PI Sharon McCone has barely had time to appreciate the hard-won success of her firm when one of her operatives is arrested, putting the whole agency at risk. Is reserved, almost standoffish Julia Rafael, who has a juvenile record, guilty? If not, why in the world would Alex Aguilar, one of San Francisco's up-and-coming Hispanic politicians, accuse her of stealing his credit card? It doesn't take Sharon long to recognize that it's up to her to sort out the mess, and when she begins digging into Aguilar's past, she finds that he has some unpleasant secrets--one of which leads her to the realization that a vengeful killer is out there, and Julia isn't the real target. Muller's plotting isn't quite as tidy as usual (she has to stretch pretty far to bring everything in line by the end), but once again she gives us a solid slice of a San Francisco community and a protagonist with character. Fans of the sturdy, ongoing series will be especially pleased with the final scene, which opens the way for a new chapter in McCone's personal life