A Walk Through the Fire

Rating:
Summary: McCone successfully does Hawaii
Review:

San Francisco-based filmmaker Glenna Stanleigh is in Kauai shooting a documentary involving island legends and myths in accordance with the works of Elson Wellbright. Elson's son Peter is Glenna's partner on the film. However, accidents have plagued the set.

Glenna asks private investigator Sharon McCone to fly in from California to investigate the strange happenings. Though she is not licensed to practice in Hawaii, Sharon sees the trip as a combination vacation-business outing and accepts. Her lover Hy Ripinsky accompanies her, which allows Sharon to use his company's security assets already located on the islands. Even as she falls in love with Kauai, Sharon begins her inquiries, not yet realizing the danger she now must face.

The Sharon McCone mysteries have been a fan favorite for many years. Her twentieth tale, A WALK THROUGH THE FIRE, is a very fresh who-done-it that invigorates Sharon and her audience. The change of location provides Marcia Muller the opportunity to sprinkle her novel with Island magic as well as native resentment to the influx of outsiders. Ms. Muller is at the of her top game, which is somewhere in the stratosphere, with this marvelous mystery.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Amateurish
Review: Amateurish, stiff, thin, contrived--these are the adjectives I can think of to describe the novel best. Although I might add one more: disappointing. This is my first Marcia Muller mystery, and I expected more from a seasoned writer--too much, as it turned out. After reading Steve Hamilton, Bill Pronzini, Andrew Greeley, Tony Hillerman, Stuart Kaminsky, Les Roberts, and others of that level, this seems stale as yesterday's gruel.

There's no point in reviewing the plot details. Other reviewers have commented adequately on those. So I'll proceed to the other two major points of any mystery--atmosphere and characters. Set in Hawaii, for the most part, I just never quite got there, despite all the green vegetation, flowers and fiery volcanoes. Beautiful, beautiful, so what? The characters are pretty much standard fare for mysteries--too rich, too spoiled, too much alcohol and drugs. As for love affairs, mystery writers might do well to heed S.S. Van Dine's rule from decades ago and leave sex out of the work. If the mystery is thin, the romance won't thicken it. The murder and the detection are, after all, why we read crime fiction. If I want romance, I'll go with Bertrice Small.

In short, I doubt that I'll try another Marcia Muller book, at least, not for a long, long time. Sorry.

Rating:
Summary: Muller is fantastic!
Review: I have read all of Marcia Muller's books and this one was one of the best. I am never disappointed but A Walk Through Fire kept me on the edge of my seat. I sent this one to my sister and now she is a Muller fan. Sharon McCone is a great character and just grows better and better with each new book. I love the way Muller takes us through McCone's changes in lifestyles and boyfriends. I almost feel like I know this woman and could call on her to help me in any situation. She is not as flippant as Grafton but I can hardly bear to put the books down to go to sleep or to work. Muller is one of the best writer's of the mystery/private eye genre that I have come across and I have read quite a lot. This one was all the better because it took us out of the usual setting of San Francisco to Hawaii. Love it!