The Shape of Dread (1989)

by Marcia Muller

Series: Sharon McCone (10)

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
351	4	73,884	(3.58)	4
Fiction. Mystery. HTML: Bobby Foster, car-hop at the chic Cafe Comedie, is going to the gas chamber. He's already confessed to the murder of Tracy Kostakos, the club's rising star. But two years after the crime, Tracy's body is still missing and Bobby's confession is full of holes. All Souls Legal Cooperative's final appeal sends San Francisco's #1 P.I. Sharon McCone behind the footlights into the super-charged arena of anxious club owners and aspiring young hopefuls...into the fractured world of Tracy's privileged family and the mind of a young comedienne who was not the good little girl they thought they knew...into a labyrinth of death and deception where someone will kill to laugh last and get away with murder. .… (more)

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Showing 4 of 4

I might have rated this higher (lots of twists and turns), but it was an audio book and the woman who was doing the different characters started getting on my last nerve. Plus her interpretation of black characters was downright offensive. Good story but bad audio book execution. (

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AliceAnna | Oct 3, 2022 |

Sharon McCone, murder of comedian

ritaer | Jun 16, 2020 |

Good entry for this series. Marcia Muller really portray the Bay Area very well. As a former resident, it is fun to follow her around the area. Nasty little mystery growing from McCone trying to save a young man from a death sentence. Her All Souls environment is still an interesting place to read about as is her sustaining cast. (

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jamespurcell | Mar 3, 2015 |

Sharon investigates a murder without a body to save a young man from the death penalty. A comedy club figures prominently. (

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ffortsa | Dec 23, 2009 |

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Belongs to Series

Sharon McCone (10)

Belongs to Publisher Series

Fischer Taschenbuch (10890)

Is contained in

Trophies and Dead Things [and] The Shape of Dread by Marcia Muller

▾Awards and Honors

Awards

Shamus Award (Shortlist – PI Hardcover – 1990)

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Canonical title

Original title

The Shape of Dread

Alternative titles

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

San Francisco, California, USA

San Quentin Prison, California, USA

Palo Alto, California, USA

Los Angeles, California, USA

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

For Bill

First words

San Quentin Prison stands on a windswept headland on San Francisco Bay.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

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▾Book descriptions

Fiction. Mystery. HTML:

Bobby Foster, car-hop at the chic Cafe Comedie, is going to the gas chamber. He's already confessed to the murder of Tracy Kostakos, the club's rising star. But two years after the crime, Tracy's body is still missing and Bobby's confession is full of holes. All Souls Legal Cooperative's final appeal sends San Francisco's #1 P.I. Sharon McCone behind the footlights into the super-charged arena of anxious club owners and aspiring young hopefuls...into the fractured world of Tracy's privileged family and the mind of a young comedienne who was not the good little girl they thought they knew...into a labyrinth of death and deception where someone will kill to laugh last and get away with murder.

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Book description

Private eye Sharon McCone is enlisted into a case that had made lurid headlines ten years earlier: it was then that Bobby Foster, ex-crack addict and parking valet at the trendy Café Comedie, confessed to the kidnapping and murder of young stand-up comic Tracy Kostakos.

Foster's lawyer at the All Souls Legal Cooperative thinks that the real story didn't come out at the trial. After all, the body was never found.

Assigned to dig up additional facts, Sharon finds that Kostakos' co-comics had been strangely silent during the investigation. Was Tracy really the "good girl" her parents thought? And weren't the socially aware real estate developers who own the club just a bit too smooth?

Sharon's quiet investigation into the hip stand-up comedian subculture soon leads to explosive revelations about the darker side of comedy.

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