Double

Rating:
Summary: A Nearly Perfect Duet after an Off-Key Beginning
Review: Anyone who is a fan of either Marcia Muller (or her detective, Sharon McCone) or Bill Pronzini (or his detective, "Nameless") should be sure to read this book. By enjoying two top mystery writers at the top of their game sharing a common plot, you will learn more about each author's style and their characters.

The book seems primarily inspired by two earlier Pronzini books about the Nameless Detective, Twospot, a "he-said, he-said" collaboration with Collin Wilcox, and the award-winning Hoodwink, set at a pulp writers' convention. As wonderful as those book are, this one vastly exceeds them.

The story is told from the alternating perspectives of the two detectives who are both attending a private detectives' convention at the Casa del Rey on Coronado in San Diego harbor. For Nameless fans, there's quick excitement as Sharon McCone supplies a nickname for Nameless, "Wolf," after newspaper reports of his operating as a lone wolf detective during the years before he teamed up with Eberhardt.

They each stumble onto the sense that something's amiss at the hotel . . . but for different reasons. Wolf finds a boy wandering around among the cottages on the grounds, and later finds that no one was registered to the cottage that he was staying in. Sharon runs into her old boss, Elaine Picard, who runs security at the hotel. Elaine wants to speak with Sharon about something that's bothering her, but there's no time to get together. Then the two leads coalesce as Wolf watches Elaine take a header from a high tower in the hotel to her death. At first the two detectives occasionally share observations, but before long both abandon the convention and begin to search together for answers to the puzzles.

The convention backdrop provides lots of opportunities for humor about the profession, which has increasingly become based on electronic surveillance. Neither Sharon nor Wolf like that development, and you'll enjoy their take on it.

The book starts off slowly as the two narratives repeat each other excessively in the beginning pages. That bogs the book down, and makes it seem clumsy. Soon, the separate action begins and the narration becomes strong and independent.

One of the high points of the book is that three different characters have to locate the same undisclosed place. Each uses a different method to identify the location. From this and other multifaceted perspectives, you get a strong sense of how the same mystery can be attacked from many different directions.

There's also a nice contrast between Sharon's willingness to bend the rules, and Nameless's commitment to following all of the rules.

The book has a wonderful blend of characters, subplots (including both detectives' personal lives), motives and action. Because it has both a "she said, he said" perspective, the book has a balance that few detective novels manage. Perhaps the fact that Ms. Muller and Mr. Pronzini are wife and husband in real life helped contribute the chemistry that makes this book so wonderful.

If you only read one mystery this year, make it this one!

After I finished this book, I wondered about how I could employ a female perspective to round out my thinking more often.

Rating:
Summary: A Nearly Perfect Duet after an Off-Key Beginning
Review: Anyone who is a fan of either Marcia Muller (or her detective, Sharon McCone) or Bill Pronzini (or his detective, "Nameless") should be sure to read this book. By enjoying two top mystery writers at the top of their game sharing a common plot, you will learn more about each author's style and their characters.

The book seems primarily inspired by two earlier Pronzini books about the Nameless Detective, Twospot, a "he-said, he-said" collaboration with Collin Wilcox, and the award-winning Hoodwink, set at a pulp writers' convention. As wonderful as those book are, this one vastly exceeds them.

The story is told from the alternating perspectives of the two detectives who are both attending a private detectives' convention at the Casa del Rey on Coronado in San Diego harbor. For Nameless fans, there's quick excitement as Sharon McCone supplies a nickname for Nameless, "Wolf," after newspaper reports of his operating as a lone wolf detective during the years before he teamed up with Eberhardt.

They each stumble onto the sense that something's amiss at the hotel . . . but for different reasons. Wolf finds a boy wandering around among the cottages on the grounds, and later finds that no one was registered to the cottage that he was staying in. Sharon runs into her old boss, Elaine Picard, who runs security at the hotel. Elaine wants to speak with Sharon about something that's bothering her, but there's no time to get together. Then the two leads coalesce as Wolf watches Elaine take a header from a high tower in the hotel to her death. At first the two detectives occasionally share observations, but before long both abandon the convention and begin to search together for answers to the puzzles.

The convention backdrop provides lots of opportunities for humor about the profession, which has increasingly become based on electronic surveillance. Neither Sharon nor Wolf like that development, and you'll enjoy their take on it.

The book starts off slowly as the two narratives repeat each other excessively in the beginning pages. That bogs the book down, and makes it seem clumsy. Soon, the separate action begins and the narration becomes strong and independent.

One of the high points of the book is that three different characters have to locate the same undisclosed place. Each uses a different method to identify the location. From this and other multifaceted perspectives, you get a strong sense of how the same mystery can be attacked from many different directions.

There's also a nice contrast between Sharon's willingness to bend the rules, and Nameless's commitment to following all of the rules.

The book has a wonderful blend of characters, subplots (including both detectives' personal lives), motives and action. Because it has both a "she said, he said" perspective, the book has a balance that few detective novels manage. Perhaps the fact that Ms. Muller and Mr. Pronzini are wife and husband in real life helped contribute the chemistry that makes this book so wonderful.

If you only read one mystery this year, make it this one!

After I finished this book, I wondered about how I could employ a female perspective to round out my thinking more often.

Rating:
Summary: Double the Fun
Review: Bill Pronzini and Marcia Muller are my 2 favorite mystery writers working today. "Double" offers both Sharon McCone and the Nameless Detective working together. They team up to investigate the murder of Elaine Picard, a former friend of McCone, head of security at the Casa del Ray hotel in San Diego where a private investigator's convention is being held. McCone and Nameless (whom McCone calls "Wolf") alternate chapters. This novel sizzles with action and it is one of my favorites of both Pronzini and Muller. I'm hoping that one day the husband and wife team of Pronzini and Muller will write another joint venture featuring Sharon McCone and the Nameless Detective. An excellent novel that is highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Double the Fun
Review: Bill Pronzini and Marcia Muller are my 2 favorite mystery writers working today. "Double" offers both Sharon McCone and the Nameless Detective working together. They team up to investigate the murder of Elaine Picard, a former friend of McCone, head of security at the Casa del Ray hotel in San Diego where a private investigator's convention is being held. McCone and Nameless (whom McCone calls "Wolf") alternate chapters. This novel sizzles with action and it is one of my favorites of both Pronzini and Muller. I'm hoping that one day the husband and wife team of Pronzini and Muller will write another joint venture featuring Sharon McCone and the Nameless Detective. An excellent novel that is highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: 2 Writers Equal A Good Mystery
Review: In the beginning of this book I found the changing of viewpoints every other chapter disruptive of the flow of the story, but this improved as the book went on. Overall, this is a good book and I would recommend it.

I prefer the Sharon McCone books written only by Marcia Muller, but this book is definitely important to the history of Sharon McCone and is worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting collaboration
Review: Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini team up with their characters Sharon McCone and "the nameless detective" to create an intriguing mystery. Sharon and the detective she calls Wolf meet in San Diego at a convention for private investigators. Sharon is also pleased to see an old boss of hers who is now head of security at the hotel where she's staying. When Sharon's friend falls over a balcony, she and Wolf decide that it is no accident and they set about to prove that there has been foul play. Sharon and Wolf take turns telling the story and they each work on bits and pieces of the murder plus other mysterious happenings which seem to be related. This book has a deliciously convoluted plot and a mystery which Muller and Pronzini develop to a crescendo and then reveal to the reader bit by bit. The addition of the character Wolf is a nice departure for this series, and it's interesting to catch a glimpse of McCone's family as well.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting collaboration
Review: Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini team up with their characters Sharon McCone and "the nameless detective" to create an intriguing mystery. Sharon and the detective she calls Wolf meet in San Diego at a convention for private investigators. Sharon is also pleased to see an old boss of hers who is now head of security at the hotel where she's staying. When Sharon's friend falls over a balcony, she and Wolf decide that it is no accident and they set about to prove that there has been foul play. Sharon and Wolf take turns telling the story and they each work on bits and pieces of the murder plus other mysterious happenings which seem to be related. This book has a deliciously convoluted plot and a mystery which Muller and Pronzini develop to a crescendo and then reveal to the reader bit by bit. The addition of the character Wolf is a nice departure for this series, and it's interesting to catch a glimpse of McCone's family as well.

Rating:
Summary: Female private investigators are strange
Review: When Sharon McCone was home visiting her family, her mother wanted her to speak to her brother John who was planning to fight for custody of his children. Her father, retired Navy, was a cabint maker and the husband of her sister Charlene was a musician. Sharon was supposed to be the stable, the together member of her family. She was in town attending a convention. Sharon's friend Elaine Picard was in charge of hotel security. The Nameless Detective, Wolf, was also at the convention which was being held in San Diego.

Elaine Picard fell from a balcony. Her death did not seem to be the result of an accident. Wolf witnessed the fall. He and Sharon proceeded to investigate the matter, informally. Sharon was nearly arrested for having committed a breaking and entering at Picard's residence. I should tell the prospective reader that the narration is in the first person, double first person that is to say.

Sharon discovered that Elaine had written to her lawyer that the hotel was being used for some illegal purpose and that she had not yet determined the nature of the illegal acts. Sharon felt that Elaine's death had something to do with the disappearance of a business tycoon. There was a chain reaction as the deaths and disappearances in the case escalated.