Pennies on a Dead Woman's Eyes

Sharon McCone #12

by Marcia Muller

Feeling guilty for testifying against her mother more than thirty years ago in a trial for the murder of a wild San Francisco debutante, a young woman asks Sharon McCone to help reopen the case. 25,000 first printing.

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

297 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

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

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining mystery listening 🎶🔰

This kindle novel is from my Kindle Unlimited account book twelve of 32

I started this series in 2021.

Sharon is involved in a thirty plus year old case. Great story with lots of action and misdirection leading to the unexpected conclusion.

I would recommend this series and author to 👍 readers of romantic family and friends relationships mystery adventure novels 👍🔰 2024

[SuperWendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

My reread/revisiting of the McCone series marches on with this book that I vaguely remembered "really liking" back in the day. I still kind of liked it, but it didn't hold up as well for me as Trophies and Dead Things. I suspect because the mystery here got a wee bit more convoluted, although I loved Muller's use of the 1950s political landscape to frame her plot. Also, I wanted to smack the secondary character of Judy into next week.

[Stef Rozitis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sort of 3 1/2. Trying to decide between 3 and 4 I went for 4 because in some ways I do like McCone. I love that she was the first tough-guy feminist(ish) detective that I read, that she can chase bad-guys with guns, fly a plane etc. Early on in this book I felt a bit irritated by the sort of aspirational middle-class individualist outlook albeit it was in a lightly feminist flavour. The essential heterosexuality was annoying (I don't need anyone to be gay/lesbian as such I just don't like everyone's orientation toward the "other" sex being such a big part of their personality even when they are background characters) as were aspects of McCone's relationship with Ripinsky.

As I read though I got drawn into Muller's way of telling a story which made me interested in what was happening and care about the outcome. She is good at building her sympathies and antipathies in a way that makes the outcome satisfactory (but I won't say more than that about the outcome to avoid spoilers). The book is essentially escapist but also now and then adds in some acknowledgement of deeper political realities (I had to remind myself it was written in the nineties when I wanted to object to some of the details). Also I think the males in the book suffer from "good man" syndrome and McCone as our narrator is a bit too invested in that. The stuff about "real women" and "real men" on p156 was annoying even though possibly I thought the same back when the book as published (mind you I was 17)- sort of verges on a version of slut-shaming

I am being very critical but basically I enjoyed the book. Plenty of action, lots of dead bodies (details not overly dwelt on), intelligent and at times complex interactions. Some weird stuff around hunches/feelings/atmosphere and a lot of jungian rambling from McCone but in between she is smart and sassy (eg p217 in response to mansplaining: "Why, Dr Eyestone, one can't help but pick up a few four-syllable words at Berkley.") and gets things done. Her diet and sleep pattern are abysmal but we all probably subscribed to that in the nineties. The books are worth reading in order in the sense that there is character and plot development through them but each stands alone well too.

If you like action mystery books with a decently intricate plot, complex characters and a kick-arse heroine who doesn't whinge then this series in one to get in on. Hey the nineties made sense at the time, right?

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Private investigator Sharon McCone finds herself looking into a old case, one that has come to the forefront after the release of the supposed murderer.

A lawyer at All Souls legal cooperative will be retrying the 36-year-old case, in which a rich society girl Cordy McKittridge is not only killed but her body mutilated, before San Francisco's Historical Tribunal, a quasi-legal body dedicated to righting old wrongs.

The situation seems to have been triggered by the release of Lis Benedict and driven by her daughter, who had been 10 at the tine of the murder and actually spoke for the prosecution.

Despite the length of time between the murder and the retrial, there are still dark forces surrounding and involved in the case. Someone is harassing Benedict and her daughter, and while McCone doesn't like Benedict, she quickly comes up with some issues with the original case and digs deep to find out what is behind the inconsistencies that sent a woman to prison.

Of the McCone cases I have to say that this one is probably the best that I have read so far. It's like Muller has gotten settled within her character and how McCone is presented. It made it a better read by far for me. The story was an interesting one, the mystery a real twist in the end. All in all, a good read.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#13 in the Sharon McCone series, this 1992 entry is the most complex story to date. Lis Benedict was convicted of a murder at a McCarthy era think tank. Her husband was employed there and had open assignations with the victim. Very readable.

Sharon McCone series - In an intricate plot, McCone agrees to help lawyer Jack Stuart, her colleague at All Souls Legal Cooperative, build a case he will retry in the legal profession's Historical Tribunal. Stuart will defend Lis Benedict, who was recently released from prison after doing time for killing and mutilating her husband's young lover in 1956. Benedict was convicted on the testimony of her then-10-year-old daughter, now Stuart's lover, who hopes a new trial will turn up evidence, clearing her mother and exonerating herself. McCone finds herself emotionally drawn into the decades-old crime, especially to the murder scene--a now-uninhabited Seacliff mansion that then housed the Institute of North American Studies, a conservative think tank where Benedict's husband worked. Anti-Communist sentiment and personal betrayal figure large in the resolution of the 36-year-old crime and contemporary deaths that its revisiting inspire.

[Vannessa Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sharon McCone is one of my favorite female detectives. McCone uses her brain and feet to solve the puzzle.

In this installment McCone is looking for the true murderer of Lis Benedict’s husband’s murdered lover.

[Nolan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lis Benedict is dying. That’s likely why law-enforcement officials sprung her from prison early. They sent her up for life for killing a contemporary in 1956. Cordy McKittridge provided sexual and other recreational services to Lis’s husband, and authorities said that was motivation enough for Lis to have murdered the woman.

Lis’s daughter, Judy, was 10 the night the murder happened, and a hard-driving young attorney who would become her dad may have coached her memory a bit. But Judy’s mom is out, and Judy wants the trial and its outcome reopened because she believes her mother to be innocent.

Largely against her will, Sharon McCone enters the investigation to see whether she can bring new evidence to light. For whatever reason, she feels a deeper emotional connection to those events in 1956 than she expected to. Alas, as McCone finds new evidence, new murders pile up. Before this ends, McCone is in a race to stop someone who seems to be a career killer.

This was largely ok. I’ve felt like that about the whole series, to b e truthful. It’s good enough that I’ll continue with it, but I don’t recall reading any of its installments that really electrified me.

[RC Prentice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pennies on a dead woman's eyes, but not just any pennies. Two murders—one from 1956 and one from 1989—send PI Sharon McCone around San Francisco looking for clues. The convicted perp from 1956 claims innocence; shortly after release from prison, she’s dead: murdered. Wherein lie the clues to both murders and those guilty of them? Pennies of gray steel minted in 1943 laid on the corpse of the 1956 victim? Notes the victim received setting up assignations with the purported perp’s husband? The fog swirling around an old mansion where the site of the murder, a dovecote, has been torn down? Communists active in organizing the Longshoreman’s Union and the CIO? A banquet with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles? A purported suicide note? As McCone makes the rounds of San Francisco landmarks and neighborhoods, we are introduced to some of McCone’s personal history and current associates, some of whom will loom large in subsequent McCone investigations. Lively, engaging, face-paced.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better books in this long series. The plot is complex but hangs together, and there is a real "police procedural" style of sorting things out. And it's the plot which carries things, since the characterizations are fairly flat. The sense of San Francisco 25 years ago is also both interesting and nostalgic.

Finally, a McCone adventure which seems less formulaic. Most of the usual things do not happen, which is refreshing. For instance, she does not even fall into bed with some guy she hardly knows. (It would entail spoilers to mention the others).

One bit of nit-picking. Serving Korbel "champagne" at a major international diplomatic reception seems a bit chintzy, n'est-ce pas?

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sharon is hired to look into a society case from 1956. A deb is murdered by her lover's wife – a high-society member in her own right. Lis Benedict has served a long sentence, but her daughter Judy whose childhood testimony helped convict her mom has convinced All Souls to take the case to the Historical Tribunal. It won't be anything official but might help the mother and daughter.

Sharon is reluctant to take it because she doesn't really like Lis after meeting her, but finds several questions regarding the case so she can't let it go and then when threats are issued and muckety muck types stick their noses in, Sharon must continue.

[Chuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been ready a lot of Marcia Muller and her character Sharon McCone. This one is just as good as the rest!

Sharon McCone is a feisty character and while decidedly not macho, she is tough and persistant. The novels take place in San Francisco and paint a resident's view instead of that of a tourist. I love the atmosphere and the neighborly feel.

In a slightly uncommon twist, the murder took place in 1956, and the trial and conviction not much later. The case becomes relevant because a historical group wants to do a mock trial now that the "killer" is out of jail. Good stuff for mystery fans!

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

#12 in the Sharon McCone lead private investigator for the All Souls Legal Cooperative series set in San Francisco. Most the action occurs in the Bernal Heights and close by Mission District where the cooperative’s headquarters is.

Released because of health issues after 36 years in prison, Lis Benedict, after being convicted of a brutal society murder in 1956. Then in a last desperate attempt to clean the Benedict name, her daughter Judy convinced All Souls and Sharon. This takes Sharon on a twisted trail leading back to a wild debutante, a prestigious think tank, and the power politics of 1950s San Francisco.

[Gail Burgess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am now about half way through my re-read of the Sharon McCone mysteries and I am still enjoying them immensely. This time Sharon is involved in looking at a murder that occured almost 40 years earlier. Then the convicted murderer dies and Sharon's house is spray-painted and it all becomes very personal. Things move at a quick pace after that and it all comes down to a return to Seacliff where the crime happened. .... Just an interesting sidenote: this was an interesting time to be reading about a State Supreme Court Justice who could be bought....

[Alton Motobu · Rating 2 out of 5]

After a promising start based on the premise of solving a murder after a woman has served 36 years for a wrongful conviction, the story bogs down into slow-moving complex plot about crooked politicians, snooty think-tank intellectuals, and traditional motives, like jealousy, betrayal, lust, and saving your own skin. Not one of Muller's best. I enjoyed EYE OF THE STORM and WHERE ECHOES LIVE much better.

[Helen Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Against her better judgement, Sharon McCone investigates a murder committed almost 40 years earlier. After spending 36 years in prison, and narrowly missing being executed for the crime, the alleged murderer wants to clear her name for the sake of her daughter who, at 10 years old, testified against her mother at the trial. The plot is well-developed but many of the more important issues in the book (originally published in 1992) fail to inspire interest at this present day.

[Marina Gerrard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this paperback in my Xmas hamper last Xmas. I'd never heard of Marcia Muller but on reading this book I was very sorry about that! I thought it was a very well written and enjoyable mystery. Very happy to be introduced to Sharon McCone.
Of course I wanted to read MM's other books. So off I went to the library where I found they did not even stock her books! Luckily some of her books are available as ebooks. Them I can get on my e reader and boy do I look forward to reading them!

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been quite a while since I'd read anything from this series, but it didn't take me long to re-orient myself. It did take me longer to read than I expected; I couldn't concentrate very long. That was due a lot more to personal circumstances than any fault of the book. I did find the plot a bit slow-moving, but the ending was a surprise to me.

[Monica Willyard Moen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is well written tale of a daughter trying to resolve a crime from the past and vindicate her mother. Marcia Muller is known for writing books with delightfully complex and twisting plops as well as characters that have depth and lives of their own. This book is no exception. It’s well worth reading, especially on a cold, dark, foggy night.

[Claire Osgood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written. Believable, well thought out plot development. The characters in this who done it were interesting, and the ending was not what I thought it would be. I will read another book by this author in the future. Yes, I have found a new favorite!

[Jersey Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure exactly why, but this one was just a bit off. Maybe it was the obnoxious and overbearing obvious bad guy; or was it the 'remembering'?; or the inevitability of it all; or, well . . . . still enjoyable but not as much as previous books in this wonderful series.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't remember reading this before and I thought I had read them all.
Note: this was the kindle edition. there are an incredible number of typos and such. wonder if the original was so poorly edited.

[Vaughan M. Winter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book for the most part. However, the editing was terrible, which was very distracting. Lots of words misspelled and homonyms instead of the correct word. Did the editors actually read the book or just run spell ckeck?

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good read from a story line prospective. However, the endless amount of typographical errors is really annoying. There are a lot of mistakes throughout this series.

[Chris Leuchtenburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fine effort by Muller.

[Melody · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't get into it.

[Barbara Nutting · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read 2007

[Lila · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Dianna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Liberal, new age, quit preaching and tell the story. Geez!

[Martha Fiorentini · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Sharon McCone installment was pretty good. Some are better than others

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t hate the story but what happened to the copy editor? The last few books were well edited but this one was horrible! A mistake on almost every page made it hard to read.