The Ever-Running Man (Sharon McCone Mysteries) Review

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(More customer reviews)When a series lasts as long as this one, I'm always afraid to pick up the next volume. Thankfully, my fears were groundless. I loved this book.
Marcia Muller is one of the few authors who actually grows and matures with her writing. Her characters evolve easily as we learn more about their backgrounds and watch their lives take unexpected (and always realistic) turns.
Here we see Sharon McCone in her toughest and most professional persona. She's agreed to help find the man who's killing off the leaders of RKI,the high-powered security agency that employes her husband, Hy Ripinsky. As the story develops, we learn more about Hy and we get caught up on Sharon and her far-flung family.
Muller is one of the few authors who successfully delivers all three ingredients of a murder mystery: scene, characters and plot. I've lived in San Francisco and felt a little homesick as I read about the urbanized Bay Area, the 101 to Healdsburg, and the East Bay. Her characters feel like people we know...although I'm not sure I'd be up for coffee with them.
Even the plot feels masterfully drawn. Without giving anything away, there's one situation othat seems puzzling. It could be coincidence. But later this bump in the narrative - so small that it might be missed by an unattentive reader - turns out to hold the key to the puzzle...but not the way that experienced mystery fans would anticipate. Clues are dropped masterfully so the end was a real surprise, yet the author plays fair.
Muller has developed her craft so she communicates potentially boring straightforward information -- the results of a series of interviews -- in a way that sounds fresh and interesting.
As close to a perfect mystery novel as I'll read in this lifetime.

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San Francisco's Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving in the City by the Bay Review

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(More customer reviews)Todd Dayton's book, "San Francisco's Best Dive Bars" is one of the most engagingly, wittily written guides that has ever been written.
It's about time that someone took the time and effort to lovingly describe an essential part of any major city: its dive bars. San Francisco in particular has a large, colorful lot to choose from.
Of course, the book is not quite exhaustive, but it does a very good job of accurately capturing the vibe, charms, denizens, and atmosphere of each of SF's best dive bars.
I'm slightly ashamed to admit that before reading this book, I'd already been to half of Todd's top ten SF dives. 'The Brown Jug' is one that came highly recommended in this book as a quintessential dive, so I went last night... and wasn't disappointed.
Immediately upon entering the 'Jug'-- which proudly has an excerpt from Todd's guide plastered on the front door-- we were greeted with witty, drunken banter and laughing before we could even sit down. These people are a hoot. Overheard at the bar, within the first 30 seconds upon entering:
patron: (in boastful drunkenese) "I'm normal... and I've got the papers to prove it!"
bartender: (in an incredulous tone) "Why would you need papers to prove that you're normal?"
It doesn't get any better than this. Some of the descriptions of Dayton's favorite dives are laugh-out-loud funny, even more so if you're already familiar with that bar, because his descriptions are so spot-on. I am a HUGE fan now.
Particularly hilarious are the reviews on "Hawaii West" (went there last night, and true to form, the owner was the drunkest, loudest one in there), "Trad'r Sam's", and the "Ha-Ra". Anyone who knows or has met the bartender Carl at the Ha-Ra will soil themselves with laughter. It's so true.
In summary, anyone who has cast a loving eye on San Francisco's best dive bars and anyone who can see the beauty in the scruffy, run-down, faded glory and charm of a good dive bar will love this book. It is downright inspiring. Todd Dayton is a poet with a true love of the dive bar and all that it has to offer.

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The second title in our Dive Bar series, San Francisco's Best Dive Bars will show you where to leave your liver in the city where many others have left their hearts, with opinionated reviews of over 90 of the grungiest and grittiest drinking establishments in San Francisco. If you want to avoid the tourist traps listed in those "other" bar guides and find out where the "real" people do their drinking, then San Francisco's Best Dive Bars, like its New York predecessor, is the drinking person's guide to the delightfully filthy underside of San Francisco bar life.Todd Dayton has written for the San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Weekly, Expedia.com, and numerous other print and online publications.

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