While Other People Sleep by Marcia Muller

 

Things are going well for San Francisco-based detective Sharon McCone when she first hears the news.  Her agency is buzzing along and she just hired a new investigator she has high hopes for.  She and her partner, Hy, are doing well in her personal life.  She isn't caught up in any high risk cases.  All in all, things are great.

Then she hears from a friend that someone was impersonating her at a galley opening.  The woman had a business card, in fact, one of Sharon's business cards, and was passing herself off as Sharon.  She looked much like Sharon although younger.  Although it gives her a moment of unease, Sharon decides to shrug it off as someone using her credentials to get in someone they might not otherwise be able to enter.

But it doesn't stop there.  Sharon starts to get more reports of the woman who has apparently decided to pass herself off as Sharon all over.  This is concerning.  It can impact the business, especially when Sharon starts to hear from men the imposter is picking up, sleeping with and convincing that they have slept with Sharon herself.  One of her staff has started acting strangely so much that their partner asks Sharon to look into it.  The woman impersonator starts leaving gifts around, showing up in the private parts of Sharon's life such as the airport where she and Hy keep their plane, and soon it's obvious the woman has broken into both the office and Sharon's home.  She orders things using Sharon's credit cards then cancels them.  What is her purpose?  How can Sharon find her before she does something worse?

This is the eighteenth novel in the Sharon McCone series. Readers of the series will be happy to encounter so many of the same characters from the earlier novels while those reading this as a stand alone will find enough material given that they don't feel lost.  The tension is slowly cranked up until a confrontation occurs that brings everything to a head.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.