Leave A Message For Willie (1990) - Plot & Excerpts
We get another teeny glimpse into Sharon McCone in this book, besides the fact she has a bird phobia. We know she avoids her family, we know the two oldest brothers got into minor criminal scrapes, one sister is soccer mom and the other is counterculture. Her mom calls her occasionally. This is stuff dribbled out in the previous books in the series. Plus she has a sociology degree, but because of her first job as a department store security guard she decided to become a PI and went back to school. We know she is very independent and she can't let cases go even when in pursuing her case to finish it, she screws up her professional and private relationships. The cop boyfriend left because he wanted to control her and she wasn't having it; now her new boyfriend is moving into the neighborhood and she is fearful about that.All of these girl detectives have the same characteristics. According to the cover blurbs, McCone is the original template. Some of the others have drinking problems, too, but not McCone, although she likes Bourbon. She knows martial arts, carries a .38, and she can take physical punishment. I like her. And now I like the series because Marcia Muller has settled down and learned her craft. If poor writing early in a series annoys you too much, avoid the first three books. Muller was still learning how to write a mystery novel, and they show it. #4 was a big step up and this one, #5, is the most professional of these early books. Muller got there, and from here on out you can see she is worth reading.In this one, we learn alot about flea markets and the people who rent tables to sell you stuff. All I can say is if you don't want to see how the soup is made, don't go into the kitchen. Willie may be a real sweetheart, but I for one find selling stolen goods reprehensible. A lot of nice, hardworking people do not deserve to come home to find their house broken and their expensive stuff gone. Those people may not be able to earn the money to replace that stuff for years, so I can't really manage to see Willie in such a 'cute not-so-bad guy' role, and I'd have a problem being nonjudgmental. For McCone, the job supersedes her qualms, so she ends up in the middle of two murders.
Leave a Message for Willie, by Marcia Muller, b-plus, Narrated by Laura Hicks, Produced by audiogo, downloaded from audible.com.This is no. 5 in the Sharon McCone series. Sharon’s boss at the Legal Coop in San Francisco, sends her to the flea market to help a buddy from the Vietnam War days. Sharon is asked by Willie to find someone who is stalking him. Willie fences stolen goods, as do some of the other vendors in the flea market. Some Torah scrolls were stolen in the flea market. As Sharon attempts to help Willie, she finds herself in danger from what appears to be a para-military group. Another in the early part of the series. Although not as well written as later books in the series, I consider the early ones the best.
What do You think about Leave A Message For Willie (1990)?
I'm actually listening to the downloadable audio version, but I'm too lazy to add that edition. LOLI have enjoyed every one of these books that I've listened to so far. This series was started years ago, so they are short and sweet without a lot of the "filler crap" as I call it that you see in many of the bloated mysteries of today. In the first couple books I really felt that character development was lacking, but by this fifth book in the series, I feel as though I know Sharon quite well--the details come filtering through slowly over time, not as an annoying recitation and rehashing of details and history from previous books, again as so often happens with modern mysteries.Sharon is hired by a man who runs several flea markets, wanting to find out who the strange man in the yarmulke is who has been watching him for a few weeks. When that man ends up dead in Willie's house, Sharon and her boss Hank end up drawn into the fracas when Willie flees. They're certain he's not guilty of the murder, but why won't he come in and talk to the police?
—Spuddie
