Circle in the Water: A Sharon McCone Mystery by Marcia Muller finds Sharon working a complicated case involving private street ownership. In San Franciso, there are more than 200 streets that are owned by private individuals or entities. As these streets are not city property, they are lucrative targets for land speculators and others.

As the book opens, it is almost midnight Halloween, and Sharon McCone is on a stake out. Being a co-owner of the agency with her husband, Hy Ripinsky, who is currently overseas, she is out in the rain so that she does not have to fool with trick-or-treaters and somebody else does not miss a party or spending time with their kids this dark night. The rain fits her mood. One that she has been in for months now. A mood that she can’t really explain to herself or others that have noticed.

She is on Rowan Court trying to prevent another vandalism attack. McCone & Ripinsky International has been hired by the wealthy homeowners on the street to stop a rash of vandalism that has been happening to their homes and vehicles. Not just stop it, but identify the culprits and why they are doing it. One of their members has been reaching out to other folks and have discovered that this sort of thing is happening on other private streets, rich and poor, across the city.

Soon McCone finds things are linked across various neighborhoods. Events start to move forward and become deadly.

Circle in the Water: A Sharon McCone Mystery is a complicated and often slow-moving read. At least a third of the book, if not more, consists of reminisces of previous cases and things that happened to McCone, Hy, and many others in the past, and an acknowledgment and recognition of how far all those involved have come in the here and now. Even if one had not seen the guest post by the author at SleuthSayers announcing this book is the end of the series, it is clear with the way the book unfolds for the reader.

It is also a good read. The case is complicated and chugs along at a semi steady pace between the many memories of the past. Circle in the Water: A Sharon McCone Mystery ends the series well.

My ARC reading copy came from the publisher, Grand Central Publishing, via NetGalley with no expectation of a review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2024 ( )

Years ago, I read the Sharon McCone mysteries regularly. She was one of the first fictional tough female PIs. Then school, work, life interfered and I got away from reading them. It’s been a while since I picked one up and Sharon has come a long way from her first book in 1977 when she was a San Francisco PI, on staff at a legal cooperative. She is married and in partnership with her husband, has her own agency with staff and resources, including a plane. There are 30 books in the series.

In this case, there has been vandalism on some of the privately owned streets (who knew some were privately owned?) in the city and Sharon has been hired to find the culprit. Her investigation puts her in danger as she doggedly pursues the truth

Not a heart racing thriller, this is more a solid mystery procedural. It is a fast read and taps into some of the present difficulties in SF with housing prices and homelessness.

Thanks to @netgalley and #grandcentralpublishing for the DRC. ( )