“Merrill-Go-Round” is McCone’s first recorded short case—a private-eye story that is also a “woman’s story,” in the best sense of that term.

Excerpt

I CLUNG to the metal pole as the man in the red coat and straw hat pushed the lever forward. The blue pig with the bedraggled whisk-broom tail on which I sat moved upward to the strains of "And the Band Played On." As the carousel picked up speed, the pig rose and fell with a rocking motion and the faces of the bystanders became a blur.

I smiled, feeling more like a child that a thirty-year-old woman, enjoying the stir of the breeze on my long black hair. When the red- coated attendant stepped onto the platform and began taking tickets I got down from the pig—reluctantly. I followed him as he weaved his way through the lions and horses, ostriches and giraffes, continuing our earlier conversation.

"It was only yesterday," I shouted above the din of the music. "The little girl came in alone, at about three-thirty. Are you sure you don't remember her?"

The old man turned, clinging to a camel for support. His was the weathered face of one who has spent most of his life outdoors. "I'm sure, Miss McCone. Look at them." He motioned around at the other riders. "This is Monday, and still the place is packed with kids. On a Sunday we get ten times as many. How do you expect me to remember one, out of all the rest?"

eBook On Sale Now

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P8ACZY6
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00P8ACZY6
http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00P8ACZY6
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/merrill-go-round-marcia-muller/1120678944