#20 in the Sharon McCone series. Sharon travels to Hawaii on an assignment and brings lover, Hy Ripinski, along to make it a working vacation. She promptly is attracted to a helicopter pilot jeopardizing her relationship with Hy. While trying to ignore her feelings, she attempts to discover who wants to stop the filming of the documentary she has been hired to protect. Wheels within wheels and she winds up involved in more plots than she had imagined existed.#20 - Sharon McCone series - The San Francisco-based PI leaves her usual haunts for Hawaii. McCone's downstairs office neighbor, Glenna Stanleigh, is a documentary filmmaker with a project on the island of Kauai. Glenna and her partner, Peter Wellbright, are making a film about Hawaiian legends and myths, based on the writings of Peter's father, Elson Wellbright, a descendant of early missionaries to the islands. There have been a series of accidents on the film set, and Glenna suspects that someone is trying to kill her or a member of her crew. Can McCone help? McCone is not licensed to operate in Hawaii, so she takes along her lover, Hy Ripinsky, and finds a way to work with the local branch of his security company, RKI. As she delves into the curious circumstances on the set, McCone keeps running into trouble with the large, influential and badly dysfunctional Wellbright family. Two family members, Elson himself and his youngest son, have gone missing for some years, and nobody seems to care much. As her inquiries lead her inevitably into learning more about the local folklore and history, McCone falls under the spell of the islands. She also fights an attraction to Russ Tanner, a local helicopter pilot and distant relative of the Wellbrights.
On par with all her books. Felt betrayed by Sharon as she strayed from Hy, but then she stayed true with a small deviation. Hawaii was a different locale. Plot as ok, and as usual Sharon accomplishes her goal!!Accidents are plaguing a documentary film crew on breathtakingly beautiful Kauai. Can San Francisco P.I. Sharon McCone ferret out possible sabotage behind the scenes? The job sounds like a breeze -- McCone envisions romantic, tropical nights with her lover, Hy Ripinsky. Instead, she finds a troubled paradise with rising tensions between native and non-native Hawaiians, a film going south fast, and a macabre ritual death. Then a mysterious local pilot rattles her commitment to Hy, and soon McCone is in danger herself...caught in the place Hawaiians call "ahi wela maka'u", the place between fire love and fire terror, the place where even a seasoned private eye can get burned.
What do You think about A Walk Through The Fire (2000)?
Not a bad addition to Muller's series, and a bit different because set in Hawaii rather than California. In fact, it's set just a few years after the severe hurricane Iniki hit Kauai, and makes that part of the plot. I don't normally keep close track of storms and natural disasters, but Iniki occurred right when the travel magazine I was working for was about to run a story on Kauai, and we had to replace the piece in a hurry, so the book reminded me of that. I'm mildly curious now as to the long-term impact of the storm on the island.
—Spotsalots
A Walk through the Fire features Sharon McCone, a private investigator from San Francisco. McCone is one of the original female private eyes, the series dates back to the '70s. I've read a few of Marcia Muller's books before. There's usually some kind of activist activity in the stories; I always felt that dated back to the influences of the time period Muller started writing. It wasn't an aspect I particularly enjoyed so haven't read any of her books for a long time. A Walk Through the Fire was one of the .25 cent sell-offs at the library so it made the trip home with me. The good news for me is that there wasn't such a political bend to the story and it was set in Hawaii, a favourite destination of mine. McCone is hired by a filmmaker whose offices are in the same building as McCone. Glenna Stanleigh is working on a documentary in Kauai and the set has been plagued with odd accidents. McCone heads off to Hawaii with her partner Hy Ripinsky. They are soon immersed in the lives of the Wellbrights whose missing father is the focus of the documentary. It's a classic private detective story with various family members appearing both guilty and innocent. Although Muller's McCone has kept pace with the the passing of time, the characterization and writing seems a little old fashioned now.
—Lynn
