Thursday, February 9, 2023
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
FINALLYYYYY! An Update on Marcia Muller's Next Sharon McCone Mystery
Soooooo, y'all know I take the time every other day to look for new releases from authors I love. And nothing is more punishing than waiting years between releases. So I thought Marcia Muller was done with her Sharon McCone P.I. mystery series, after 2018's release of The Breakers. Low-key... I was panicking a little about the woman and whether or not she was coming back. You know, given how we lost Grafton four years ago. Grafton's passing was the reason I buckled down in 2018 and read through the entirety of Muller's McCone series. And, hell, I finished the series excited for more. Sooooooooo, here we are YEARS later (and at the tail end of this craziness of 2020) with the announcement of the next Sharon McCone mystery. I, naturally, just hate to wait until August for it. UGH! Anyway, I and many Muller readers finally got our answer in McCone's 35th case, Ice and Stone.
When two women are brutally murdered in northern California, their deaths are the latest atrocities in a surge of violence targeting indigenous women in the area. Despite all evidence to the contrary, local officials rule the deaths isolated incidents, and they soon join the ranks of other unsolved homicides, quickly forgotten by law enforcement.
Private Investigator Sharon McCone knows better, and so does the organization known as Crimes Against Indigenous Sisters, who hires Sharon to go undercover in Eiwok county, a tiny region on the mountainous Oregon border, to uncover the murderer.
In an isolated cabin in the freezing, treacherous woods, Sharon must unravel a mystery that is rooted in ignorance, profound hatred, and vengeance -- before another victim is claimed."
Monday, May 11, 2020
Muller & Paretsky Short Story Haul
Monday, March 25, 2019
Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski Ebay Lot Sale Unboxing
Anyway, I made this purchase off Ebay–just as I did for my 2018 Marcia Muller Sharon McCone Project. And just as with that one, I'm reading the entirety of the fictional female private-eye (Chicago-based) detective work of V.I. Warshawki this year.
Have begun the project with book #9, I'm currently almost through book #11, Blacklist. This leaves me with 9 entries (only pillar release and no short stories) left. But I'm taking them on a book-by-book bases; breaking whenever I need to. So long as I get them all done before the end of 2019 to fulfill my project–I'm good. Nevertheless, I'm doing so happily because I love challenging myself as an endurance reader. And like with my reading of McCone, I'm taking on Warshawski in honor of Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone. These are her peers, after all.
Okay, done babbling.
BOOK 10. Total Recall (2001)
BOOK 11. Blacklist (2003)
BOOK 12. Fire Sale (2005)
BOOK 13. Hardball (2009)
BOOK 14. Body Work (2010)
BOOK 15. Breakdown (2012)
BOOK 16. Critical Mass (2013)
BOOK 17. Brush Back (2015)
BOOK 18. Fallout (2017)
Random BOOK - Nightseer by Laurell K. Hamilton
Monday, December 31, 2018
Sharon McCone NEW YEAR'S CLEAN UP
Allllllll DONE. From books 4 [Games to Keep Away the Dark 1984] all the way to 33 [The Breakers 2018] (and with the exception of 3 partial DNF's and one completely uninteresting reading entry), I've read my way through the entirety of Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone mysteries. The pillar titles, though. No short story collections or Kindle singlets.
It's been fun going throughout Sharon's MANY adventures. I'll have to do a little list of my favorite entries, favorite villains, favorite Sharon quotes, etc. But all of that has to come later.
Anyway, I thought I was going to give the series up. Thankfully, that has since changed. While Muller is no Grafton. And Sharon is certainly no Kinsey Millhone. They're both something special for a guy who just loves tough female characters solving crimes her way.
Ready for a lifetime of McCone? Indeed. I'm in for the long haul–whichever direction Muller goes.
Saturday, December 29, 2018
Sunday, October 2, 2016
Delilah West: One Female Private-Eye You May Or May Not Have Heard Of
But I digress...
Nonetheless, Orange County resident and ex-cop private-eye, Delilah West, broke into her first full-length book in 1981 with Death is Forever. From 1981 until 1997, O’Callaghan released six Delilah West mysteries and a short story collection.
Thursday, August 18, 2016
L.A. to Alaska | P. I. Ladies (Late Summer Mini Book Haul) ~ VIDEO
Monday, April 11, 2016
Now I Know Where Kinsey GETS It | Marcia Muller Pushes Through! PART TWO

“He was pushing too hard. I kept my voice level. ‘I’m not on my own; I’m an employee of All Souls. I joined them after the detective agency fired me for refusing to jump at a special assignment that would have humiliated me and set up an innocent man for a very messy and expensive divorce. And I don’t know about being what you call a “super-sleuth.” I’m competent. I’d say my strong point is knowing how to ask the right questions. Without trying to cram my words into other people’s mouths.’”
“On my way out of the kitchen, I grabbed a handful of cookies from the big jar that was always full of chocolate chips. They would be my dinner. Hank grinned and led me down the central hall to the second office on the right.”
I would say between the three, Warshawski has the best appetite. Though she drinks too much.
Now I Know Where Kinsey GETS It | Marcia Muller Pushes Through! PART ONE

Most of you guys know I LIVE for Sue Grafton’s California private-eye, Kinsey Millhone. ("LIVE" is an extreme, extreme understatement). And you’re also familiar with my apathetic, strange off/on relationship with Sara Paretsky tough ‘n’ tumble Chicago-based woman of the same profession, V. I. Warshawski. But here’s the thing. The ticket. The point of this erratic and fervent post–beginning with a little history lesson.
In the early 80’s, Grafton and Paretsky transformed the voice of crime fiction. Through, respectively, their characters Millhone and Warshawski; the authors released the female private-eye alone into the playgrounds of her male counterparts. And their leading ladies came in just as hard-hitting, proficient, and uncompromising as the male investigators. But, thankfully, their characteristics weren’t channeled through the virility associated with men.
Millhone and Warshawski utilized a certain degree of wiles, ingenuity, and vocal consensus to turn a given case in her favor. Though also dogged at times for answers, they would see cases to the end with just as much profession and dedication as men. Yet, when push came to shove, they were sometimes afraid to shove back. They had concerns about the use of violence, as it was first considered a defense and hardly a course of action. So as level-headed and determined as they could be, force and violence always seemed a final recourse. Neither were always necessary in the end–as the ladies were likely to have already outsmarted a criminal. Nevertheless, what I described is precisely why I love the female detective. She’s afforded an unassuming element that serves as a lethal surprise that never gets old when it's called upon. Basically, I love a calculating bad-ass woman.

So the opportunities for the lone female private-eye to take stage arrived from Marcia Muller’s 1977 influential debut, Edwin of the Iron Shoes. It's here Muller introduced the world to private detective Sharon McCone. McCone was the first unshackled female detective to toss conventions previous held by women in her profession. She wasn't a side-kick to the male private-eye. She didn't use anything other than her brains and interrogating acrobatics to mine for information. She had a voice–a retort–for societal affairs. She had a heart, though took the zero nonsense approach. She was brave. She also meant business, needed to get paid with as little moral compromising, and was well-adjusted to standing alone. And, well, she had a gun in her purse just in case. You know, for those occasions she just may have to shoot somebody in the face for her own protection.
After the last page, I understood where Kinsey and Warshawski got her voice. And Muller reminded me–so clearly–why it is that I love this genre when led by women. Seriously, I highlighted a bucket of passages as I read the book. Passages that screamed to me, “Kinsey would do/say this.” Or, “This sounds like an argument Warshawski would find herself in.” The revelation was too plain not to acknowledge and recognize.