Games to Keep the Dark Away by Marcia Muller

Good thing I've got the next one handy. It seems strange, but I really didn't remember this one either. You'd think that if I own them on paper, I must have read them at some time but it doesn't seem like it. I think I remember New Boyfriend being or becoming ex-boyfriend. I remember Greg Marcus being ancient history, but I don't remember the book where they met or the one where they were together.

Sharon gets out of the city proper this time - and about time - or there would be no one left alive down in her neighborhood. She is off down the coast to a fishing village that didn't quite make the transition to industrialization - a place where nobody wants to be and nobody seems to be able to leave. A place where she spent a summer vacation with a friend as a child - back when it was a thriving concern.

I may be seeing a pattern emerging. We meet the murderer very early in the story in some innocent role and the motive only surfaces after much investigation - and after a session of "meditation" on the known facts after something triggers something which shuffles all the pieces into place in Sharon's mind. It could also be part of the pattern that not all the victims are all that innocent either. I rather like "deserving victim" story - although it can make the list of potential suspects unmanageably long. That problem is often handled by having almost everyone at choir practice - or something from which their absence would be noted.

I'm still enjoying them - but the one after the next one I don't have, so I may go dig out early Kathy Reichs or something - or finish reading Cleopatra - or something -- just until payday!