of her inexplicable interest in George Kostakos, and occasional vignettes on her fling with Jim Addison, which had not started in the previous book and has ended before this one begins. I found it hard to be interested in all this.

It's too bad, really. The first half of the book is quite good, and I could not put it down. Unfortunately, it deteriorated rapidly from there on, and I only kept going to the end to see how things would be resolved, almost all of which came as no surprise.

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok. I wasn't a huge fan of the author's style. 3 stars.

[John Grazide · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boy. There was a lot going on in this one. It starts with Sharon helping Hank clean out one of Hank's clients apartment. The client was killed in a random shooting. The client was kind of a fizzled starry eyed dreamer from the sixties, and somewhat of a loner. Also divorced with two kids that he was estranged from. While packing they discover a copy of his will that Hank originally drew up, but this one had changes. It removed his children and inserted four random names to split his nearly one million dollar estate. So Sharon asks Hank if he wants her to investigate the heirs, to make sure that there was no duress. And during the investigation she encounters the four seemingly separate people, but then slight connections start to appear. Investigating the four people take us back to the sixties and some radical ideas. And the gunmen who killed Hank's client is not done, and there are connections there also. Really enjoyed this one. And of course there's cats and Sharon's love life. And someone from All Souls fighting for their life. Phew!

[Nolan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm growing tired of books written by wistful boomers who know their best years are behind them and they're down to weeks and days here. This feels like that kind of book. There's a romanticization of the'60s that made me tired. At least once, the clearly left-leaning author rails against the "selfishness of the Reagan years." Ok, fair enough. How about the selfishness of the Nolan years as I delete this and question seriously whether I'll read any more of the series. If I do, it will be the writing style of the author that brings me back for one more shot.

[Chuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great detective story by the marvelous Marcia Muller! Written way back in 1990, it is a story that brings the 1960's unrest forward into the present (well 1990's present). Private Detective Sharon McCone is one tough lady but I just love her because she feels so real! Once again Muller and McCone bring San Francisco scenery to life!

[Nick Baam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pleasant enough, though I kept thinking the detective's name was Kinsey, just as people who later came to Sue Grafton probably kept thinking her detective's name was Sharon, but toward the end it got very close to WC territory, my new category. As in: who cares? Too many loose ends -- you don't care how or if they're wrapped up.

[Gail Burgess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again there are two mysteries in one. Sharon is trying to find the heirs to an estate and meanwhile her boss and good fdriend Hank seems to have someone stalking him (a sniper!). Leave it to Sharon to make all the connections with the help from her friends.

[Connie Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read the negative reviews on this book and do not agree with them. This was a very well written and thought out plot with a satisfying ending, and I’ll be reading more of this author’s books. Yes, it took place in the 90’s. And may be outdated for some, but it’s part of history!

[Chris Leuchtenburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very solid mystery.

[Barbara Nutting · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read 2007

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

This a "flash from the past" for me since I had previously read a later work. Nevertheless, the female PI is a great character and Muller does a great job in story-telling.

[Martha Fiorentini · Rating 4 out of 5]

I continue to enjoy this series. They are short, have lovely descriptions of various parts of California, and engaging mysteries. Perfect summer reading!

[Tim Pieraccini · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to give this three and half stars, really, but I'll round up rather than down because I really like Sharon McCone as a character.

[Laurel Patric · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a friend is killed and his will leaves everything to a group of surprising people, Sharon gets involved in a case that dates back to the turbulent times of the Vietnam War.

Audio version.

[Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trophies and Dead Things is an engrossing murder mystery uncovering radical activities of the 60s. This was a 'can't put down' story with tough Sharon McCone and friends.

[Robyn Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

C+. Audiobook

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sharon explores the traces of the weather Underground.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to follow at times. It is along in the series so I may need to start at the beginning.

[Kenneth Flusche · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very entertaining

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marcia Muller, Trophies and Dead Things (Mysterious Press, 1990)

Sharon McCone (in her tenth appearance) has what seems like a routine probate; a well-known Northern California activist and Vietnam War protestor (and acquaintance of her boss), Perry Hilderley, has died. While going through his things, McCone finds a superseded copy of his will, disinheriting his (divorced) wife and their sons, and leaving all of his assets to be divided equally among four people who seemingly have no connection at all to Hilderley. Who are they, and what connection did they have to him?

Muller is often referred to as the founding mother of the hardboiled female detective. All well and good, except there's not much hardboiled here. (My definition: a hardboiled detective is in true physical danger at any point during the story. Otherwise, it's a cozy.) Granted, everyone around McCone is in danger at least once, and some of them wind up dead, but she takes an almost Miss Marple attitude towards this at times; let's get them out of danger, give them a cup of tea, and get back to solving this mystery.

Not that a well-written cozy isn't a lot of fun, and this is a well-written cozy. It does get a bit slow now and again, but like the mysteries of Robert Parker, the McCone novels are that wonderful type of series where the background soap-opera-style info merges so seamlessly with what's going on that you can hop in at any point in the series and be caught up on what's gone on before in a few pages, tops. And it doesn't get in the way of the present story, which is the all-important rule in writing series novels.

If the book does have a failing, and this is something that the individual reader will have to decide, it's in the mystery itself. There really isn't much of a mystery, and Muller lays that on the table from the get-go. The main question here is about what the four beneficiaries of Hilderley's will have in common, and there are enough hints in the opening pages to give you an idea of what will be in the closing ones. But getting there is half the fun, and Muller gives us a wonderful cast of characters to ride with. In other words, with not much mystery and not much danger, Trophies and Dead Things has more of a feel of Jane Smiley than Agatha Christie to it; I had no problems at all with that. Others may disagree. But whatever it is, it's fun. ***

[Stef Rozitis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, as I always seem to enjoy Marcia Muller's books. I re-read it with enough time in between to not remember enough to spoil the mystery, there were enough twists and details for me not to be sure about everything that was going on. I enjoyed some of the moral complexity around the sixties and protesting against the war- at what point does ideology and activism become toxic? The book also looked at the ways that the "establishment" contributed with its pointless persecutions, helping to radicalise what were essentially just critical kids to begin with- but gender (and sex) also played a part as did class. Race in this book hovers in the background, as if Muller is not quite sure what to do with it. At least her characters aren't all 100% white!

As usual it is satisfying that bad things happened to characters I didn't like while sympathetic characters were for the most part redeemable. Sharon's sex-life in this one consists of absences and gaps and so failed to irritate me, this one seems to occur before Where Echoes Live which I recently reviewed so it is interesting seeing her yearn after George which she has outgrown (or something) by the next one.

Some things I find too glib, like we are meant to get along with Rae's boyfriend Willie (Sharon accepts him however grudgingly) who lives off essentially conning people.

Anyway it was a good read. Some parts are a bit meandering and drawn out but usually this is balanced with the right amount of action, dialogue and introspection for an all-round decent read!