Marcia Muller has 27 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 12 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.2★ across 5 ratings. The most-rated is The Breakers.
The Breakers
Summary
Sharon McCone returns in New York Times best-selling author Marcia Muller's thrilling new mystery! On a foggy summer morning, private investigator Sharon McCone receives a call from her former neighbors, the Curleys. Their usually dependable daughter Chelle hasn't been answering their calls for weeks. Would Sharon check on her? Sharon arranges to visit the building Chelle had been living in and rehabbing in southwest San Francisco. Once it was a nightclub and bar, she learns, and a favorite destination for the city's elite during Prohibition. But there's something sinister about the space, and Sharon quickly discovers why. Lurking behind a divider screen is a ghastly art gallery: portraits and caricatures of mass murderers, long ago and recent. Jack the Ripper. The Zodiac and Zebra killers of the 1970s. Charles Manson and his girls. Scott Peterson, who killed his pregnant wife, Laci, and dumped her body into the Bay on Christmas Eve. What, an alarmed Sharon wonders, was Chelle doing in this chamber of horrors? And where is she now? New York Times best-selling author Marcia Muller is at her page-turning best in The Breakers, as she digs into a particularly disturbing corner of San Francisco's history - one that Sharon McCone may not escape alive. "[Marcia Muller's] stories crackle like few others on the mystery landscape." (San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle) "Muller undoubtedly remains one of today's best mystery writers." (Associated Press) "One of the world's premier mystery writers." (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
©2018 Marcia Muller (P)2018 Hachette Audio
The Color of Fear
Summary
Private investigator Sharon McCone returns in the newest mystery in Marcia Muller's New York Times best-selling series. A knock on the door in the middle of the night. It can only be bad news, and it is: Sharon's father, Elwood, has been the victim of a vicious, racially motivated attack. A nationally recognized Shoshone Indian artist, he'd been visiting Sharon for the holidays, browsing for gifts in San Francisco's exclusive Marina District, when he was set upon by a mob of angry young men. Now Elwood lies in a coma, hovering between life and death. With little progress on the investigation from the overworked, shorthanded police, Sharon resolves to track down Elwood's attackers and bring them to justice herself. But when Sharon starts receiving hate-filled, racist threats, it's clear that Elwood's attackers aren't planning to come quietly....
©2017 Marcia Muller (P)2017 Hachette Audio
Deadly Anniversaries
Summary
Deadly Anniversaries celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Mystery Writers of America with a collection of stories from some of the top names in crime fiction. An anniversary can honor many things: a birth, a wedding and sometimes even a death. In Deadly Anniversaries, editors Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini present new stories from some of the best contemporary authors to honor the diamond jubilee of the Mystery Writers of America, an organization founded on the principle that “Crime Doesn’t Pay - Enough.” Each author puts their own unique spin on what it means to recognize a certain day or event each year. These 19 stories travel across a wide range of historical and contemporary settings and remind readers of how broad the mystery writing tradition can be, encompassing detective tales, domestic intrigue, psychological suspense, black humor and thrilling action. By the time this group of best sellers and award winners is through, none of us will ever look at anniversaries the same way again. Deadly Anniversaries is sure to shock, scare and delight mystery and suspense fans of all kinds.
©2020 Marcia Muller, Bill Pronzini (P)2020 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
The Dangerous Ladies Affair
Summary
For the firm of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services, stopping extortionists is not only grand, but excitingly lucrative. When a pleasant afternoon's bicycling through Golden Gate Park with a friend ends with the revelation of threatening letters, followed by a gunshot in a mansion garden, Sabina Carpenter knows this is a case that demands her immediate and undivided attention. The questions her partner John Quincannon has to unravel are not difficult: Wrixton, a wealthy banker, has met his extortionist's first demand, but the order to pay another $5,000 is too much to face. The banker's real problem is something he doesn't want to reveal. That was fine with the detective, and when he was informed that some private letters were involved and Wrixton absolutely needed them back, there was nothing more Quincannon needed in the way of background. As with so many of San Francisco's elite, the bedroom doors never seemed to stay shut. That was the easy part. Far more difficult was the matter of the dead courier, murdered most foully in a locked room within a locked room, creating a trail that will take John Quincannon through most of San Francisco's less savory places and end with a riverboat trip that is anything but a relaxing cruise. The Dangerous Ladies Affair is the next thrilling installment in this charming historical mystery series from MWA Grand Masters Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini.
©2017 Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Body Snatchers Affair
Summary
Drug lords, missing millionaires, corrupt cops… just another day for Carpenter and Quincannon Detective Services. Two missing bodies and two separate investigations take Carpenter and Quincannon from the heights above San Francisco Bay to the depths of Chinatown's opium dens. For John Quincannon, this is a first: searching a Chinatown opium den for his client's husband, missing in the middle of a brewing tong war set to ignite over the stolen corpse of Bing Ah Kee. Meanwhile, his partner, Sabina Carpenter, unsure of the dark secrets her suitor might be concealing, searches for the corpse of a millionaire, stolen from a sealed family crypt and currently being held for ransom. With the threat of a tong war hanging over the city - a war perhaps being spurred on by corrupt officials - Carpenter and Quincannon have no time to lose in solving their cases. Is there a connection between the two body snatchers? Or is simple greed the answer to this one? And why is the enigmatic Englishman who calls himself Sherlock Holmes watching so carefully from the shadows?
©2015 Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Spook Lights Affair
Summary
A debutante's missing body, murder most foul, and weird spectrallights in the fog make for a thrilling gas light-era tale of mystery and detection. In 1895 San Francisco young debutantes don't commit suicide at festive parties, particularly not under the eye of Sabina Carpenter. But Virginia St. Ives evidently did, leaping from a foggy parapet in a shimmer of ghostly light. The seemingly impossible disappearance of her body creates an even more serious problem for the firm of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services. Sabina didn't want to take the case, but her partner John Quincannon insisted it would serve as entrée to the city's ultra rich and powerful. That means money, and Quincannon loves the almighty dollar - which is why he is hunting the bandit who robbed the Wells Fargo office of $35,000. Working their separate cases - while Sabina holds Johnoff with one light hand - the detectives give readers a tour of the city the way it was. From the infamous Barbary Coast to the expensive tenderloin gaming houses and brothels frequented by wealthy men, Quincannon follows a danger-laden trail to unmask the murderous perpetrators of the robbery. Meanwhile, Sabina works her wiles on friends and relatives of the vanished debutante until the pieces of her puzzle start falling into place. But it's an oddly disguised gent appearing out of nowhere who provides the final clue to both cases - the shrewd "crackbrain" who believes himself to be Sherlock Holmes.
©2013 Marcia Muller (P)2013 Blackstone Audio
There's Nothing to Be Afraid Of
Summary
The Globe Apartments, six stories of decaying brick and concrete, rises above San Francisco's volatile Tenderloin district. The seedy former hotel, once a haven for the city's down and out, now houses Vietnamese families striving to improve their lives. But private eye Sharon McCone believes that someone from the Tenderloin's shadowy underworld is determined to drive the newcomers out. The suspects range from the colorful to the dangerous: a poetry-loving drifter, a mean-spirited preacher, a flower feller with a deadly touch, an enterprising pornographer, and a developer who'd like nothing better than to unload his worst investment - the Globe Hotel. When the All Souls Legal Cooperative is called upon to stop the pattern of intimidation, resentment explodes into murder. As McCone takes up the refugees' cause, she is drawn into the depths of the city's most hated industry - and into the secrets of San Francisco's buried past.
©1985 Pronzini-Muller Family Trust. All rights reserved. (P)2012 AudioGO
The Cheshire Cat's Eye
Summary
To tourists, bay-windowed Victorian mansions are quaint, peaceful symbols of old San Francisco, but on the secluded hill above Steiner Street, the gingerbread has sparked a bitter battle. Ambitious developers are pushing for restoration and residents are fighting for their homes… until a controversial restorationist is found dead on the job, awash in garish housepaint. Private investigator Sharon McCone is called in only to discover a second bitter feud, this time between the developers and members of the city's powerful architectural community. As workmen rip through layers of sheetrock, plaster, and wallpaper, McCone unearths another, older crime: a cache of stolen antiques comes to light; and a missing one-of-a-kind Tiffany lamp emblazoned with the glowing profile of the Cheshire Cat becomes McCone's most important clue. To catch a killer, she must follow its eerie, knowing grin before its hidden eye foresees a fatal future.
©1983 The Pronzini-Muller Family Trust. All rights reserved. (P)2011 AudioGo
The Night Searchers
Summary
When new clients Jay and Camilla Givens come to Sharon McCone with Camilla's stories of devil worshippers performing human sacrifices in San Francisco, the detective is skeptical, to say the least. However, when she discovers that Jay is involved with the treasure hunting group the Night Searchers, she starts looking into what exactly he and the other participants are up to after dark. As she digs deeper into the Searchers, Sharon joins their ranks in order to find out more - while someone is searching for her.
©2014 Marcia Muller (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Deadly Housewives
Summary
Wisteria Lane has nothing on these grandes dames of mystery. In the expert hands of two of the mystery world's top storytellers, being a housewife takes on a whole new meaning. These two never-before-published stories by Nevada Barr and Sara Paretsky explore the dark side of the housewife psyche and are guaranteed to delight. Caution: These stories are meant to be listened to alone while sipping a glass of wine. Do not operate a motor vehicle or handle any kind of weapon for one hour after reading. Guaranteed to raise your blood pressure and your craving for revenge. No batteries required.
©2005 Phoenix Books, Inc. (P)2005 Phoenix Books, Inc.
The Shape of Dread
Summary
Bobby Foster, car-hop at the chic Cafe Comedie, is going to the gas chamber. He's already confessed to the murder of Tracy Kostakos, the club's rising star. But two years after the crime, Tracy's body is still missing and Bobby's confession is full of holes. All Souls Legal Cooperative's final appeal sends San Francisco's number-one P.I., Sharon McCone, behind the footlights into the super-charged arena of anxious club owners and aspiring young hopefuls...into the fractured world of Tracy's priviledged family and the mind of a young comedienne who was not the good little girl they thought they knew...into a labyrinth of death and deception where someone will kill to laugh last and get away with murder.
©1989 The Pronzini-Muller Family Trust (P)2012 AudioGO
The Cavalier in White
Summary
Joanna Stark thought she had finally left her troubled past behind. After the death of her husband, she quit the San Francisco art security firm where she was a partner and retreated to the small California wine country town of Sonoma. But unexpectedly, in one rainy week before Thanksgiving, her carefully constructed world collapses. A Frans Hals painting, The Cavalier in White, is stolen from the M.H. de Young Museum, and the strange circumstances surrounding its disappearance prompt her former business partner to ask her to return to the city and investigate the theft. Joanna knows she must go back - as much for her own protection as for the sake of the museum. Her investigation takes her from the hushed corridors of the de Young to a seedy waterfront tavern; from a Seacliff mansion to a vandalized shack on the shores of the Bay; to galleries, museum openings - and the scene of a murder. By the time she confronts the killer, the careful order of her life is nearly destroyed and she finds that the past is not only inescapable, but also more complex and frightening than she had previously imagined.
©1986 Marcia Muller (P)2012 Speaking Volumes
Leave a Message for Willie
Summary
Amid the shifting world of San Francisco flea markets, shady vendors sell junk, precious antiques, and stolen goods side by side. Somewhere in the mix, a priceless collection of sacred Torah scrolls is gathering dust - and attracting a group of fanatical killers. When private investigator Sharon McCone helps one flea market kingpin fend off a stalker, she's drawn into the netherworld of deal-making and thievery, a dangerous milieu seldom seen by outsiders. For her client Willie Whelan, the sidewalk sales are a game: Trick the customer, outsell the competition, and stay one step ahead of the cops. But Willie's enemies have something more sinister in mind - a conspiracy so heinous it threatens the religious artifacts, Willie's freedom, and McCone's life.
©1984 The Pronzini-Muller Family Trust (P)2012 AudioGO Ltd.
Games to Keep the Dark Away
Summary
Picture Salmon Bay: an isolated, run-down northern California village, home to an idle fleet of fishing boats, a deserted amusement park, and a handful of secretive, even hostile residents. When private investigator Sharon McCone arrives in search of one of the town's wayward daughters, the trail leads to the thriving resort of Port San Marco. McCone believes that the missing woman, a former social worker named Jane Anthony, was involved in the suspicious deaths of three terminally ill patients at an exclusive hospice. But the elusive Jane Anthony turns up all too soon - washed up beneath a rotting pier in her Salmon Bay. McCone discovers that no one--not her client, a reclusive photographer, nor Jane's mother, nor her hospice employers - wants to find out why she died. Then the killer strikes again, Jane's secret life comes into focus, and McCone finds that someone wants her out of the picture - permanently.
©1984 Pronzini-Muller Family Trust. All rights reserved. (P)2012 AudioGo
The Dangerous Hour
Summary
Complacency can make a person careless, and Sharon McCone, who makes crime her business, should know that better than most. One minute she's riding high with her detective agency expanding, her bank account growing, and her only "problem" a marriage proposal from her lover, Hy Ripinsky, that's kicking up her longtime fears of commitment. The next minute, in the time it takes for a single phone call to bring bad news, she stands to lose everything. McCone is stunned to learn that a favorite employee, streetwise and savvy Julia Rafael, has been charged with credit-card fraud. She thinks there must be a mistake - until she finds the goods charged to the stolen credit card in the firm's mailroom. As she starts to dig into the facts of the case, McCone realizes that someone is out to ruin her business, blacken her reputation, and harm those close to her... Reaching back into her past to look for answers, she must come to grips with the violent twists and turns of her career, the choices she's faced, and the enemies she's made. How does the formerly trustworthy Julia fit into the big picture? And how does this new crisis tie into the recent murder of a popular Mission District fund-raiser? But when someone breaks into her car, invades her home, and upsets every aspect of her life, McCone knows one thing for sure: Now it's her turn to prove how tough she really is, and how far she'll go to get justice...and some payback of her own.
Public Domain (P)2004 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Someone Always Knows
Summary
Missing bearer bonds, a family tragedy, arson, and murder - it's all in a day's work for Sharon McCone in the new series installment from best-selling author Marcia Muller. Settled in to their new home after they lost their house in a fire, and fully established in their new shared offices, private investigator Sharon McCone and her business partner husband, Hy, are finally starting to feel comfortable. That calm is shattered when Hy's former colleague, Gage Renshaw - a shady troublemaker whom they presumed dead - reappears, and it's unclear what he wants from his prosperous former associate. Meanwhile Sharon has a new client with a desire to get rid of the derelict house that's disturbing the local homeowners' association. However, the abandoned house holds its share of secrets, and soon Sharon is contending with more than a simple eyesore as she searches for the individual who is obsessed with destroying her life.
©2016 Marcia Muller (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Broken Promise Land
Summary
Ricky Savage is Sharon McCone's brother-in-law, and the hottest country singer in the business. He's on top professionally, but hitting rock bottom in his personal life. His longtime marriage to Sharon's sister, Charlene, is breaking up, forcing him to question if it was all worth it: the struggle, hard times, and hopes of stardom that finally came true. Even worse, Ricky has been getting anonymous letters threatening not only himself, but also his children. It's a tough case for McCone, because her own family is at risk. She can bring in the security firm in which her lover, Hy Ripinsky, holds an interest to protect Ricky as he begins a promotional tour for his forthcoming album. But unless Ricky lets her into his past and the secrets hidden there, she doesn't have a chance at uncovering the roots of the sick obsession behind the threats. Despite McCone's precautions, she soon discovers the stalker is very close at hand, upping the ante of terror with clear warnings that he or she can strike anytime - and plans to. Ricky isn't helping, either, as his marriage crumbles and he turns to another lover, who will complicate his emotional state and McCone's investigation. Now dirty tricks are putting Ricky's career, as well as his life, in jeopardy...and his next Grammy-winning song about shattered hearts and broken promises may be his last.
©2008 Marcia Muller (P)2008 Brilliance Audio
Ask the Cards a Question
Summary
There's trouble in Sharon McCone's quiet San Francisco apartment building. Madame Anya, with her cards, her tamed crow, and her candles, had predicted evil for Molly Antonio. Linnea Carraway, drinking heavily and careening in the wake of a divorce, had argued with her. Now the sweet, elderly lady lies dead in her apartment. Linnea, last to see Molly alive, is the prime suspect, and if Sharon means to clear her best friend, she has to find the murderer fast. Sleuthing out the small-time secrets of her quirky neighbors leads Sharon in and around the neighborhood, and, much to her surprise, to a shocking string of big-time deals and blackmail. Suddenly, death is in the cards, threatening Sharon’s oldest friendship, her professional credibility—and her life.
©1982 The Pronzini-Muller Family Trust. All rights reserved. (P)2011 AudioGo
Both Ends of the Night
Summary
A full-fledged pilot for several years, Sharon McCone is due for the biannual flight review required by the FAA. Her former flight instructor, Matty Wildress, invites her to fly up to the small Sonoma County town of Los Alegres for the evaluation. The test isn't due for several months, however, and McCone suspects Matty has more than safe flying on her mind. She's right. Matty's live-in lover, John Seabrook, has been gone for a week, abandoning his small son, Zach. In a desperate letter, John entrusts the boy to her care, urging them to go into hiding immediately. But Matty is a professional and determined to perform in the last aerobatic air show of the year. Despite the extra security, something goes horribly wrong - and Matty's plane crashes before a stunned crowd of spectators. McCone knows it's no accident and vows to find John for Zach's sake. Suddenly, an ordinary missing person case becomes a personal vendetta. Together with her lover, Hy Ripinsky, McCone bypasses the authorities to hunt down the man responsible for Matty's death. Her search will take her across the country as she uncovers the startling details of John Seabrook's past - killings, flight, and assumed identities. From San Francisco to Florida to Arkansas to northern Minnesota, she'll unravel an insidious web of corruption between a major corporation and high government, where power and profit are supreme...and murder is a tool of the trade. And somewhere in the midst of it all, she'll confront a killer with a heart as cold and dark as the northern night.
©2008 Marcia Muller (P)2008 Brilliance Audio
There's Something in a Sunday
Summary
It's a cold Sunday in San Francisco. Sharon McCone's alone on a routine surveillance job, following a man named Frank Wilkonson through the city's lush horticultural hot spots to the sere foothills of the Diablos. But when she returns to find her kindly old client in a pool of blood, nothing she's learned explains it. The search for answers takes her from Wilkonson's sullen brood on Burning Oak Ranch, to the eccentric havoc of a household in the Haight, to Golden Gate Park and the desperate digs of the homeless. Unraveling the threads that link a homeless man, a pair of prominent activists, a wayward rancher, and a mysterious missing beauty, Sharon is plunged into the depths of domestic mayhem...entering a realm where dreams shatter and marriage leads to bloody murder.
©1989 the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust (P)2013 AudioGO