Pennies on a Dead Woman's Eyes

Feeling guilty for testifying against her mother more than thirty years ago in a trial for the murder of a wild San Francisco debutante, a young woman asks Sharon McCone to help reopen the case. 25,000 first printing.From Publishers WeeklyThe 13th Sharon McCone mystery brings good luck to readers as Muller's veteran San Francisco PI explores crimes of passion and politics as they were played out in the Bay Area during the pre-Beat 1950s. In an intricate plot, McCone agrees to help lawyer Jack Stuart, her colleague at All Souls Legal Cooperative, build a case he will retry in the legal profession's Historical Tribunal. Stuart will defend Lisstet Benedict, who was recently released from prison after doing time for killing and mutilating her husband's young lover in 1956. Benedict was convicted on the testimony of her then-10-year-old daughter, now Stuart's lover, who hopes a new trial will turn up evidence, clearing her mother and exonerating herself. McCone finds herself emotionally drawn into the decades-old crime, especially to the murder scene--a now-uninhabited Seacliff mansion that then housed the Institute of North American Studies, a conservative think tank where Benedict's husband worked. Anti-Communist sentiment and personal betrayal figure large in the resolution of the 36-year-old crime and contemporary deaths that its revisiting inspire. Vintage Muller. Mystery Guild dual main selection; Reader's Digest Condensed Book selection. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalIn another lawyer-oriented mystery, established series investigator Sharon McCone uses her wiles to solve a 36-year-old slaying. The recently released woman convicted of killing a beautiful San Francisco socialite asks McCone to prepare her defense for a mock trial at the Historical Tribunal--a task that McCone approaches with some misgivings until phone threats, confrontations, and another murder prove that someone doesn't want the case reopened. Steadily mounting tension climaxes in the re-created trial. Sure to interest series regulars and even draw a few new fans. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/92.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.