Locked In (Sharon McCone #26) by Marcia Muller

Locked In (Sharon McCone #26) Reviews

• 
  Tory Wagner

  This long running series is a pleasure to read. While the series runs sequentially, individual books can easily be read out of sequence .
• 
  Joy

  I loved this book even more than I had expected to from LJ's comments. I took my pristine copy to bed with me to sample as I settled in; and ended up finishing it at about 1:30 AM, sore eyes notwithstanding. Moving and intelligent, at one spot it had me laughing and crying at the same time.
  
  Now that I have LOCKED IN on my kindle, it's completely handy for rereads. My favorite contemporary mystery new read of 2009, also favorite mystery reread of 2014. Read 7 times.
• 
  SuperWendy

  At this point we're pretty deep into the life and times of Sharon McCone (this is book #26 in a series!) so the assumption is that the reader is largely already invested in these characters. This is a really good series read as it puts Sharon in the largest peril she's faced yet. She's been shot by an intruder at her office and is suffering from "locked in" syndrome. Which is to say she's unable to speak or move but can still see, hear and reason. With Sharon working the case from a hospital bed, it's up to her operatives and McCone Investigations to find out who is behind her shooting. The story head-hops among various characters as they work three investigations that seem the most likely to bear fruit. It's a face-paced read and Muller kept me guessing. The ending got a little melodramatic for my tastes, but all in all a good, solid entry in a long-running series.
• 
  Shannon Appelcline

  Muller takes a shocking premise (McCone is shot in the head by surprise) and then moves that in an extraordinary direction, giving us the points-of-view of Hy and the four detectives who are working on cases that might be related to McCone's shooting. By doing so, she not only gives us insights into many of this series' secondary characters, but also a very intricately plotted set of mysteries.
  
  This is a masterpiece of the detective genre!
• 
  Beth

  DNF—Marcia Muller is a reliable mystery author, but when I realized that this particular plot involved Sharon McCone enduring “locked-in” syndrome after a head injury, I wasn’t ready for it. My mother spent the last years of her life unable to communicate with us in any meaningful way, and I just can’t.
• 
  Gail Cooke

  There is no doubt that Marcia Muller is one of the top mystery writers working today. She has the Grand Masters Award from the Mystery Writers of America plus a host of other honors to prove it. However, her army of readers don't need these affirmations to know that a Muller book is going to intrigue and entertain them.
  
  Best known for stories featuring private investigator Sharon McCone this author suprises us with her latest, Locked In. McCone has been a top favorite since her debut in 1977; we think we know her pretty well. Nonetheless, this title's opener is a real shocker: on a misty July night in San Francisco McCone's vintage MG runs out of gas. Fortunately, she's not too far from her office on the Pier and she takes off for it on foot. Once at the security grille to the Pier she called for the security guard, Lewis, a problem alcoholic. He's not to be found. She uses her security code to open the door to the Pier's entrance, climbs the stairs to the office's catwalk, and finds the door unlocked. It's dark inside, there's a sudden motion -she is shot.
  
  The bullet has entered her brain leaving her in a comatose state known as locked-in syndrome. She cannot speak or move, totally paralyzed and can communicate only by blinking her eyes in response to a question. So, for once McCone is not at the leader of a crime investigation but the center of it as her team rallies, scurrying for clues, determined to find out who shot McCone and why.
  
  What this scenario does in the talented hands of author Muller is allow the reader not only to be fascinated as the reasons for the shooting are revealed but also to become better acquainted with the major players in this series as each one turns over every rock searching for the assailant.
  
  Of course, McCone series readers are familiar with Hy Ripinsky, partner and husband to McCone yet here he is revealed in utter anguish as he remembers his past and articulates his hopes for a future with McCone. There is Latina Julia Rafael who'd "been hooking and dealing on the tough streets of the Mission district when she was a teenager,"but McCone saw so much more and placed confidence in her, helping Julia to turn her life around.
  
  There's Mick Savage, McCone's nephew who had pulled some pretty dumb stunts, but his aunt "had been solid as a rock, taking him seriously, treating him like a man when he was only a kid." He loved her and he owed her.
  
  These and others are united by their determination to catch whoever had almost killed McCone. Revelations of what they are finding are interspersed with thoughts running through McCone's mind as she is by turns discouraged, enraged, and bent on somehow escaping the prison that her body has become.
  
  For this reader Locked In is the best of the McCone series, and that's saying quite a bit!
  
  - Gail Cooke
• 
  Cheryl

  Locked In is the latest Sharon McCone mystery from author, Marcia Muller. This book opens with a bang. Sharon is headed back to the office. When she arrives, she goes to unlock her office door but it is already unlocked. She heads into her office and hears a loud bang, right before she passes out. Sharon wakes up to find herself lying in a hospital bed with her husband by her side. The problem Sharon now faces is that she is trapped inside her body in what is called “locked-in syndrome”. A syndrome where the person is conscious and can hear everything around them but their body won’t respond and neither will their eyes.
  
  It is up to Sharon’s husband to find the person responsible for his wife’s condition. Time is racing.
  
  Locked In is the second Sharon McCone book I have read. Burned Out is the first. While I didn’t really care for the first, I thought I would give this book a try. The concept really drew me in and made me excited to want try another novel by Marcia Muller. The beginning of this book really got my heart racing but about a third of the way in, I quickly lost interest in the plot and the characters. The only times when I became intrigued was when the story would flash to Sharon. Overall, I probably won’t read anymore Sharon McCone novels. Don’t let my thoughts stop you though from trying this book out if you want as there are many people who do like this series.
  
• 
  LJ

  First Sentence: A typical July night in San Francisco.
  
  That typical July night ends up as anything but when private investigator Sharon McCone returns to her office late one evening, and is shot. But bullet has lodged in her head and left her, not in a coma, but locked-in. She can hear, see and think, but neither talk nor move. Her husband, Hy, and her McCone Investigation team are focused on finding the shooter.
  
  The story definitely starts with a bang. From there, each chapter is narrated by a different characters, but it is very effectively and clearly done. Muller effectively conveys each person’s emotions, but particularly Sharon’s.
  
  I felt her transition from confusion to fear, anger, frustration, rage, hopelessness, and determination. It was also the first time I felt the real connection between McCone and Hy. The plot is well constructed, building as a puzzle, one piece at the time.
  
  Odd as it sounds, the only reason I didn’t rate it excellent is know from the beginning what Sharon’s outcome will be thereby diminishing some of the impact and suspense. Other than that, this may be one of my favorite McCone books.
  
  LOCKED IN (Priv Inves-Sharon McCone-No. Cal-Cont) – VG+
  Muller, Marsha – 26th in series
  Grand Central Publications, 2009, US Hardcover – ISBN: 9780446581059
  
• 
  Vannessa Anderson

  Sharon McCone is shot in the head in her office. She recovers but suffers Locked-In Syndrome (a rare neurological disorder characterized by complete paralysis of voluntary muscles in all parts of the body except for those that control eye movement. It may result from traumatic brain injury, diseases of the circulatory system, diseases that destroy the myelin sheath surrounding nerve cells, or medication overdose. Individuals with locked-in syndrome are conscious and can think and reason, but are unable to speak or move. The disorder leaves individuals completely mute and paralyzed. Communication may be possible with blinking eye movements). Only being able to communicate her thoughts through blinking eye movements leaves her frustrated. While trying to find the perp who shot and left McCone for dead, to solve the case, McCone’s husband and staff runs everything by her while trying to interpret her blinking eye responses.
  
  Locked-in is a good read and Deanna Hurst does a good job in storytelling.
  
  
• 
  Joan

  The 27th Sharon McCone mystery finds McCone hospitalized, paralyzed by a gunshot wound to the head, in a "locked-in" state, meaning that she can hear, she can think, but she cannot move or talk. At best, she can respond by blinking - once for "yes", twice for "no".
  
  Her colleagues gather to try to find out who attacked her, delving through old files on the not unreasonable assumption that this was likely related to one of her old cases.
  
  Ordinarily, Muller writes from McCone's point of view. But because of the situation in which she has placed her protagonist, this book is written from multiple points of view. It's a departure which I found interesting, and which worked, particularly as we also got inside Sharon's head as she responded mentally to what she was being told by others. Muller really captured the frustration that someone who is "locked-in" must feel, particularly if that person is ordinarily as physically and mentally active as McCone.
• 
  judy

  I have a problem but it's not the book--it's me. I'm pretty sure that I've read all the McCone series--and there are a ton of them. In this book Muller reprises the background of all the people we've come to know--operatives and family. While the refresher was helpful, I realized I just didn't care. Since her early days as a struggling PI at All Souls, McCone has practically become a CEO. She has so many people working for her that it took me awhile--and sometimes the backstories--to sort them out. Then, there's the whole family thing. This may work fine for most of her fans, but not for me. McCone, thankfully, is still McCone but the other characters are getting in my way. Will I read the next book? Oh probably. She is still an excellent writer and this book was done very well. She does deserve her Grand Master award. I'm just being picky.
• 
  Jan C

  I like Marcia Muller and this one was no different.
  
  As I finished, I noted that the dedication is "To Bill, for a story that started out as a joke." I am thinking that is the only way to explain this one. She has Sharon McCone getting shot in the head and she has been diagnosed with "locked-in syndrome." That's right - her main character is paralyzed and cannot talk. This is practically a death sentence. Some people can live for years and some for mere months.
  
  So I was thinking, wow, how is she going to get out of this or ... is this the last book?
  
  Anyway, we do get to know her staff at McCone Investigations as they try to follow what leads they have, or think they have, to her shooter. But, obviously, the best parts were the parts going on in McCone's head as she was trying to figure out how she was going to rise above this.
• 
  Judy

  This was a different format from Mueller's books. Sharon McCone is "locked-in" a coma, but is able to hear as people talk to her. Chapters are short as they rotate through the staff and family of McCone's agency trying to figure out who attacked Sharon and shot her causing the injury to her brain. I was interested, also in learning about "Locked-in" syndrome, which is a real medical situation. So I went on to read a book written by someone that experienced this condition.
  The Diving Bell and the Butterfly See, you can learn even by reading a simple detective novel!
• 
  Janette

  The premise is scary - the idea of being fully aware but unable to move a muscle... I enjoyed the book, and didn't want to put it down till I had finished, but I found it a little choppy - every chapter is from a different character's pov, and I had to keep going back to refresh my memory. Still - I would recommend it - there were lots of dead bodies, but no gratuitous gore, and the characters were interesting.
  
  I would mention that this was the first book I have read by this author, so I am probably missing out on some nuances apparent to those who have seen these characters develop.
• 
  Kristen

  This is one of the finest Marcia Muller mysteries in the series. It starts out with the shooting of Sharon McCone, which puts her in Locked in Syndrome, while her coworkers find out who've done this to her on various past cases and in some of their POVs. It's fast paced for a good flow, that would keep you guessing all the way with subtle clues and hints, to the final chapters. Nice read!
• 
  Ruth

  good. short very quick read (lots of blank pages)fairly predictable.
• 
  Ann

  I wanted to learn more about locked in syndrome, but stay with my mystery/thriller books. This was an excellent choice, I thoroughly enjoyed it!
• 
  Pamela Mclaren

  The threat came from a place where private investigator Sharon McCone would have least expected: her own office.
  
  After dining with a coworker, McCone starts back to the office to retrieve the cell phone she forgot — and get shot. Now she is in the fight of her life while her husband, Hy, relatives and associates work to not only to support her but to find out why she was shot.
  
  In this book in the McCone series, Marcia Muller brings the action away from her main character and to others in her orbit. It makes for a very different take as each associate works on what seems to be a disparate case. The going is rough — its hard when you are worrying whether your boss will live and in what shape she will be in, but also going over unsolved cases and trying to tease out a new clue, etc.
  But each hangs in, finding new strengths as they do their part. And because she is sedentary with little in the way of communication, McCone must come up with different ways to reach out and be involved in her own case. Can they do? Can she?
  
  This was a much more interesting and challenging story to read but one that kept me reading. For once, I was not annoyed with McCone's character; I could empathize with her and her employees. I wanted them to figure it out. This was a good solid read.
• 
  Marsha Valance

  San Francisco PI Sharon McCone finds herself trapped by locked-in syndrome: almost total paralysis but an alert, conscious mind. As she lies in her hospital bed, furiously trying to break out of her body's prison, her agency staffers fan out to find the reason why she was assaulted. Meanwhile, Sharon becomes a locked-in detective, evaluating the clues from their separate investigations and discovering unsettling truths that could put her life in jeopardy again. Barry Award Nominee for Best Novel (2010), Shamus Award for Best PI Hardcover (2010).
• 
  Joyce

  A great read by this author. This is the first book I’ve read by Muller,but
  it won’t be my last. Sharon McCone is shot in the head and finds herself
  trapped by lock- in syndrome. As she recovers her team try to solve cases
  For her and also find out who shot her. She helps them by blinking yes or no.
  This was a fast read with good characters. I recommend this series.
• 
  Mei

  Did not excite me at all. I suppose it is a good concept - first person POV where the narrator is trapped in her own body, paralysed but conscious and unable to communicate - but I don’t think it was properly explored and the thing resolved itself too quickly and neatly.
• 
  Linda

  I’m rereading this series. I recall not liking Locked In when I originally read it. This time I found it more interesting and was less annoyed with the constant jumping from one characters point of view to another.
• 
  Savannah Sherrill

  I have NEVER had so much trouble paying attention to/understanding a book. There were way too many characters and POV’s that it was so hard to keep track. I still am not entirely sure who was who 😂 I was bummed because the premise was so intriguing. I just don’t think it was put together very well. It felt like it dragged on forever because I had to hear almost every single character’s inner thoughts and conversations. I did like that it had a (mostly) happy ending though because I honestly didn’t really expect that.