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Show IftNaTaEaRiValieaWi Marcia Muller returns with her 21st Sharon McCone adventure INTERVIEW BY MICHAEL SIMS Muller their Life Achievement Award in 1993. Muller is married to mystery writer Bill Pronzini, and they have collaborated on three novels, a dozen or so To mystery readers, Marcia Muller genuinely needs no introduction, so we'll keep it short. However, for those who aren't already familiar with the creator of the tough but humane California private eye named Sharon McCone, it's worth mentioning that Mullers new book. Listen to the Silence (Mysterious Press, S23.95. ISBN 0892966890). is the 2 1st McCone adventure. In it McCone goes home to deal with her father's death, and discovers a document that changes the lives of everyone in the family. To tell more would he to break the cardinal rule of reviewing mystery novels, because the book is surprising and well, its a mystery novel. People get hurt; McCone investigates. The only people having a good time are the readJong-secr- ers. Muller published her first Sharon McCone mystery. Edwin of the Iron j J i the month after that." Before publishing her first couple of McCone novels, Muller was trying her hand at journalism. Not very success-- . fully." she adds, and laughs. "I had a tendency to make things up. Editors don't respond loo kindly to that." She began to think that perhaps she ought to turn her attention to fiction, where making things up w as a virtue rather than a vice. Muller sees no end in sight for the series. Fortunately her titles aren't forced into a predictable succession, as in the case of Sue Graftons Kinsey Millhonc books, all of which begin with a letter of the alphabet (for example. O Is for Outlaw ). You know. Sue and I were talking about that last year, about how she locked herself into 26 novels. You can The hard-boile- d anthologies (including one published last year by scholarly Oxford University Press), and w hat she describes as one very long, book. 1001 Midnights: The five-poun- j ' so-call- ed female detective was an idea whose time had novel she and her husband starring both Sharon McCone and Pronzinis popular Nameless Delective. Pronzim's career demonsiraies other hazards of series writing that occur when writers incorporate certain gimmicks. Not only does his detective have no name, which requires author and readers alike to simply call him Nameless, but Pronzini trapped himself into d titles for these books. He's now doing a lot of nonseries things." Muller says, so he's able to use a wonderful title he finds, but for awhile there he was giving all the really good titles to me." Asked about the provenance of the title Listen to the Silence. Muller laughs and says. Now whose was that? It's gotten where I cant remember w hich ones were mine and which were his. I think that one was his." 1' ; d Aficionado's Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction. Muller suspects that she and her husband will retire from anthologizing. They're a lot of work, and the introductory material is a type of writing that although weve done it many times neither of us really enjoys doing. Its more fun picking the stories and getting them together, picking a theme for them. Sharon McCone isnt the only series character Muller has written about, Shes also the creator of museum cura-- 1 tor Elena Oliverez and international art investigator Joanna Stark. Ive toyed with the idea of bringing one or the other character back in a McCone novel at some point. It might be interesting just to see two characters that Ive creat-- , ed separately interact" Muller has already performed a version of this a trick, in Double from the one-wor- Michael Sims is a writer, curator, and regular contributor to BookPage. Ustm to the Sitmce MyaMns Frees, $235 C3IKI2tS6890 $245, Aadio, mid-1980- s, ESN 156740471 come. Muller is credited with leading the pack. Marcia Muller Shoes, in 1977. The ironic thing about it, she says from her home in California, was that after the first book I couldn't sell another word for four years. My first publisher was David McKay Company, and w ith the publication of my first taxvk they stopped doing fiction. Not surprisingly, at first Muller considered this development an ill omen, but she persevered. Four years later. 1 submitted a manuscript that I had been shopping around for almost the entire time to Tom Dunne of St. Martin's Press " Dunne, w ho now has his own popular mystery imprint at Sl Martin's, bought the bok. The female detective was an idea whose time had come. Muller is credited with leading the pack. It was in three months' order." Muller remembers. First. Sara Parrtsky came out with her first V I. Warshuwski novel; then Sue Grafton came out with Kinsey Millhonc; then my second Sharon McC one came out hard-boile- d L-- a. ,.7. ...I.m. ...-- LI : trap yourself early on with certain things that seem like a good idea then. Over the years. Muller has discovered that, however much fun it may be to keep returning to familiar characters and settings, writing series fiction has its unforeseen complications. There are things in my series 1 would have done differently, and things that 1 had to just stop doing because of changing times. For instance, the legal cooperative that Sharon was working for in the beginning was a product of the '70s. the poverty law movement that was going on then. And after awhile it became very restrictive in terms of the types of cases she could take on. So I had to have her quit that and go out on her own." The continuing adventures and life of Sharon McCone have proven quite successful. Muller has many thousands of devoted fans and has von numerous awards. She has taken home both Anthony and Shamus awards, honors named respectively for deceased mystery writer and critic Anthony Boucher and for an old nickname fot private investigators. The Private 1 ye Writers ol America gave rraarexm Aaron Meet Aaron Carter, music sensation and Backstreet Boy Nick's brother. Hes already sold millions of records worldwide and appeared on the hit Pokemon soundtrack. Now you can get the inside scoop on this rising star from the person who knows best his mom plus 16 pages of exclusive color photos. V- 95 Don't miss The Heart and Soul of Nick Carter, also by Jane Carter. Download the free Aaron Carter screensaver at www.penguinputnam.comaaroncarter V, A nwnber of Pengutn Putnam Inc |