Publisher's Weekly Review
Continuing the Sharon McCone series, Muller's latest mystery concerns a terrorist bombing and a kidnapped little girl. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Another chapter in the tension-fraught life of p.i. Sharon McCone (Till the Butchers Cut Him Down, 1994, etc.), now heavily infiltrated by computer, cellular phone, fax, and tape recorder. An unidentified bomber (the ``Diplobomber''), who's been responsible for several deaths at diplomatic posts in several cities, is threatening once againthis time the consulate of an Arab emirate in San Francisco. Sharon's friend, Inspector Adah Joslyn, has been appointed to a task force working with the FBI. And Sharon herself has been recruited by the powerful RKI security firm that guards the consulate (and of which her lover, Hy Ripinsky, is a partner). Consul-General Malika Hamid lives at the consulate with her daughter-in-law Mavis, an alcoholic, and her nine-year-old granddaughter Habiba. Son Dawud, according to his mother, disappeared years before. It turns out, however, that he's very much alive, and into big-time gambling, drinking, and lechery, if not worse. After Habiba is almost killed by a package bomb, she and her mother are shipped out to the remote Caribbean island from which Dawud and partner Speed Schechtmann run their phone-betting operation. Mavis never makes it, and Sharon's mission is to rescue Habiba from her father's clutchesa feat that involves rough waters, solo flying, a network of helpers, and more, much more. Meanwhile, Adah has been taken hostage by the bomber, who, after a last, vicious act, will negotiate only with Sharon. You can bet who wins that one, but it isn't easy. Overpopulated and overplotted, but gripping from first-page attention-grabber to last-page irony.
Booklist Review
Hard to believe that fearless P.I. Sharon McCone is grappling with world-weariness, approaching the "big four-oh," and lamenting the distance she's traveled from her innocent early days at All Souls Legal Co-op. But even a midlife crisis doesn't stop McCone from getting involved in the case of the "Diplo Bomber," a terrorist who has maimed or killed half a dozen foreign diplomats. San Francisco homicide cop Adah Joslyn enlists McCone's help when the bomber warns that his next target will be the San Francisco-based consulate of Azad, an oil-rich Arab emirate. But it's not until McCone meets the engaging nine-year-old granddaughter of the Azad consul that she gets hooked. The case is as puzzling and frustrating as any she's worked on, taking her from San Francisco's seamy underworld to the sparkling beauty of a remote Caribbean island. And just when McCone thinks she's finally figured out who the bomber is, even she's surprised by one final, macabre twist. Once again, Muller, the reigning queen of the female P.I. genre, gives her readers the kind of superbly crafted, riveting thriller they've come to expect. (Reviewed May 15, 1995)0892965266Emily Melton
Library Journal Review
Muller's most recent whodunit, Till the Butchers Cut Him Down (LJ 7/94), managed to sell more than 30,000 copies in hardcover. Here, gumshoe Sharon McCone is hot on the trail of a missing nine-year-old girl. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
