Rating: 
Summary: exciting character driven mystery
Review: In 1988 Minnesota, Matthew Lindstrom receives the call from a Wyoming sheriff that the car of his estranged wife Gwen has been found in Sweetwater County. Apparently, bloodstains are on the vehicle. No body is found and the case goes cold, but Matthew's neighbors, family, friends, and peers at the college he teaches at believe he killed Gwen rather than accept a divorce. He is treated as a social pariah and eventually he loses his job. His once serene life in Minnesota is over.Fourteen years later, Matthew lives somewhat like a hermit but is relatively contented in Port Regis, British Columbia, where he owns the charter boat Queen Charlotte. Last night he receives an anonymous phone call that an Ardis Coleman, living in Cyanide Wells, California, is Gwen. Still needing closure by obtaining answers to why she left, especially since the caller insisted she knew what she did to him. Motivated by revenge, Matthew decides to travel south to confront her. Instead of the confrontation, Matt finds his ex vanishes again leaving blood in the home she resided in with her lesbian lover newspaper editor Carly McGuire. She has taken her daughter with her. Matt and Carly join forces seeking the missing Gwen-Ardis. CYANIDE WELLS is an exciting character driven mystery that the fans of Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone tales will enjoy. The story line is loaded with action though things seem to come too easily to Matt, who along with Carly seem real as they struggle with the duplicity of the woman they loved. However, what hooks the audience is trying to understand Gwen-Ardis, which means reading the novel in one delightful sitting. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Page-Turning
Review: In a departure from her Sharon McCone series, Marcia Muller takes us on a journey into fictional Soledad Country. Matt Linstrom, a college instructor and part-time photographer, was leading a pretty idyllic life or he thought. One day his wife announces she wants a divorce and the next day she is gone without a trace. He is implicated in her disappearance. After being alienated from family and friends, losing his business, his job, and most of his possessions, he starts a new life in a new place. After fourteen years, he gets a call telling where his ex-wife is. Matt starts a journey to Soldad County and to self-discovery. A gripping mystery ensues in Soledad County. I don't want to give anything away, so I will leave it at that. One of the strengths of CYANIDE WELLS is that Muller swaps viewpoints of two characters. At first, neither seemed to be a totally sympathetic character, but after allowing us into their thoughts, we get to know them and sympathize with their plights. I liked the more rural, isolated setting of the story. It lent a lot of atmosphere to the story. If I had any quibble about the book is that the ending was a little too evident, but the page-turning aspect to the story countered any problems I had with the ending. Marcia Muller can always be counted on for a well-plotted story with compelling characters. I appreciate the need for series authors to take a break and write an occasional stand-alone book. CYNIIDE WELLS is a nice effort from Marcia Muller.
Rating: 
Summary: My Favorite Authors Are Slipping: Cyanide Wells
Review: Instead of a Sharon McCone mystery, Marcia Muller has crafted a very different kind of mystery than normal. The result ultimately works in that it keeps the reader tuning the page but this reader certainly missed Sharon. Fourteen years ago, days before they were to be divorced, Gwen Lindstrom vanished. As happens in most cases where disappearance and/or foul play is suspected, suspicion quickly fell on the unlucky spouse. In this case, it was Mathew Lindstrom that became an object of law enforcement and media interest. The fact that he initially lied to police about his whereabouts didn't help. That mistake brought increased police scrutiny in his small town and eventually national media interest. The resulting investigations and media presence destroyed his life, as he knew it. Eventually, several years later, he wound up in Vancouver, British Columbia running a small charter boat business. That is until he got an anonymous call telling him that his wife is alive and happy while living well in Cyanide Wells, California. Before hanging up, his caller assures him that she knew full well what she was doing when she vanished leaving him to be investigated for her murder and enjoyed it. Matt packs up everything and hits the road to Cyanide Wells. He has to see her for himself and he wants a confrontation with her as well as photographic evidence of her existence so that he can clear his name. While he gets a few pictures, before he can do much more, she flees from the area and takes her young daughter with her. Her lover, Carly McGuire is just as devastated as Matt was years ago. The two unite to find Gwen, her child, and the answers to several mysteries regarding Gwen as well as trying to figure out what is the cause of several seemingly unrelated strange events in the small town. This is a slow moving book that alternately switches in point of view from Matt to Carly and back again. At times this shift is very disconcerting because the shift comes at times involving the few allegedly intense scenes. The shift is jarring and each time it happens the reader is reminded of how shallow this book is and that it is not a Sharon McCone mystery. Some character development is involved but mostly this is tale of how little we know of the past or even the real present thinking or actions of the ones we love. Instead of being used to build characters, these contrary tidbits of information are just used as words to replace existing information. Our understanding of the makeup of the shallow characters is changed but after all is said and done, the same shallow characters remain. These facts along with the fact that this mystery is not only slow to unravel but fairly obvious from about the midpoint on the work on make this an average read at best.
Rating: 
Summary: The Case of the Missing....something
Review: Muller has long been acknowledged as the mother the female hardboiled private eye subgenre, and when one has created and nutured as character as fleshed out and "alive" as Sharon McCone, it is disappointing when a stand alone book contains characters as unfleshed out, and even cartoonish as the people who populate "Cyanide Wells." She has created two potentially likeable characters in Matt and Carly, who team up to find what is up with the woman who both has loved...at considerable cost. When the truth about the missing woman is revealed, the reader is left with the feeling that the fatal flaw in each of the protagonists is they are truly lousy judges of character. Muller returns to the North Coast of California, the fictional Soledad County, which in "Point Deception" stood in for the mismatched twins, Mendicino and Fort Bragg. She has captured a lot of the local color of those very different towns, yet even so, never conveys the outsider-local culture clash which has been a part of the area since I began to regularly visit there, which is for about thirty years. Still, it is clear that Muller knows the area very well, and that's fine.... However, the story just isn't a story. It is an outline, a few character sketches, and a concept, about as developed as the book the missing woman is supposedly writing. Also, from the various descriptions of gay culture in the area, I get the feeling this book was started 10 or so years ago, and was shelved and updated...by just changing the dates. Admittedly, my opinion of this book has been colored by the awesomely horrible reading of this book, as released by Brilliance Audio....which utterly ruined by the vocal talents of "Sandra Burr" who sounds like a narrator who specializes in children's voices, and given over to handle Carly's point of view. I don't know where you come from, but in Mendocino, not too many lesbian newspaper owners sound like Rocky the Flying Squirrel! J. Charles, who does the man's part of book is okay. Please, Marcia...do whatever you can to save your books from the clutches of Brilliance. They have one good narrator, Dick Hill...and if he isn't assigned to your book...you are fresh out of luck. And when Sandra Burr is assigned to direct as well as provide the voices....well...think of it as a learning experience.
Rating: 
Summary: RIVETING SUSPENSE
Review: Opening with a map of Soledad County, and a terse, shocking phone call deft mystery writer Marcia Muller hooks readers and then speedily reels them in for an intriguing journey to unlock the past. With more than 30 novels to her credit and the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award pocketed, she's a skillful weaver of tales shrouded in mystery and suspense. Apparently a believer in fast starts Ms. Muller begins her story in Minnesota with a ringing telephone. When Matt Lindstrom answers a voice identifies himself as a Wyoming law officer and asks whether Matt is married to Gwen Lindstrom. Once Matt says that he is, there is this startling message: "Her car was found in my jurisdiction.....Nothing wrong with the vehicle, but there were bloodstains on the dash and other signs consistent with a struggle. A purse containing her identification and credit cards was on the passenger's seat." A body is never found but Matt is branded as a murderer, and his professional career is soon in ruins. Fast forward to 14 years later, and another phone call. This time an anonymous caller tells Matt that his wife is quite alive, and "very cognizant of what she put you through when she disappeared." Further, the voice said she's living in Cyanide Wells under the name of Ardis Coleman. Disbelieving but desperately wanting answers Matt heads for the West Coast. California is a lush state that can be both breathtakingly beautiful and threatening. The same might be said of the Golden State's Soledad County, especially Cyanide Wells. Today that community is home for those with a penchant for the avant garde. In yesteryear it was a gold mining town whose residents found that their water supply had been laced with cyanide. Matt arrives here in hopes of finding Gwen, clearing his name, and exacting a pound of flesh for what he has suffered. What he finds is Carly McGuire, a woman with a past of her own, and a snarled web of deception that he may or may not be able to untangle. Marcia Muller never disappoints, as is shown once more with "Cyanide Wells." - Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: RIVETING SUSPENSE
Review: Opening with a map of Soledad County, and a terse, shocking phone call deft mystery writer Marcia Muller hooks readers and then speedily reels them in for an intriguing journey to unlock the past. With more than 30 novels to her credit and the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award pocketed, she's a skillful weaver of tales shrouded in mystery and suspense. Apparently a believer in fast starts Ms. Muller begins her story in Minnesota with a ringing telephone. When Matt Lindstrom answers a voice identifies himself as a Wyoming law officer and asks whether Matt is married to Gwen Lindstrom. Once Matt says that he is, there is this startling message: "Her car was found in my jurisdiction.....Nothing wrong with the vehicle, but there were bloodstains on the dash and other signs consistent with a struggle. A purse containing her identification and credit cards was on the passenger's seat." A body is never found but Matt is branded as a murderer, and his professional career is soon in ruins. Fast forward to 14 years later, and another phone call. This time an anonymous caller tells Matt that his wife is quite alive, and "very cognizant of what she put you through when she disappeared." Further, the voice said she's living in Cyanide Wells under the name of Ardis Coleman. Disbelieving but desperately wanting answers Matt heads for the West Coast. California is a lush state that can be both breathtakingly beautiful and threatening. The same might be said of the Golden State's Soledad County, especially Cyanide Wells. Today that community is home for those with a penchant for the avant garde. In yesteryear it was a gold mining town whose residents found that their water supply had been laced with cyanide. Matt arrives here in hopes of finding Gwen, clearing his name, and exacting a pound of flesh for what he has suffered. What he finds is Carly McGuire, a woman with a past of her own, and a snarled web of deception that he may or may not be able to untangle. Marcia Muller never disappoints, as is shown once more with "Cyanide Wells." - Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: DEPTH AND RICHNESS IN THIS READING
Review: Pairing performers Sandra Burr and J. Charles proves to be a champion idea as their combined reading gives a depth and richness to this audio of Marcia Muller's compelling thriller. With a wealth of experience on radio, television, and commercial videos Ms. Burr is not only an accomplished performer but directs with equal skill.. Veteran actor J. Charles is also a talented scenic and lighting designer. California is a lush state that can be both breathtakingly beautiful and threatening. The same might be said of the Golden State's Soledad County, especially a small town named Cyanide Wells. Today that community is home for those with a penchant for the avant garde. In yesteryear it was a gold mining town whose residents found that their water supply had been laced with cyanide. Such a history doesn't bode well for the future nor does Matthew Lindstrom's past. Gwen, his former wife, disappeared over a decade ago resulting in Matt being thought a murderer and his career in ruin. He comes to Cyanide Wells in hopes of finding Gwen, clearing his name, and exacting a pound of flesh for what he has suffered. What he finds is Carly McGuire, a woman with a past of her own, and a snarled web of deception that he may or may not be able to untangle. Marcia Muller never disappoints, as is shown once more with "Cyanide Wells." - Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: DEPTH AND RICHNESS IN THIS READING
Review: Pairing performers Sandra Burr and J. Charles proves to be a champion idea as their combined reading gives a depth and richness to this audio of Marcia Muller's compelling thriller. With a wealth of experience on radio, television, and commercial videos Ms. Burr is not only an accomplished performer but directs with equal skill.. Veteran actor J. Charles is also a talented scenic and lighting designer. California is a lush state that can be both breathtakingly beautiful and threatening. The same might be said of the Golden State's Soledad County, especially a small town named Cyanide Wells. Today that community is home for those with a penchant for the avant garde. In yesteryear it was a gold mining town whose residents found that their water supply had been laced with cyanide. Such a history doesn't bode well for the future nor does Matthew Lindstrom's past. Gwen, his former wife, disappeared over a decade ago resulting in Matt being thought a murderer and his career in ruin. He comes to Cyanide Wells in hopes of finding Gwen, clearing his name, and exacting a pound of flesh for what he has suffered. What he finds is Carly McGuire, a woman with a past of her own, and a snarled web of deception that he may or may not be able to untangle. Marcia Muller never disappoints, as is shown once more with "Cyanide Wells." - Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: A Literary Booster Shot
Review: Quick and painless. This is a reasonably twisty departure from Muller's Sharon McCone series, easy to take, atmospheric and "real." Muller has never been the kind of writer to shy away from the dark places of people's souls and hearts and this book is no exception. I do feel, however, that her dialogue has become less sharp through the years, much more cliche-ridden. Don't expect "Cyanide Wells" to stick with you, even with its surprise ending. It's good, solid disposable crime fiction. You may feel like putting it down, but by that time you'll be finished.
Rating: 
Summary: Love Sharon McCone, Hated This Book
Review: This book was really weak. The concept of the plot sounded good at the start --- lost woman reappears after 14 years, why did she run, what ghosts haunted her -- but the book never goes anywhere. Even more frustrating, all sorts of things never are resolved, including insights into Gwen and why she ran, what was her problem or what were her ghosts, what was the motivation for the call to Lindstrom (this was partially explained, although it was always left as a dangling assumption). The principal characters were likable enough, but that alone couldn't carry the plot. Very very disappointing.
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