Publisher's Weekly Review

Muller's ( Eye of the Storm ) virtuosity is demonstrated again in her eighth Sharon McCone mystery. Though the single, 35-ish investigator for San Francisco's All Souls Law Cooperative suspects her client, custom shirtmaker Rudy Goldring, isn't being completely candid with her, she agrees to tail Frank Wilkonson, the manager of the Burning Oak Ranch, whose activities, Sharon learns, are confined to places and events connected with the horticulture world. At Goldring's apartment to deliver her report, she encounters a frantic woman fleeing the premises and the clothier's corpse. Searching for clues, Sharon finds a leather pouch belonging to a derelict Goldring has befriended, and the homeless man becomes the main suspect in the murder. Believing in his innocence, the sleuth turns her attention to Wilkonson and to locating the unidentified woman while coping with upheaval in her co-workers' personal lives. Sharon is a rarity in the genre: a multidimensional protagonist, who, with every book, grows as a person. This is a provocative work, infused with compassion and sensitivity, that explores the complexities of human relationships and the plight of the homeless. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved