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Vanishing Point

by Marcia Muller

Marcia Muller's Vanishing Point, like her other mystery novels, is a good read; especially for a summer lying on the beach or by the pool. Perhaps not quite as gritty as some of her other work or a real page-turner per se, Vanishing Point is nonetheless a fine novel, focusing more on the search than on any bloody or gruesome murders. If you're looking for a murder-mystery that fits in with lazy summer hours, this is it!

Sharon McCone, the featured P.I. in the Muller mystery series, seems to have it finally all made. She now has her own investigative organization with members skilled in various aspects of discovering information, can pay well to attract them, has recently married her longtime lover, Hy Ripinsky, owns a car and plane she loves, and together with Ripinsky owns several properties, including the house where she was brought up.

Jennifer Aldin hires Sharon to find out what happened to her mother Laurel, who disappeared twenty-two years ago when she and her younger sister Terry were only ten and six years old. Jennifer has been rather obsessive lately about knowing, so her wealthy husband Mark is funding Sharon's investigation. Shortly after Laurel's disappearance, their father Ron Greenwood burns all of Laurel's paintings and tells Terry her mother isn't dead. Now he's dead himself, and Jennifer has returned to the question of why her mother ever disappeared.

Meanwhile, Sharon's new husband says he has a solution to their house problem – there are too many places they own – including the house to which Sharon is so attached. She fears that the solution Hy might offer is a plan to sell it. But he happens to be in southern California on a business trip of his own and she'll just have to wait to see what his solution is.

The search for Laurel takes Sharon and her operatives all over California, and Sharon gradually uncovers bits and pieces of the woman's history in the process. It's evident that someone doesn't want her nosing around when attempts are seemingly made on her life. At last, when Sharon knows the truth and takes both sisters to a neighborhood where they can face it, justice takes over.

Marcia Muller uses her usual dexterity and skills in plotting out a story where you're unsure of exactly who is responsible for a supposed happy mother's disappearance. Did her husband do away with her? Why did he burn her artwork? Why did he tell Terry her mother was still alive? Who was the biker she was seen with just before her disappearance? There are many questions Ms. Muller carefully inserts into the story, and many clues – but just as Sharon McCone gradually learns, you have to know Laurel Greenwood completely before you can know the truth! Another fine mystery.

Alan Paul Curtis

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