Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Edwin of the Iron Shoes | 1977 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 2 | Ask the Cards a Question | 1982 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 3 | The Cheshire Cat’s Eye | 1983 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 4 | Games to Keep the Dark Away | 1984 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 5 | Leave a Message for Willie | 1984 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 6 | There’s Nothing to Be Afraid Of | 1985 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 7 | Eye of the Storm | 1988 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 8 | There’s Something in a Sunday | 1990 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 9 | The Shape of Dread | 1989 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 10 | Trophies and Dead Things | 1990 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 11 | Where Echoes Live | 1991 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 12 | Pennies On a Dead Woman’s Eyes | 1992 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 13 | Wolf in the Shadows | 1993 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 14 | Teurastajan koukussa | 1994 | Marcia Muller | N/A |
| 15 | Till the Butchers Cut Him Down | 1994 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 16 | A Wild and Lonely Place | 1995 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 17 | The Broken Promise Land | 1996 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 18 | Both Ends of the Night | 1997 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 19 | While Other People Sleep | 1998 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 20 | A Walk Through the Fire | 1999 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 21 | Sessizliği Dinle | 2000 | Marcia Muller | N/A |
| 22 | Listen to the Silence | 2000 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 23 | Dead Midnight | 2002 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 24 | The Dangerous Hour | 2004 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 25 | Vanishing Point | 2006 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 26 | The Ever-Running Man | 2007 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 27 | Burn Out | 2008 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 28 | Locked In | 2009 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 29 | Coming Back | 2010 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 30 | City of Whispers | 2011 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 31 | Looking for Yesterday | 2012 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 32 | The Night Searchers | 2014 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 33 | Skeleton in the Closet | 2012 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 34 | Someone Always Knows | 2016 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 35 | Merrill-Go-Round | 2014 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 36 | Tell Me Who I Am | 2016 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 37 | Ice and Stone | 2021 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 38 | Circle in the Water | 2024 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 39 | The Color of Fear | 2017 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 40 | The Breakers | 2018 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
| 41 | Double | 1984 | Marcia Muller | Buy |
The Sharon McCone series began with Edwin of the Iron Shoes in 1977, when McCone was working as a staff investigator for a San Francisco legal cooperative. Over the course of more than 40 novels, Muller has tracked McCone’s career as she eventually starts her own investigation agency. The early books are traditional private eye mysteries, but the series has evolved over the decades to tackle heavier subjects including domestic terrorism, identity theft, and cold cases.
The series is notable for aging its protagonist in real time. McCone grows older, changes relationships, and adapts to new technology across the decades. Double (1984), co-written with Bill Pronzini, is a crossover with Pronzini’s Nameless Detective series. Later entries like Locked In (2009), where McCone is shot and left in a locked-in state, took risks with the formula. The most recent entry, Circle in the Water (2024), continues the series after nearly five decades of publication.