From Publishers Weekly
Alpha female of the pack of American PIs, San Francisco investigator Sharon McCone learns for herself how tough her readers have long known her to be in this, her 14th appearance. On a case that winds through her personal history, Sharon hides out in her childhood home near San Diego and crosses, not always legally, the U.S.-Mexican border to end up facing a future quite different than what she--or we--might have predicted. All Souls Legal Cooperative, long Sharon's employer, is assuming a corporate air; the partners want their unconventional investigator to move into a more administrative position. At the same time, her lover Hy Ripinsky disappears. She traces him to a slick security firm for whom he apparently agreed to deliver the $2 million ransom to the abductors of the CEO of a biotech company about to market a cancer drug. The drug, extracted from dolphin cartilage, has roused the fear and ire of environmentalist groups with whom Hy had once been associated. The high-tech security outfit is convinced Hy has stolen the ransom; Sharon, unsure of anything, says she'll find him and get back the money. Evading their suspicious operatives and the cops, she infiltrates southern California's community of illegals, makes some valuable friends and fierce enemies and learns in a final, breathtaking confrontation the full extent of her own resources. With a finely tuned secondary cast, well-drawn settings and a satisfyingly intricate plot held firmly in hand (except for a few moments of minor melodrama and some unnecessary foreshadowing), Muller keeps the spotlight on Sharon here. She shines. Mystery Guild selection . Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
YA-Sharon McCone continues her sleuthing adventures. While she carries a weapon and is obviously tough, her approach is much more subtle than that of many of her male counterparts. Her reasoning is logical and straightforward. In an entertaining twist, the object of her investigation is none other than her current lover, who has turned up missing in the middle of a murder case. Muller spends sufficient time describing the locals (southern California and northern Mexico), giving the story a good sense of place. With its fast-paced narrative, no unnecessary violence, and satisfying ending, this is a good choice for mystery fans.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Popular San Francisco private eye Sharon McCone discovers dangerous surprises when she searches for her secretive missing lover, who apparently has connections in the Mexican underworld.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From AudioFile
The fourteenth in Muller's popular Sharon McCone mystery series, this suspenseful story has Sharon investigating the disappearance of her lover, as well as a kidnapping, and a murder. Bernadette Dunne is an excellent choice for narrator. She portrays Sharon's toughness and hard-driving determination but also shows her compassionate, feminine side. Her voice is easy to listen to, and her characterizations are subtle but distinctive. This is an enjoyable listening experience that will win fans for the McCone series. D.L.G. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Kirkus Reviews
San Francisco-based Sharon McCone, ever resourceful investigator for All Souls Legal Cooperative (Pennies on a Dead Woman's Eyes, etc.), finds her courage and ingenuity tested to the max as she faces a pair of major crises. All Souls, growing larger and more corporate, wants to promote Sharon to a more important but mostly administrative job. As she mulls over their proposal, a more acute problem arises--Hy Ripinsky, a ranch owner with a secret past and the new man in her life, has disappeared. Painstakingly, Sharon tracks him to San Diego, where she meets his ex-associate Gage Henshaw, head of RKI Security Consultants, and finds that Hy had consented to deliver the ransom--a two-million-dollar letter of credit--to the kidnappers of biotech biggie Timothy Mourning. Henshaw wants Sharon to find Hy, dead or alive, and seems to think that Hy has his own scenario for the ransom money. The challenges have just begun as Sharon tries to pick up the trail through a maze of US and Mexican connections. On both sides of the border, double- crosses, sleazy characters, and threats of discovery and death abound--to ultimate confusion. Despite its elaborate overplotting and often dull, repetitive inner musings, Muller's latest--largely salvaged by its tense and satisfying windup--is absorbing much of the way and vastly more entertaining than the author's recent outings. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

ANNOTATION

Muller's popular heroine, San Francisco sleuth Sharon McCone, faces her greatest challenge when her boyfriend disappears while delivering a $2 million ransom for a kidnapped researcher. Each of Muller's mysteries sells more than the previous, and this 14th ties into her new July hardcover Till the Butchers Cut Him Down.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Successful in her investigative work for All Souls Legal Cooperative, happy with her newly renovated house, and feeling somewhat more secure in her relationship with the mysterious environmental activist, Hy Ripinsky, Sharon is shocked to find herself suddenly faced with a wrenching ultimatum. No longer a small, informal co-op, All Souls has grown. New legal partners, exasperated with Sharon's free-wheeling ways, want to kick her upstairs with a raise, perks, and a "career opportunity" that will chain her to a desk forever. Offered a take-it-or-leave-it deal, Sharon is in turmoil. And to make matters worse, Hy has disappeared. His abandoned plane, wrecked rental car, and a road map point to RKI, a firm of international security consultants with a reputation for questionable, unorthodox tactics and clients engaged in controversial research. Sharon discovers that they hired Hy as a free-lance operative and that they, too, are looking for him. Determined to find out what has happened, Sharon pushes aside her career concerns at All Souls and plunges into a search that will force her to take unlikely sanctuary in her abandoned San Diego childhood home and find and unexpected ally in her wild, unpredictable brother John. From the drive-by hiring hall for illegal aliens in Imperial Beach to an opulent villa on the Mexican coast, she will track down every clue in a complex plot that builds to a breathtaking climax on the treacherous canyon trails that lead back across the border. There, in a no-man's-land where terrified pollos defy la migra in a desperate bid for freedom...and where decisions won't wait, Sharon must make the tough choices that put her own life, her own freedom, and everything she holds dear at deadly risk.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Alpha female of the pack of American PIs, San Francisco investigator Sharon McCone learns for herself how tough her readers have long known her to be in this, her 14th appearance. On a case that winds through her personal history, Sharon hides out in her childhood home near San Diego and crosses, not always legally, the U.S.-Mexican border to end up facing a future quite different than what she--or we--might have predicted. All Souls Legal Cooperative, long Sharon's employer, is assuming a corporate air; the partners want their unconventional investigator to move into a more administrative position. At the same time, her lover Hy Ripinsky disappears. She traces him to a slick security firm for whom he apparently agreed to deliver the $2 million ransom to the abductors of the CEO of a biotech company about to market a cancer drug. The drug, extracted from dolphin cartilage, has roused the fear and ire of environmentalist groups with whom Hy had once been associated. The high-tech security outfit is convinced Hy has stolen the ransom; Sharon, unsure of anything, says she'll find him and get back the money. Evading their suspicious operatives and the cops, she infiltrates southern California's community of illegals, makes some valuable friends and fierce enemies and learns in a final, breathtaking confrontation the full extent of her own resources. With a finely tuned secondary cast, well-drawn settings and a satisfyingly intricate plot held firmly in hand (except for a few moments of minor melodrama and some unnecessary foreshadowing), Muller keeps the spotlight on Sharon here. She shines. Mystery Guild selection . (July)

Library Journal

Popular San Francisco private eye Sharon McCone discovers dangerous surprises when she searches for her secretive missing lover, who apparently has connections in the Mexican underworld.

School Library Journal