San Francisco private detective, Sharon McCone, is back and using old-fashioned investigating techniques (no modern conveniences yet) to solve the murder of her elderly upstairs neighbor in her apartment building. A piece of drapery cord stolen from Sharon's apartment is the murder weapon and Molly Antonio was strangled with it. Plenty of quirky suspects from the building and surrounding neighborhood for Sharon to interrogate. She has the permission of Lieutenant Greg Marcus of the SFPD to investigate the murder, and her boss at All Souls Legal Co-op gives her vacation time to sort things out.At the beginning, the prime suspect is Sharon's best friend, Linnea Carroway, who is living with her. Linnea is recently divorced, can't get her act together, fast becoming a sloppy heavy drinker and the last person to see the victim alive. They were observed arguing. Other suspects include Gus, Molly's husband; Mr. Moe, the neighborhood grocer, where Molly bought her groceries a short time before the murder; Sebastian, a blind brush re-stocker, who lives at the Sunrise Blind Center and whom Gus is paid to help lead around the neighborhood so Sebastian can do his job; Herb Clemente, director of the Blind Center with a distinguished record of community service work; Madame Anya, a psychic and card reader living in Sharon's apartment building who is also later murdered; her husband, Jeffrey Neverman, who lives at the blind center and works as a handyman there; and several more shady characters. Sharon uncovers a scheme involving stolen cargo from ship containers, big time deals, and blackmail. The murderer was an unlikely suspect.The relationship between Greg and Sharon is heating up - at least on his side. He plies her with chocolates of various varieties in hopes of a date. She keeps snubbing him, and he keeps calling her "Papoose". We also discover Sharon has a phobia with birds and Madame Anya has a tame black crow which leads to a crisis! I found Sharon a little naïve about alcoholism tho - she supplies her sloppy drunk friend with drinks a few times and drinks in front of Linnea while advising her to quit and shape-up! A fast read - I'm told the series gets better. Sue Grafton says the author is "The founding mother of the contemporary female hard-boiled private eye".
Audiobook. Narrated by Bernadette Dunne.First time reading/listening to this author and I don't know if it's the narrator's fault, but the dialogue seemed so stilted. It felt like there were no contractions at all. "Yes, I would like to see if they are happy with the time it has taken for me to drive across town." No contractions. "Yes, I'd like to see if they're happy with time it's taken for me to drive across town." With contractions and normal speech. Since I didn't have the book in front of me I'm assuming the the narrator spoke verbatim because the case does say it's unabridged. This made the dialogue between characters feel unreal to me and put a real hamper on me enjoying the audiobook.The mystery itself, I didn't figure out the main bad guy (because there are quite a few regular bad guys in this book) was until right before it was revealed but I think that was the author's way of catching us up. I like that because I'm a pretty guesser. I wasn't crazy about the heroine or really anybody in the book which is kind of important if I want to get into a series, to either love or hate the main character where I want to see what happens next. So I think unless a free audiobook drops in my lap, this will the only book I will read in this series.
What do You think about Ask The Cards A Question (1990)?
Second in the series featuring San Francisco private investigator Sharon McCone. Sharon ends up investigating a killing that happens in her own building when her upstairs neighbor, elderly Mollie Antonio, is brutally strangled. Detective Greg Marcus asks her to identify the body since it seems everyone else in the building he's tried to question is either "drunk or crazy" and Sharon is horrified to note that a piece of drapery cord that possibly came from her own apartment is likely the murder weapon.As PI's are wont to do, she keeps mum about that tidbit of information and heads off into the neighborhood to question people close to Mollie, and as usual doesn't share her gleaned information with the police, putting herself and others in mortal danger. I guess since she ultimately solves the crime, that stuff doesn't matter though. Don't get me wrong, I like Sharon...it's just that I can't figure out how she's going to keep her PI license through umpteen books in the series if she keeps up that kind of behavior. LOLThe reader was okay, but I have to admit that while she did okay with varying the female voices, most of the male voices sounded very similar.
—Spuddie
In the 2nd book of the Sharon McCone series by Marcia Muller, Ask the Cards a Question, she told us a classic mystery of placing fate in the hands of a psychic medium. Madame Anya had predicted evil for Molly Antonio with her cards in Sharon McCone's quiet PI apartment. Linnea Carraway who had argued with her and drunken heavily in the wake of a divorce. Now that lady lies in her apartment, Linnea was the last one to see her alive and the prime suspect as well. If Sharon wanted to clear her best friend, she needed to find the murderer fast, when death were in the cards, threatening Sharon and her life.
—Kristen
I found this book interesting partly because it was an early work by an author of whom I have read more recent works. The change in style, the maturity of the newer stuff was obvious. One thing I liked about this work more than the author's later novels was that it was closer to a true mystery. I think too often an author forgets where he or she started and tries to become more literary. That does not generally seem to work.The mystery itself was pretty good, although the motive for the murders was a bit shakey. I guess style and a certain lack of touch were my biggest problems with the story.
—Jim
