Burn Out by Marcia Muller

Sharon McCone has gone to a ranch to rethink her life. A long-time private investigator, she wonders if she has had enough of the death and corruption that she makes her living investigating. She is burned out, fresh from a case which almost took her life and she resolves to do nothing for a while. Fate has other plans. Her foreman's family is in trouble. His sister-in-law Meri, considered the town drunk, is in trouble. Her oldest daughter has been found murdered, and her younger daughter is missing. Sharon starts to poke around in the case to help out her foreman's family. Soon more and more bodies start appearing, and Sharon is drawn fully into the case. The murders seem related to an old crime that was never solved successfully.

Marcia Muller has written twenty-five other Sharon McCone mysteries. Fans of the series have watched Sharon from her start as a private investigator, to her rise and eventual ownership of an agency, and now through her questioning of her life. Readers of this series won't be disappointed in this latest version. I've read probably a dozen of her mysteries over the years, and reading one is like going to a reunion. The plots are tight, the characters are believable and the mysteries are always successfully resolved.

This book is recommended to all mystery readers. It is particularly nice to see a woman detective who is smart, successful and resourceful. Muller's McCone is all three and I always enjoy reading about her.