| Title | : | Both Ends of the Night (Sharon McCone #17) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0446605506 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780446605502 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 384 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1997 |
Both Ends of the Night (Sharon McCone #17) Reviews
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Sharon McCone’s learning to fly and she has developed a great rapport with her flying instructor, Matty Wildress. But she deduces that Matty’s troubled by something and, when she asks her about it, it turns out her boyfriend, John Seabrook, has been missing for a week.
When $70 thousand lands in her account and then a letter from Seabrook is found in the cockpit of her plane explaining that he had to disappear to protect her and his son, the mystery deepens. Sharon agrees to take on the case to look for Matty’s boyfriend, if only out of respect for someone who has always been completely calm and in control until now.
It doesn’t take a huge amount of digging (perhaps worryingly little, actually) for McCone to figure out that the man she’s looking for is not who he says he is. The logical leap takes us to the Witness Protection Program with concerns about its effectiveness in achieving the second word in its name.
Very little is as it first appears and then people start dying causing alarm bells to start ringing loudly. There’s a great deal more at stake than the disappearance of one man, but finding him could be the key to the entire case.
The investigation takes McCone first to Arkansas where she visits a disturbing aeronautical business that, among other things, is rumoured to have ties to a murder for hire racket. Then she flies north to the wilds of Minnesota for a last desperate showdown.
As this series has progressed, Sharon McCone has settled down to become a more settled and grounded investigator. Her business has developed and she has managed to surround herself with a solid and well rounded crew of specialists who allow her to hit the fieldwork with considerable freedom. In this book, she proves to be a thorough and driven professional making her far easier to follow than in some of the previous books. She is definitely maturing along with her business.
Adding the whole flying string to her bow provides us with a new dimension to get our heads around. What it certainly achieves is the ability to quickly flit from one location to another with, seemingly, minimal bother. Short hops within California appear to be possible at a moment’s notice, thus speeding along the investigation and turning this into a rapidly evolving story.
Both Ends of the Night is the 17th book in the Sharon McCone series and it follows hard on the heels of the previous book, The Broken Promise Land. Consequently, there are numerous references made to the previous book, not to mention returning characters from earlier in the series. To get the most out of this book, I would recommend having read some of the earlier books from the series to understand the relationships that have developed to get us to this point. -
Like many long-running mystery series, some books in the series are better than others. This seventeenth book was pretty darn good. They are sort of predictable, though, and I kind of wish there would be a book or two where PI Sharon McCone didn't get involved in some big huge conspiracy involving government agencies, massive corporate corruption or international diplomatic secrets or something along those lines. A nice local little neighborhood mystery like some of the first cases she had would be great at this point. We'll see what the next one holds in store! Who knows, I might get my wish.
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The holidays are right around the corner and Sharon McCone is right in the thick of a case. She's been tasked with a hunt for the boyfriend of her flight instructor, Matty Wildress. The boyfriend/lover, John Seabrook, has let Wildress with his young son with no clue to his whereabouts and why. For McCone the first task is really to delve into the boyfriends past: just who is John Seabrook?
I've had an ambivalent relationship with Muller since the first book in the series. I didn't like Sharon McCone — she irritated me in numerous ways. But either my defenses have turned to mush or Muller has settled down to who and what she is trying to say with McCone. Its like coming off a rough, broken road and finding yourself on a stretch of level asphalt. The dialogue and actions of her San Francisco private eye flows better, her relationships and actions have matured. Whatever happened, this was a pretty good read. -
This one started out like a house on fire for me but the mystery lost steam about halfway through. Some "telling" sneaks in and there's A LOT of "airplane stuff" that caused my eyes to glaze over. But the relationships between the characters are still as strong as ever, and after a lengthy layoff with my reread of the series, I sank my teeth right into this story. OK, a decent entry to the series, but nowhere near a highlight for me.
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Sharon McCone is often flying high in adrenaline, but now she flies in fact in small planes. It's a good thing. Besides being treated to the usual elements of the manhunt in Marcia Miller's detective series, we learn about the accurately portrayed world of small planes.
Mattie Wildress was McCone's flight instructor, and she is also an aerobatics flying performer at air shows. She meets John Seabrook, father of a great young son, Zach, and owner of a tree farm. He hates flying, but otherwise things between them go so well soon they are living together. One year later, the man disappears leaving behind his son, and a note with the strange instruction that Mattie change her name and job and move away. Mattie calls McCone instead. Soon, McCone uncovers enough about Seabrook to lead her to following clues across the country tracking down a killer - the only problem is, she's not sure which one of the powerful, politically connected, and wealthy former employers of Seabrook is doing the killing.
McCone is tethered to earth by her dysfunctional family, the often divorced adult siblings and their children who make appearances in every case. While she is an accomplished detective and business owner, the nature of her work has darkened her outlook. She could easily slip the bonds of ethical behavior, especially adding in the influence of her boyfriend Hy Ripinsky, fellow detective and airplane pilot. Fortunately for McCone, who is hearing the siren call of vigilantism more strongly in each book, the domestic messes and celebrations of relatives keeps her smiling - and restrains her itchy trigger finger.
The psychological depths of Muller's McCone are, as always, apparent with each new book in this series, while at the same time Muller is becoming too polished at writing these mysteries, and it shows since about book #15. However, the changes in McCone and her family, realistic and interesting, keep me reading. -
Sharon McCone and her husband Hi, while looking for the person or persons who murdered their good friend Mattie, learned that Mattie’s boyfriend, John Seabrook and his son Zach, were in the witness protection program. With Mattie dead, they had nothing to go on until Sharon finds a clue in one of Mattie’s flight books. What I like about the Sharon McCone’s series is the way McCone solves her cases and how much I learned about flying planes. Jean Reed Bahle tells the story with passion and compassion.
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Three and a half stars for good start and interesting plot development but fizzles out at the end. Takes place about a year after the events in THE BROKEN PROMISE LAND so there are several references to characters and events in that story line. In this one Shar does most of the leg work herself, although Mick helps with investigation on the computer. Shar goes from the Bay Area to Florida to Arkansas to DC to the wilderness in Minnesota all within a couple of weeks to find a missing man. Somewhat suspenseful climax in a frigid campsite, but the villain does not put up much of a fight, then the story goes on and on another 20 pages to tie up all the loose ends.
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Pretty standard book by Muller. Interesting enough plot, good for a quick read with the usual mystery plot and intriguing characters. She’s a good writer for this genre. But in this book it seemed that the dramatic danger scene near the end went by very quickly without much build up or anticipation. You could tell it was coming — “don’t go out there alone, haven’t you read these books before?” — and then the crisis was over. It also strikes me as odd that a long term couple like McCone and Ripinski continue to refer to each other by their last names. Surely by now they’d be on more intimate terms.
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3-1/2 Stars
Not every book in this series is a home run for me and this entry falls in that category. While I enjoyed the actual mystery as well as further peeks into Sharon McCone’s family and her relationship with Hy, I found all descriptions of planes and flying to be too much for my liking. I’m a nervous flyer as it is so reading all of the details included in this book made me a little on edge (and I wasn’t even reading this on a plane!).
Overall, a solid mystery but not a standout for me. -
A missing live-in lover of a friend, and then the death of that friend send Sharon and Hy on a search into the past for answers. Corruption, friends in high places, and a witness on the run - a plot spanning a decade and more that was captivating to get caught up in.
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Not my cup of tea. A low key mystery series (I suppose starting with book #18 wasn't that smart) but I didn't like the leads so never really got into it. Maybe I prefer depressed and brooding cops to adrenaline filled pilot detectives.
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Wow! This one goes all over the US: Florida, Arkansas, Washington DC and Minnesota. Sharon and Hy work together to learn who killed their good friend and why. The story involves witness protection, graft and a bit of a surprise at the end....
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Good story. I like when Sharon McCone and Hy Ripinsky are working together.
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A Good Read
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Read 2009
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Great book
This was a complicated plot that I really enjoyed Miller is great at character development and interesting plots. Loved it! -
Best one, so far. Each one gets better.
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My first Marcia Muller novel. Liked it. Had references to places I've been to.
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On to the next book in the Sharon McCone series.
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Marcia Muller keeps them coming. Love this series, although I seem to be bopping around the order of the books. Doesn't really seem to matter much, after you have a few of the books down. Good story. Keeps your interest; fast-paced.
McCone's flying instructor Matty asks for help when her lover goes missing. Then, during an airshow, Matty's plane suddenly crashes. Convinced this is not an accident, McCone follows a trail of leads, and confronts the man who ordered Matty's death.
Sharon and Hy have lost a close friend, and they might find themselves just tempted enough to kill the killer when they catch up to him. Matty, with her outgoing, downright, energetic approach to life, her deep caring, is a huge loss for the family she has created for herself. -
A solid entry in the McCone canon, filled with the author's obvious enthusiasm for and experience with flying light planes. It's also notable for how well Muller pulls off Minnesota wilderness deep freeze; she's known for her obsessive attention to detail in making San Francisco come to life, and it translates admirably.
The background noise of McCone's family is an unfortunate distraction, but that's pretty true of everyone's lives; I just don't care for the plotline overmuch, and hoo boy, some accurate-ass California 90s parenting on display, with the shrugging I'm-sure-they'll-be-fine-and-anyway-what-about-meeeee aspect that is its distinctive hallmark. Good twisty plot, though. -
In the 17th installment of Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone PI series, Both Ends of the Night, Sharon returned to solve another shocking mystery. For this storyline, Sharon's flight instructor for help, when his love had gone missing. During an airshow, he crashed and died in the flight. Convinced it was no accident, she followed leads to find his lover, talk to his son, and bypass the authorities. Together, Sharon and Hy would travel across the USA to discover corruption between the government and a major corporation that would take straight to the heart of the killer.
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This is the first novel in the series that I really got into.
A friend asks Sharon to find her missing lover, who disappeared a week earlier. Before Sharon can make any progress on the case, the friend is killed in a grisly accident. Sharon, now driven by her friend’s death, keeps digging and uncovers crimes going back more than a decade.
Perhaps it was the story itself or maybe I’m finally connecting with Sharon McCone (an important part of liking any book or series in my opinion) that caused the change.
Whatever it was, it made me want to read more in this series.
