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Sharon McCone #4
Games to Keep the Dark Away
Picture Salmon Bay: an isolated, run-down northern California village, home to an idle fleet of fishing boats, a deserted amusement park, and a handful of secretive, even hostile residents. When private investigator Sharon McCone arrives in search of one of the town's wayward daughters, the train leads to the thriving resort of Port San Marco. McCone believes that the missing woman, a former social worker named Jane Anthony, was involved in the suspicious deaths of three terminally ill patients at an exclusive hospice.
215 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
28 people are currently reading
362 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 - 30 of 69 reviews
August 19, 2020
This St. Martins Press First Edition hardcover is signed by Marcia Muller.
In “Games to Keep the Dark Away”, number four in the series by Marcia Muller.
Sharon McCone, Muller's female detective, who practices her investigative trade in and around San Francisco, is hired by a famous, reclusive photographer Abe Snelling, to find his vanished lodger Jane Anthony, whose friend Liz Schaff also seems worried by her absence.
The trail leads to Jane's once well to do hometown of Salmon Bay, to her bitter mother, hostile neighbors, Tide Pools and a deserted amusement park.
In the town is a plush and expensive hospice where Jane and Liz once worked. The question is this, was Jane's departure from the hospice precipitated by the drug overdose death of three terminally ill patients? And what’s the story about her involvement, an open secret with Allen Keller, the hospice's much-married owner? but Sharon's sleuthing has barely begun when Jane Anthony turns up, all too soon, washed up beneath a rotting pier in Salmon Bay.
Another murder, that of a moody fisherman neighbor, soon follows. Still, though taken off the case by Snelling, Sharon continues on her own- traveling back and forth between Salmon Bay and San Francesco, finding time for a bit of romance with a local disc jockey, and winding up in a clifftop scuffle. The trail leads to the thriving resort of Port San Marco.
In “Games to Keep the Dark Away”, number four in the series by Marcia Muller.
Sharon McCone, Muller's female detective, who practices her investigative trade in and around San Francisco, is hired by a famous, reclusive photographer Abe Snelling, to find his vanished lodger Jane Anthony, whose friend Liz Schaff also seems worried by her absence.
The trail leads to Jane's once well to do hometown of Salmon Bay, to her bitter mother, hostile neighbors, Tide Pools and a deserted amusement park.
In the town is a plush and expensive hospice where Jane and Liz once worked. The question is this, was Jane's departure from the hospice precipitated by the drug overdose death of three terminally ill patients? And what’s the story about her involvement, an open secret with Allen Keller, the hospice's much-married owner? but Sharon's sleuthing has barely begun when Jane Anthony turns up, all too soon, washed up beneath a rotting pier in Salmon Bay.
Another murder, that of a moody fisherman neighbor, soon follows. Still, though taken off the case by Snelling, Sharon continues on her own- traveling back and forth between Salmon Bay and San Francesco, finding time for a bit of romance with a local disc jockey, and winding up in a clifftop scuffle. The trail leads to the thriving resort of Port San Marco.
October 2, 2018
McCone gets involved in a missing person case and tracks the unemployed social worker, Jane, to her creepy insular hometown, only to stumble over several bodies and a plot involving hospice work, photography and lots and lots of liars. A new flame appears.
This time the short length did the story no favors, with too many undeveloped characters and not much to the series plot development. Or maybe it was the lack of architecture/antique/SF neighborhood elements? I initially thought of this as four stars but the lack of information about the suspects,including the killer, made me knock off one.
This time the short length did the story no favors, with too many undeveloped characters and not much to the series plot development. Or maybe it was the lack of architecture/antique/SF neighborhood elements? I initially thought of this as four stars but the lack of information about the suspects,including the killer, made me knock off one.
May 10, 2018
I have seriously fallen down the rabbit hole in revisiting this series. However, I should have jotted down some thoughts sooner because this one is already starting to fade. I liked that Sharon got out of San Francisco and had to deal with an insular small town with suspicious residents. I also had forgotten about the appearance of a new love interest. Not bad but also not spectacular.
July 26, 2011
This one was really confusing. I'm still not sure what happened and why.
April 9, 2023
Sharon McCone hunts the killer in a series of hospice 'suicides', finding herself in trouble along the way. Another quick, fun read.
January 19, 2025
Good:
Better writing than the first three.
Sharon has split from her annoying cop boyfriend
Complicated plot and interrelation of characters.
Bad
Too short - Not enough development of suspects and victims.
Sharon neglects part of her actual job and then is mad when her boss calls her on it.
Sharon is sitting in a restaurant with a burger in front of her. She decides she rather go investigate than eat and leaves the food behind instead of taking it to go. It’s impossible to have the energy she has for swimming and running after suspects the way she fails to eat.
I enjoyed the book well enough but give it two stars so there is room for improvement in the series.
Better writing than the first three.
Sharon has split from her annoying cop boyfriend
Complicated plot and interrelation of characters.
Bad
Too short - Not enough development of suspects and victims.
Sharon neglects part of her actual job and then is mad when her boss calls her on it.
Sharon is sitting in a restaurant with a burger in front of her. She decides she rather go investigate than eat and leaves the food behind instead of taking it to go. It’s impossible to have the energy she has for swimming and running after suspects the way she fails to eat.
I enjoyed the book well enough but give it two stars so there is room for improvement in the series.
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February 27, 2021Nobody knows who killed Jane Anthony. She grew up in a small northern California fishing village, and that’s ultimately where she brutally and violently died.
But before Jane died, she went missing. Abe Snelling, a renowned San Francisco photographer, contacted Sharon McCone, hoping she could help find the missing Jane. Snelling and Anthony weren’t doing the I’ll-show-you-mine-if-you-show-me-yours routine between the sheets, but they were apparently friendly enough that Snelling wanted to know where she went.
McCone tracked Jane down, but it was, as they say, too little too late. But why did she have to die? McCone turns her attention to that question in the rest of this short book, and she discovers that Jane had a disturbing past as an employee of a hospice in the small town. Jane’s isn’t the only body someone finds. Another man turns up brutally murdered as well, and before it all ends, McCone’s life is on the knife-edged line.
I never liked any of the characters, including McCone. They all reminded me of armpit-sweat-saturated people who ineffectually attempt to cover their stink with a half-hearted swipe at the underarms with cheap dollar-store pit rub. Sorry for the grungy description, but if you read it, you know people like that. They function in civil society, but somewhere below the lowest standard yet too high to be qualified as social misfits. We either know, or we are, those kinds of people, and reading about them doesn’t do much for me. I’ll continue to read this series, but it won’t draw me back in that life-satisfying way that a visit with Rabbi Small would or a quiet afternoon in the rectory with Father Dowling while a Cubs game plays on the TV, and heck, folks, I even dislike baseball. But you know the feeling. It’s about time spent with Andy Carpenter or Melanie Travis or even Casey Duncan of Rockton fame. These are all quality fictional characters who are better than the half-hearted dollar-store pit rub users featured in this book.
But before Jane died, she went missing. Abe Snelling, a renowned San Francisco photographer, contacted Sharon McCone, hoping she could help find the missing Jane. Snelling and Anthony weren’t doing the I’ll-show-you-mine-if-you-show-me-yours routine between the sheets, but they were apparently friendly enough that Snelling wanted to know where she went.
McCone tracked Jane down, but it was, as they say, too little too late. But why did she have to die? McCone turns her attention to that question in the rest of this short book, and she discovers that Jane had a disturbing past as an employee of a hospice in the small town. Jane’s isn’t the only body someone finds. Another man turns up brutally murdered as well, and before it all ends, McCone’s life is on the knife-edged line.
I never liked any of the characters, including McCone. They all reminded me of armpit-sweat-saturated people who ineffectually attempt to cover their stink with a half-hearted swipe at the underarms with cheap dollar-store pit rub. Sorry for the grungy description, but if you read it, you know people like that. They function in civil society, but somewhere below the lowest standard yet too high to be qualified as social misfits. We either know, or we are, those kinds of people, and reading about them doesn’t do much for me. I’ll continue to read this series, but it won’t draw me back in that life-satisfying way that a visit with Rabbi Small would or a quiet afternoon in the rectory with Father Dowling while a Cubs game plays on the TV, and heck, folks, I even dislike baseball. But you know the feeling. It’s about time spent with Andy Carpenter or Melanie Travis or even Casey Duncan of Rockton fame. These are all quality fictional characters who are better than the half-hearted dollar-store pit rub users featured in this book.
December 4, 2019
With each book it's harder and harder to take the unchecked racism in these books (well, it was written in the 70s I keep telling myself). The author's obvious opinions on "blacks" and "Mexicans" and how unsafe she feels around both keeps bleeding in when there isn't even a plot reason for it (though that wouldn't make it more acceptable). And making making the main character 1/8 Native American while the character insists she's not really "Indian" while everyone she meets comments on how she looks. Like why keep bringing it up every time she meets someone one if it isn't important? And why give that trait to a character if it has no bearing on anything? I nearly quit this book in the middle after the useless main character got indignant that her police detective ex held it against her that she repeatedly interfered in investigations and lied to the cops. And then she yelled at her lawyer boss because he was mad she didn't file the papers he was paying her to file. And worse she acted like she didn't understand why a lawyer would be concerned with papers not being filed at court, despite having had the job for several years. Like this character just keeps getting stupider. She doesn't so much solve mysteries as stumble around until the truth is revealed. In this one she has no reason for any of her avenues of investigation, just keeps insisting she has an unexplained, unsupported "hunch" and that's enough. Some stand out lines include "he moved his eyes appreciatively over my body but not in an invasive way" and [in response to construction worker leers] "a girl's gotta take appreciation where she can get it." I did finish it because it's super short and I was stuck on a bus in bad traffic, but I was mostly just annoyed with how stupid everything the main character did was.
March 17, 2019
You can definitely see the development of Marcia Muller's writing as you move further through her series on private eye Sharon McCone. Can't say that it is a favorite of mine but still, she does come up with interesting mysteries.
In this outing, McCone is hired by a famous and reclusive photographer to try to find what happened to his roommate who left home and vanished. While trying to trace the woman's footsteps, McCone is on hand when she turns up dead. She assumes the photographer will want her to continue following the case, but he doesn't and that increases McCone's curiosity as to what happened and why.
Could it be related to the incident at the woman's former place of employment? When McCone finds out that three patients died and were assumed to be suicides at the hospice where the woman had worked, she thinks she may be on to something and soon she is trying to track down the clues that will lead to who is the murderer and why. But it can almost proves to be the death of her.
As aI said, this is not the author that writes stories that are deeply satisfying to read but they are books that keep you focused and trying to solve the mystery. Its a good read for a slow Sunday.
In this outing, McCone is hired by a famous and reclusive photographer to try to find what happened to his roommate who left home and vanished. While trying to trace the woman's footsteps, McCone is on hand when she turns up dead. She assumes the photographer will want her to continue following the case, but he doesn't and that increases McCone's curiosity as to what happened and why.
Could it be related to the incident at the woman's former place of employment? When McCone finds out that three patients died and were assumed to be suicides at the hospice where the woman had worked, she thinks she may be on to something and soon she is trying to track down the clues that will lead to who is the murderer and why. But it can almost proves to be the death of her.
As aI said, this is not the author that writes stories that are deeply satisfying to read but they are books that keep you focused and trying to solve the mystery. Its a good read for a slow Sunday.
March 27, 2025
This book has an interesting, albeit convoluted, mystery. Beyond that, the story benefitted greatly from the absence of the annoying, and, thankfully, former "romantic" interest. (He makes a very brief appearance in this book and still manages to become the most repulsive and unpleasant character in it — in a story with an actual murderer!)
Now that the main character has been cured of the stupidity that inspired her to initiate and maintain that unfortunate relationship, she can be taken more seriously as a person with actual brains, and that improved the whole reading experience immeasurably.
Now that the main character has been cured of the stupidity that inspired her to initiate and maintain that unfortunate relationship, she can be taken more seriously as a person with actual brains, and that improved the whole reading experience immeasurably.
July 6, 2018
Sharon McCone, investigator, knocks upon a door on Potrero Hill in San Francisco and meets new client Abe Snelling. She is sent off in pursuit of Jane, Abe's missing housemate. Awkward start, but then the story keeps you, and at the end you have been up and down the California coast sometime in the 70's, and have been lead down multiple tracks & dead ends, met a good stock of odd characters, and have been surprised by whodunit. Likable characters even when they're not, and enough engagement for a good time. Who could ask for more??
Main characters: Sharon McCone, PI, Abe Snelling, Jane, Janes mother, Jane's friend/coworker Liz, two co-owners of the hospice where Jane worked, townies from Jane's hometown south of San Francisco, and the radio DJ from the next town over.
Main characters: Sharon McCone, PI, Abe Snelling, Jane, Janes mother, Jane's friend/coworker Liz, two co-owners of the hospice where Jane worked, townies from Jane's hometown south of San Francisco, and the radio DJ from the next town over.
July 20, 2018
Sharon leaves San Francisco for the better part of this book -- first seeking a missing person and then trying to figure out who killed that person -- and the person who was the first suspect..... Lots of twists and turns: totally had not anticipated a dual identity that appeared.... Practically had forgotten about the actual murdered by the time Sharon figured it out. :-( Then again, I like having to solve the mystery WITH Sharon, so that's ok!
July 24, 2021
Entertaining listening 🎧
ue to eye issue and damage from shingles Alexa reads to me. I find it like be at the movies.
Another will written Sharon McCone romantic thriller mystery adventure with interesting will developed characters. The story line starts in San Francisco the down the coast to a small town and murder. Sharon race back and forth before solving the murders. I recommend this series to reads of mysteries. Enjoy the adventure of reading 2021 😎✨🎉
ue to eye issue and damage from shingles Alexa reads to me. I find it like be at the movies.
Another will written Sharon McCone romantic thriller mystery adventure with interesting will developed characters. The story line starts in San Francisco the down the coast to a small town and murder. Sharon race back and forth before solving the murders. I recommend this series to reads of mysteries. Enjoy the adventure of reading 2021 😎✨🎉
August 5, 2021
Clearly the era works for this investigator, because I don't think she would be able to pull off the same intrusions today.
Nice to see growth and progression in the backstory, with more familial details and changing love life.
Still the similar pattern of repeated murders until McCone is near death, then resolution. Without knowing the murderer's resolve or ability, anyone could be the bad guy I guess but why?
Little tough to get invested in the plot. But not a bad story.
Nice to see growth and progression in the backstory, with more familial details and changing love life.
Still the similar pattern of repeated murders until McCone is near death, then resolution. Without knowing the murderer's resolve or ability, anyone could be the bad guy I guess but why?
Little tough to get invested in the plot. But not a bad story.
March 31, 2018
Sharon is hired by a reclusive photographer (Abe) to find his missing roommate (Jane). She starts her search in Jane's home town. And when Jane turns up dead the town gets a little more weird.
This one had some really good twists. When you think you may have figured out who's guilty, nope. Try again. Very good.
This one had some really good twists. When you think you may have figured out who's guilty, nope. Try again. Very good.
July 7, 2024
I enjoyed this one, although the swivel back to the 70s is still amazing. Hospice was a new concept in this one - and there was the tie to landline phones as well - and a pay phone for which McCone has to fish out a dime. But it was a good showcase for her tenacity to follow through even when the client pulls back ... and in the end, it's a good thing she followed through on her instincts.
March 27, 2017
In the fourth of the Sharon McCone mysteries, she has been hired by a reclusive photographer to find a missing roommate. A small destitute fishing village, a hospice facility with suspicious deaths and then the woman in question turns up dead.
Seems to be an awkward pattern of perpetrators ending up dead before the police can question them...
Seems to be an awkward pattern of perpetrators ending up dead before the police can question them...
October 30, 2018
Enjoyed!
April 2, 2019
This series is a quick read. I may have to increase my goal! Enjoying getting to meet Sharon again.
April 23, 2019
Read 2007
November 3, 2019
I enjoy these books, a nice short diversion
December 26, 2020
This is my first Marcia Muller. Unfortunately, I kept losing interest.
February 24, 2021
Someone seriously forgot to check for typos but the story was still pretty good.
June 7, 2021
Easy reading. Interesting mystery in which Sharon McCone once again becomes involved in solving a murder. Plenty of suspects with motives which made for a lot of "red herrings."
April 21, 2023
Easy to read. Plot driven not much character development, but easy to read if you are in a reading funk.
May 5, 2023
From the better half of a great writing duo (hubby Bill Pronzini). Ms.Muller is considered the mother of the contemporary hard-boiled female PI .
February 16, 2024
Finished quickly, looking forward to mitr adventures next time
September 8, 2024
Am enjoying this series - good stories, like the main character, Sharon, reasonably fast-paced and short! Ending of this one surprised me.
July 23, 2025
Audiobook
November 8, 2025
A good gripper, well-plotted and moves along nicely.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews