Burn Out (Sharon McCone Series #25) by Marcia Muller

From the Publisher

Traumatized by a recent life-or-death investigation, Sharon McCone flees to her ranch in California's high desert country to contemplate her future. Deep depression shadows her days and nights, and a chance encounter with a troubled, highly secretive Native American woman begins to haunt her dreams. Even though she is determined not to investigate anything during her stay—and perhaps not ever again—McCone is drawn into the plight of the young woman and her dysfunctional family. A murder and traces of violence at a deserted resort lead her across the desert and into Nevada, and finally to a remote and isolated ranch, where danger lies closer that she expects and where her future and life itself may hang in the balance.

Publishers Weekly

After the travails of The Ever-Running Man(2007), Sharon McCone retreats to her high desert ranch near Yosemite in MWA Grand Master Muller's fine 26th novel to feature the San Francisco PI. Depressed, bored and uncertain about her future in a dangerous business, McCone is unwittingly drawn into a local case-the murder of Hayley Perez, the estranged niece of ranch manager Ramon Perez, and the disappearance of Hayley's teenage sister, Amy, and their alcoholic mother, Miri. As she looks into the Perezes' relationships, McCone uncovers secrets that hint at more than simply family dysfunction. Two more murders and a suicide add to the confusion, which McCone can only untangle, with the help of her husband and her Shoshone birth relatives, by tracing the victims' complex past. By the upbeat ending, McCone has learned that with judicious use of both her investigative and executive skills she can reshape her life. (Oct.)

Kirkus Reviews

Sharon McCone fights depression. Nine months after escaping death by a mere five seconds (The Ever-Running Man, 2007, etc.), San Francisco private eye Sharon McCone retreats to the ranch her husband Hy Ripinsky owns in the high Sierras and contemplates closing her agency. A glimmer of her usual peskiness shows through when she spies Boz Sheppard tossing Amy Perez, the ranch manager's niece, out of his pickup shortly before Amy disappears. Offering to help look for her, McCone wanders into a series of Perez tragedies. Amy's older sister Hayley, who decamped for Vegas years ago and became a hooker, secretly returns, makes a will leaving major money to Amy and is shot dead in a trailer park. Amy's mom Miri, a bellicose drunk/slut who'd been shunned by her family after a rape when she was a teen, also disappears and dies violently. An old beau of Hayley's is shot in the back and left to rot in the desert. Bud Smith, a registered sex offender who may have taken the rap for a relative, is also killed. Tracking down people and alibis via the "moccasin telegraph," McCone sorts through the family's Paiute heritage, but it will take some serious piloting to get her out of a jam and bounce her back to normalcy. A bit more self-deprecating humor than usual from McCone and a crisply woven plot. For those readers tired of the McCone-Ripinsky romance, there's much ado about a burgeoning relationship between McCone and a snickering horse.

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