A Wild and Lonely Place

This book in the Sharon McCone series by Marsha Muller is an old one; I have a book club edition from 1995. However, it was perfect for reading during a heat wave. I love Sharon McCone. She's gutsy, but worries about her courage, is down to earth, and really cares about people. Muller's stories are tight yet detailed, full of wonderfully described scenery yet stays on point, and she lets Sharon accept help when necessary but also lets her solve things on her own when she can. In other words, McCone is one smart cookie but not to proud to accept help.

This story involves the issue of diplomatic immunity and how it is abused by some countries. Of course, Muller makes up a country for an embassy, but it all sounds very real. In this case, show more McCone reluctantly signs on for a contract job with RKI, the company Hy, her lover, partially owns and works for. She doesn't really approve of RKI's way of doing things, but she needs the information only they can get, so when Hy's partner offers to work with her on locating a character based on the Unibomber, she takes him up on it. Her motive for continuing in a dangerous mission is to protect an innocent but clever nine-year-old girl.

The story goes from California to the Caribbean and back again. The book is a page turner and although I suspected who the bad guy was, I wasn't real sure until nearly the end. If you've missed this one, I highly recommend it. Good beach reading! show less

Enough exotic locations and twists and turns of plot to beguile a sunny afternoon on the balcony, but it's hard to see why the author could have imagined that someone with as plodding a prose style as Sharon McCone could make an interesting first-person narrator.

When I started this one, I remembered (too late) how unimpressed I was by the other Sharon McCone novels I've read.

There are one or two good bits. The stuff about flying is nicely done (sounds as though the author was taking flying lessons at the time), and there are some charmingly dated references to nineties technology -- pagers, bulletin boards, etc.

'"The Internet - that's the monster one you need a road map to use?"
'Mick smiled smugly. "Some people need a roadmap, but not show more this kid."' show less

I'm still catching up with the Sharon McCone series. Sharon gets involved with trying to uncover the Dipla-bomber who is bombing consulates all over the U.S. One particular embassy soon becomes a focus and McCone's work turns to rescue of the daughter-in-law and grandchild of the ambassador. While I have a special place for the McCone series... I've discovered that these books are best saved for special McCone times. I've got one more to read out of sequence and I'm definitely saving it.

Really good story and characters. I like to see a strong female character without a lot of baggage and Sharon McCone fits the bill. Very entertaining. (On re-reading, I like this one even more. McCone is a badass!!!)