Saturday, February 23, 2013

Review: "Looking For Yesterday: A Sharon McCone Mystery" by Marcia Muller


As detailed in the previous books in this long running series, Private Investigator Sharon McCone has had a quite a few cases over the years and a number of them have been a bit odd. This latest one with Carolyn Warrick has the hallmark of being odd and, as another year begins, one that may have more challenges than worthwhile.

Carolyn who goes by the name “ Caro” is a very vocal advocate for gun control. Three years ago she was arrested, tried, and acquitted for the killing of her best friend Amelia who allegedly was trying to take her boyfriend. Part of her defense in this love triangle gone wrong murder case was that she came from a family shattered by gun violence and would not use a gun to kill. The opportunity to be the focal point of a media crusade for gun control during the trial failed to materialize. Now she has another chance thanks to Greta Goldstein who will co-author a tell all book on the case with Caro. Not only does Caro want Sharon McCone to definitively prove the jury got it right in her complicated case she wants vindication for their verdict.

Despite misgivings and lots of other things going on, McCone takes the case. It isn’t long before Caro Warrick is dead, a victim of a killer who is just a small part of the potential threats arranged against McCone, in this latest in a long running series.


While the actual case and investigation and other facets of the book are borderline interesting, the constant over the top pro-gun control preaching is distracting and unnecessary. Readers are hammered throughout much of the book, to the detriment of the plot and secondary storylines, on the issue of gun control. Several characters involved, including Sharon McCone, are adamantly pro-gun control with the specter of the mass shootings of recent years constantly thrown up to readers as proof of the need. Unfortunately, this is done so often that it stops the already very weak story and becomes the sole focus of the book to its detriment.

Much of Looking for Yesterday: A Sharon McCone Mystery reads like a spleen venting rant in favor of gun control. Once you get by that and her smaller rants about abortion, what is left is a weak and disjointed plot that stumbles and staggers its way to a lackadaisical conclusion. Hopefully, with this out of her system, author Marcia Muller will get back to writing mysteries that actually entertain and do not spend the majority of the book brow beating readers.

You can easily skip this one.


Looking For Yesterday: A Sharon McCone Mystery
Marcia Muller
Grand Central Publishing
November 2012
ISBN# 978-0-446-57335-1
Hardback
293 Pages
$25.99


Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.


Kevin R. Tipple ©2013

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