Dieser Sonntag hat's in sich

Sharon McCone #8

by Marcia Muller

Private eye Sharon McCone takes on a routine surveillance as a favor to a long-time client of her employer, the All-Souls Law Co-operative. Soon, however, the routine case turns into a murder investigation and leads to San Francisco's upper-class social activists. HC: Mysterious Press.

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

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 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

[Christa Schönmann Abbühl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good murder mystery set in San Francisco, which was a definitive plus for me. I liked that the main protagonist is no longer young and that I was able to believe in the world building. The case develops naturally from a routine job into something more complex and dark. The lady is quite jaded by life, which sometimes put me off a bit, but on the other hand seemed quite realistic. Another thing I really liked is the organisation she is part of. Thank you to Annemarie for the recommendation.

Added later on: this is set in the „before internet times“, which makes it historical. Right?

[Sparrow .]

Marcia's not the greatest writer, by which I mean a person with a talent for fondling words. Here's one of her passages, chosen at random:

I shut the outside door and looked around. There was no furniture in the room other than a heavy antique sideboard, covered with what looked to be junk mail and what definitely was dust: The rough plastered walls were hung with Indian rugs; even to my untrained eyes they looked expensive.

This is a key description, a house central to the story. (I'm trying not to ruin the plot.) It's written like a shopping list by a half-asleep housewife. I find that capitalized "The" particularly mystifying. Actually, the one note I made in the book occurs on the same page:

There were dust mice -- no, dust rats -- lurking along the baseboards.

I've never heard of dust mice, only of dust bunnies. Maybe dust mice are the California version of dust bunnies. Or did Marcia get confused with the phrase "dust mites"?

I didn't intend to quibble with There's Something in a Sunday. It's a moderately successful mystery tale -- I didn't guess the numerous culprits -- with a complex plot which I BELIEVE makes sense. But as sociology, it's superb. (Are all mystery novels sociology? Must be.) Muller captures with unintentional accuracy the San Francisco of 1989, painfully transitioning from the last vestiges of Hippie into the dawn of High Yuppie. (Even the title suggests the move from marijuana to reading the Sunday New York Times.) Everyone is depressed, and drinking increasingly better wine. Each day the cuisine and the coffee improves, and life gets worse. About a third of the characters are on the verge of suicide, including possibly the narrator. (Of course, no one will ACTUALLY kill themselves; that's not how California works.) Gay people are completely invisible. But not the homeless: they were a troubling new presence in cities.

Muller, I forgot to say, is a leftist. This might be the best liberal detective novel ever written. Her character, Sharon McCone (a weird name!) is a lawyer at the All Souls Legal Cooperative, an activist organization in a Victorian house in the Mission -- in fact, some of the lawyers live in the small rooms upstairs. All Souls began with the goal of defending the poor, and is gradually moving into regular law. Living under George Bush I, it's difficult to be a saint. Besides, everyone's exhausted, but tormented with guilt about it.

About all that's left is feminism, which largely motivates There's Something in a Sunday; but a shrewd, almost bitter feminism. Women are driven to immense selfishness BECAUSE they're oppressed -- especially good-looking women. They're difficult to love, which makes them more manipulative. Nonetheless, we must defend our sisters. This is Marcia Muller's final message in this 8th Sharon McCone mystery.

[Ron Hefner · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading and re-reading virtually everything Bill Pronzini ever wrote (and that's a lot of reading), I finally decided to turn my attention to his mate, Marcia Muller. I figured that Pronzini wouldn't be married to her unless she was a good writer.

I'm pleasantly surprised, for a couple of reasons. First, her style is close to Bill Pronzini's. The subject matter may involve crime and murder, but there's a distinctly humanistic feel to Sharon McCone, just like Pronzini's legendary Nameless Detective. This isn't sleazy Jim Thompson noir or underworld Mike Hammer type stuff. The detective is likable. She does her job well, and we follow her through her case with anticipation.

Muller also plots her story like Pronzini does, accumulating little clues and insights along the way to solving the crime.

Muller published the first Sharon McCone novel in 1977. It's clear that she influenced Sue Grafton. Why Grafton became a colossal best-seller and Muller is only read by hard core detective fans is a mystery to me. I'm not knocking Grafton, but there is no question that Muller is the matriarch of postmodern female detective fiction, paving the way for writers like Grafton, Lisa Scottoline, et al. As is often the case, one writer sets the bar for a particular genre, and others pick up on it and achieve greater fame and fortune.

I seldom read series books in order. This one is number 8, and I'm looking forward to reading them all. There are 33 McCone novels, plus several stand-alones and a few collaborations with her husband. Lots to look forward to.

It seems that Muller and Pronzini are birds of a feather. Long may they both continue to write and add to the great legacy of detective fiction.

[Jan C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the Marcia McCone series. There are many at the beginning that I haven't read yet. So I have gone back to some of the earlier ones to try and catch up.

Enjoyable story. I had to take this out twice from the library via overdrive. Listened to about half of it this afternoon, on a Sunday.

Not sure if it was because I had to take it out twice or whether the story was just confusing, but I got confused.

[Elaine Nickolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another decent installment of the Sharon Mccone series. This one had a few twists and turns as Sharon is hired to track the dealings of Frank Wilkonson. What is Frank up to? Why is he going to all these plant nurseries? As Sharon digs more and more she realizes people she knows are not being quite truthful with her, but why? When a murder occurs, she needs to find out why and answers are hard to come by. The outcome is suspected, but not exactly as the reader thinks. I will continue with this series as installments become available to me.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

McCone is back home and staying up all night tailing a guy who visits plant nurseries, Hank and Anne Marie are having issues, everything’s less than peachy. Once again mental illness is Potentially Dangerous. McCone’s growing cynicism is leading her to pre-judge people with poor consequences that aren’t really addressed in the text. Lots of bad advice going around, even for 1989.

Messy but still better than much of what’s out nowadays.

[Alysan Azman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun book from the Sharon McCone series! My only gripe is the Books in Series list had this as coming AFTER The Shape of Dread, when, in fact, it comes before. Very irritating.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm reading the McCone series in order, and this one is a quantum leap forward. The characterizations are less cardboard stereotypes, and the plot has a series of twists which hold together pretty well. The story is a bit of a study in human dysfunction, since every character is not healthy or, in several cases, not quite sane.

But this is not top-drawer. Other readers have asked why Muller, who apparently inspired Sue Grafton, has rarely if ever been seen as writing at the same level. Kinsey Milhone is somehow a more likable character, and has a sense of humor (which McCone utterly lacks). And Grafton's prose, while hardly complex, flows much better. I have so far in this series seen a lot of pedestrian writing carried along by plots which seem to be getting better with each story.

Not sure if I will hang in there for the remaining 25 books in the series, but I will certainly keep at it for a while yet.

[John Grazide · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simple case. Follow a guy and see what he does. Sharon doesn't have anything else to go on so she stats the surveillance. And she tracks him do a cattle ranch and finds a fairly normal guy, who may have a temper, but aside from that just normal. Bu then the man who hires her ends up dead. And Sharon searches for some answers. Taking her back to the small cattle town where secrets are kept, and back to the city where the rich and the homeless work with their own secrets.

With a few good twists this is a really good story.

[Dyana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the earlier books in this series that are pre-technological detective noir. This one was a convoluted plot that slowed down in spots - not one of my favorites. There were plenty of twists, turns, and red herrings. Usually, the books have a theme running through them, but this one had too many which included adultery, rape, an out-of-wedlock child, murders, domestic abuse, betrayal, homeless issues, and more. The complicated plot does come together at the end with all the puzzling layers finally making sense although the ending is complex too. Lots of parts and people involved.

Jack Stuart, the newest attorney at All Souls Legal Cooperative where Sharon McCone works as an investigator, has asked her to take on a weekend job for one of his clients named Rudy Goldring who is a custom shirtmaker. Since All Souls makes it a practice of extending investigative services to steady clients, Sharon agrees to take it on. Sitting outside Goldring Clothiers is a bearded derelict who ushers her into the office. Goldring wants Sharon to tail a man named Frank Wilkonson who checks into the Kingsway Motel late every Saturday night and leaves on Monday morning. Goldring wants to know where he goes and what he does. He won't tell her why. It's a puzzling case in that Wilkonson visits plant sales, nurseries, garden supply centers, florists, flower vendors, the gardens of Golden Gate Park, Cost Plus which is a San Francisco institution, etc. When Wilkonson is cut off in traffic, Sharon also gets to observe his potential for violence and his purpled, viciously twisted face while in a murderous rage.

When Sharon returns to Goldring's upstairs flat to give her report on Wilkonson, she finds him sprawled on the kitchen floor dead. She also encounters a mysterious, hysterical, and beautiful woman who found the body first bolting down the stairs and running away fearing publicity or her name in the papers. Sharon calls Ben Gallagher, Homicide because she has known him for a long time. The obvious murderer looks like Bob Choteau, the derelict because his leather pouch was found in the kitchen. But Sharon's gut instinct tells her he didn't do it. Her case ended with Goldring's death, but Sharon decides to stay on the case because 1) she's bored with too much time on her hands, 2) she doesn't like loose ends, and 3) she has a preoccupation with the truth being exposed.

Her investigation leads her to Burning Oak Ranch where Wilkonson is a ranch foreman. She meets Jane, his sad-looking wife and his six sullen children. The ranch owner, Harlan Johnstone, Sr. has become a drunk after divorcing his much younger wife and can't tend to business. Hal Jr. has returned home to run the ranch and bring it back from financial ruin. Tailing Wilkonson also leads Sharon to an abandoned and dilapidated Dutch windmill in Golden Gate Park where she finds homeless men living - one of them being Bob, the derelict. Inside she finds a shopping bag that leads her to The Castles. There she meets Gerry and Vicky Cushman - a couple of citizen activists - and their two daughters. What a dysfunctional family! Irene Lasser, Harlan Sr.'s ex-wife, works for Vicky..., and this is where the plot gets a little convoluted. Then Frank Wilkonson is found dead...

A couple of subplots include:
- Hank Zahn, Sharon's boss, has gotten married to attorney Anne Marie Altman, Sharon's best friend. Is it all marital bliss? Sharon inherited his old office.
- Rae Kelleher has been working for Sharon the last two months. The only problem is that Rae's husband and his demands on her time keep her from being devoted to her job. She makes a major decision after the climax.

The denouement is basically satisfactory when all the pieces of the intricate plot fall into place, but it's still somewhat complex in that there are many people and situations involved. Sharon has to find the link that weaves all these diverse people and their problems together to find the murderer(s). Still a recommended read.

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 3 out of 5]

PI Sharon McCone is tasked with a surveillance one weekend: follow a young man who comes to the city of San Francisco from Hollister every Saturday evening and stays until early Monday morning. She follows him as he visits gardening stores, the tropical garden of Gold Gate Park and flower vendors but can't get a feel for why.

The mystery grows when she goes to give her report to the client, an elderly custom shirtmaker who has been killed in his downtown office.

The police believe they know who the prime suspect is and follows their own leads, but Sharon believes otherwise and follows a convoluted path that begins at the ranch where the young man works. She hunts down the strands of the ranch owners and workers past and present to find out what were the circumstances that came together for murder.

I've been reading Muller's works in order (because of a generous neighbor who gave me a box full of her work) and it feels like Muller is finally gaining her comfort and pacing with her PI character and her world. It's a pretty good read.

[SuperWendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been revisiting this series (in order) on audio and this book is (IMHO) Muller's most complex mystery to date. Sharon takes a surveillance job tailing a ranch foreman who comes to San Francisco every Sunday. Things eventually get thorny when her client ends up dead and all of the players orbiting the drama seem totally unrelated. What do the dead man, the ranch foreman, a mysterious woman, a do-gooder couple and a homeless man have in common?

However, to be honest, I found myself annoyed, once again, by all of the secondary players. I think I'm supposed to feel sorry for the woman at the center of this drama, but I wanted to smack her into next Tuesday - something I feel marginally guilty about when all her baggage comes to light. But seriously, she annoyed me. There's also the old "hysterical woman" trope thrown in (part of the do-gooder couple) that grated on my nerves. But Muller does keep it interesting and she did keep me guessing.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read most of the Sharon McCone mysteries, but I found this early one on my book shelf, and, in the interest of reading books I already own, decided to read this one. In this story, McCone is still working for the All Souls legal cooperative, and has been hired to follow a man as he makes mysterious weekly trips into San Francisco. When she meets with the client, he is not forthcoming as to why he needs this info, which irritates her, but she does her job. When the client is found murdered, it sets off a chain reaction of hidden secrets, jealousy and more murder. It's interesting to read an older story from a long-running series. The characters evolve, as do the times. In this book, no one has a cell phone (Sharon uses a "cordless"), and she has a stack of phone books in her closet. She is lonely, and has not yet met Hy Ripinsky, who will become her husband. I enjoyed the look back to how Sharon was at the beginning.

[Cindyann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audio
Two in a row that just didn't do it for me. Somewhere around chapter 6, there's a reference to Hollister..and that it's close to San Jose, not close to King City ('so that was another lie he told'). Um..well..as a person who has worked in King City, yes, Hollister IS close, especially when there is almost nothing between the two cities if you drive through the hills and not on 101. Also, I'm pretty sure it's UC Davis and not US Davis. I don't know that I'll read more of hers and I saw that she probably set the stage for Sue Grafton so hat's off for that but it just wasn't tight enough, especially after a Val McDervid or a Dervla McTiernan or a JD Robb. Also, how did she confuse a short, fat (her description) woman for anyone else? Not sure I would hire her as a PI if she didn't notice those kinds of details. Maybe I'm just grumpy. Eh.

[Alton Motobu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly good for this genre - film nois - like the movie, Chinatown. PI embarks on seemingly innocuous case only to find a complex world of adultery, incest, rape, out-of-wedlock child, and murder with lots of seedy and unsavory characters in dark and scary surroundings. Story takes place in SF in the 1980s, mostly in the Mission district underbelly, with a trip to Hollister, a small town south of San Jose. I could see Susan Sarandon as Sharon McCone, Faye Dunaway as Irene, Jack Nicholson as Wilkonson (this is the spelling from the book) and John Huston as the elder Johnstone. I am a fan of Muller and have read a dozen Sharon McCone books so far, but I never expected such a story in this series. Top notch!

[Nolan]

Rudy Goldring made custom men’s shirts in San Francisco. He did until someone murdered him, that is. Goldring had hired Sharon McCone to track the activities of someone with whom Goldring wasn’t comfortable. When he died, she initially considered giving up on the case. But he had impressed her, and she felt driven to see it through.

The case takes her from working ranches in the central valley to the heart of San Francisco’s homeless community as it existed in the early ‘90s. Formulaically enough, there’s a point at which McCone’s life is nearly violently over. The subplots are fascinating here, and they involve employees at the quirky co-op where Sharon works.

[Wilma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A always enjoy a Marcia Muller book. Private investigator, Sharon McCone, is hired to tail a man and, of course, the job becomes more of a problem than just following the man.

The man who hired her is killed in his kitchen and when Sharon arrives there is a strange woman at the scene and the bag of a homeless man who she at met at the home prior.

Things get complicated as Sharon continues her investigation even though it is a police job now.

Good characters, twisting plot and Sharon is a gem.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rounded up to 4 stars. Probably more like 3.5+ stars. I've read several Marcia Muller books by now, so I'm familiar with the character of Sharon McCone. The story read like a film noir or old time detective novel, which I enjoyed. And it didn't get too political, which I appreciated. But, the book had so many typographical errors. Stuff like lack of capitalization, letters missing from words, etc. I will be reading more books from this author and recommend her for female detective fiction. Just hope the editors fix later editions of this book.

[Gail Burgess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so proud because I had figured out who did it.... and then someone else died. Two muders, one bad guy -- or two? Way to keep me guessing just when I think I'm so smart.... Besides enjoying the mystery, I enjoy the updates on Hank and Anne Marie and Ted and Rae. They feel like my old friends, too! And there are updates on the Vangs and Sally and Patsy from previous books, too. I love that!

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstly I found out fairly early on that the online list I referred to LIED to me and this book is not the first in the series. Other than feeling a little out of the loop, I moved on with the story because it was enough of a stand-alone that I could understand what was happening. The mystery was good, the language was not awesome. I've read worse. (That is not a compliment but I'll try to read it if it isn't too bad.)
4 Stars. Language, innuendo, suggestive situations.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good addition to this series, this time taking Sharon into the farmland outside of San Francisco. It was complicated, with more characters being added on nearly every page, making it hard to keep track of who was involved in all the different aspects of the case and how all the pieces fit together. I gave up trying to figure it out, but I wasn't surprised when the killer was revealed, although the motive seemed more complex than it needed to be.

I still have a long way to go to catch up in this series, but I'm enjoying the books so that doesn't bother me. Not sure when I'll get to the next book, but it probably won't be too terribly long before I return to San Francisco.

[Chuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1989, this Marcia Muller book is noticibly dated in areas. However, the story is a good one and Sharon McCone, the main character is easy to like. Also love the San Francisco setting and descriptions. A nice summer read!

[Janice · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't get past the first few chapters.Too dry to keep my interest.

[Sherri Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sharon McCone series continues to get better with each book. I enjoy the introduction and continuing characters likes Rae, Ted, & Hank.

[Sarah Ehinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the Sharon McCone character. This particular mystery was just OK for me. Lots of potential suspects, but not one of the better entries in the series.

[Barbara Nutting · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read 2007

[Josephine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find the stories memorable but the main character is not interesting.

[Martha Fiorentini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another of the Sharon McCone series that I am enjoying

[Helen B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great story. McCone is a interesting character who develops in each book.

[Laurel Patric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sharon’s job is simple. Follow a man and report his actions on a Sunday in San Francisco. You know Sharon. Ends up in murder and mystery