The Dangerous Hour (A Sharon McCone Mystery, 22)

by Marcia Muller

Book Overview

When one of her investigative operatives is arrested for major credit card fraud, Sharon McCone's efforts to prove the woman's innocence are complicated by evidence that supports her guilt and points... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446615870
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 1.0" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

Loved this one - Great Suspense and who done it

In this latest installment by Muller Private Investigator Sharon (Share, Shar) McCone is wrestling with a lot of things in her personal life. Her cat is sick, her long time boyfriend wants to marry her, and in the opening of the story her youngest investigator (Julia) is accused of stealing the credit card of a former client. Supervisor Alex Aguilar who appears to be the San Francisco's Latino communities golden boy and best chance for mayor is the one doing the accusing. In fact he has also contacted the state licensing board, who could take Sharon's license away based on the actions of her employee. Sharon and the rest of the staff don't believe that Julia, despite her checkered past, is guilty of what she is being accused of and they set out to investigate the situation. As Sharon and her crew investigate the "golden boy" they determine his is not so golden, his neighbors all hate him, he is demanding and dictatorial in his business dealings, and he appears to have a past that links him with some of the known drug pushers in the areas. As the investigation progresses Sharon determines that Alex's business partner Scott's hiking accident appears to be murder. As the story progresses, things lead the group to believe that Julia might not be the intended target but Sharon herself. The story continues until the "bag guy" is caught and all the pieces fit together. Even the solution to Sharon's sick cat and her waffling decision whether to marry Hy or not. I missed a few books in this series but have found each one stand on its own. Loved this one. Especially the twists and turns.

Another excellent Sharon McCone story

The latest installment in the Sharon McCone series, The Dangerous Hours will not disappoint. Sharon's life is finally coming together-her business is thriving, her relationship with Hy, her long-term boyfriend is moving towards serious commitment, and even her extended family seems to be settling down. Suddenly, Sharon's business is at risk from the illegal actions of a new, unlicensed employee. Sharon and her entire team take on the challenge of finding out what is going on to save the agency and their jobs. At the same time, Sharon finds help from old friends such as attorney Glenn Solomon and Hy, while making new friends in the form of two new hires to the agency. The answer to Sharon's current problems lies in an old case, and once she has a suspect in mind, Sharon goes after him with the single mindedness familiar from previous installments. There is an interesting segue in this book where Sharon faces the impact of two of her cases on the people involved-this one, where the guilty party is truly criminal, and another case that affected someone who had simply fallen on bad times. Sharon takes appropriate action in both instances, and I found this juxtaposition a highlight of the story. I have been a fan of Marcia Muller for a number of years, and really enjoyed The Dangerous Hour. Muller has been able to grow and mature McCone in a manner that is consistent with Sharon's personality and history. Although this is not quite the quick tempered, adventure seeking McCone of the past, it is also wonderful that Muller has not allowed McCone to become stale or obvious. As always, the book is tightly written and flows smoothly through out, and hopefully we will not need to wait too long for a new book from Muller.

Witty, suspenseful, and full of plot twists

Sharon McCone, the successful owner of McCone Investigations, is at the pinnacle of financial stability. She has remodeled a conference room, complimented her staff on their most recent successes, and promised to hire additional office help. But a frantic phone call to her private office turns her world upside down. The police are reading Miranda rights to one of McCone's operatives, Julia Rafael, and haul the girl off to jail. She is accused of major credit card fraud. Stunned, McCone refuses to believe that Julia has committed the crime, despite her juvenile record. McCone's difficulties increase when her business is implicated by a search of the premises. A record of the ill-gotten merchandise is discovered in her firm's storeroom. Civil litigation will destroy her reputation. Julia languishes in jail over a weekend. McCone sets out to vilify her employee and get to the heart of the matter. Political hopeful Alex Aguilar has brought the charges against Julia. McCone sneaks to the man's home address and interviews his neighbors. They speak of a quite different personality than the one he projects publicly. In addition, he has had a recent houseguest who elicits shudders from other tenants. Another peculiar twist lies in the death of a fund-raiser for Aguilar's Mission district business. When McCone delves further into Julia's case files, she finds a connection to criminal elements within the Mission district. Aguilar's name remains near the surface of the facts she has unearthed. Marcia Muller's THE DANGEROUS HOUR, the 23rd Sharon McCone mystery, is tastefully written, with enough barely raw language to tempt, but not cloud, the text. McCone is a classy lady, with an outside-the-business love life to pursue. She has ignored her lover's proposal of marriage, with a promise to think about it and give him an answer soon. Business interferes with their romantic consideration. Marriage plans rest on the back burner. Two shootings (McCone's employees the targets), illegal gun purchases, drug deals, and a dubious Hispanic man with the initials R.D., revolve back to the accused girl's distant and recent past history. McCone bulldogs the evidence, between curves and twists, to her eventual solution. But will the information exonerate Rafael and clear the clouds of suspicion surrounding her beloved firm? Muller rounds out the intricate plot with a return to her heroine's dubious future. Wit abounds and characters become part of the reader's consciousness. We really care about what McCone discovers, and we get inside her emotional psyche throughout her quest for the truth. She is a woman to admire but is common enough in both her strengths and frailties to follow into the next Muller adventure. (...)

tense fresh private investigative tale

In San Francisco, the staff of McCone Investigations held a meeting to discuss the success of the business, which has tripled in less than two years including branching into new areas like computer forensics and how bright the future seems. The meeting is barely over when the SFPD Fraud Detail Mirandizes trainee Julia Rafael for illegally purchasing items with a credit card belonging to jobs training program supervisor Alex Aguilar. The victim claims she stole and used his card after he rejected her sexual advances. McCone thinks Alex was a satisfied customer who now accuses one of Sharon's operatives of grand theft. She also realizes that since Julia, as a trainee, was unlicensed with the Department of Consumer Affairs, Sharon and her company are liable, which could lead to a loss of their license. Insisting she is innocent, Julia observes that she is too small a target to matter. Sharon agrees that the goal has to be a bigger fish, probably herself, but by whom, why and the tie in to Aguilar, a potential Mayoral candidate, remain unknown. She and her crack staff plan to find out and prove her trust in Julia was and is the right thing. THE DANGEROUS HOUR may be the twenty something McCone tale, but contains a freshness as if this was the first novel. The story line is fast-paced with plenty of action including murder and revenge as Sharon and her team struggle to learn the identity of the culprit trying to destroy her. With all that going on and taking care of a cat with feline diabetes, Sharon's lover Hy Ripinsky asks her again. Fans of the series and newcomers will enjoy this tense private investigative tale. Harriet Klausner