WHILE OTHER PEOPLE SLEEP

Someone is stalking Sharon McCone. Not merely stalking but impersonating. Not merely impersonating but trying to improve on her—trying to be, in Sharon’s phrase, “a better McCone.” At first the experience is little more than annoying to the ace investigator in her 19th adventure (Both Ends of the Night, 1997, etc.). It puts her out, for instance, to learn that she wore this clingy, very chic teal gown to a party she didn’t happen to attend. Soon enough, though, annoyance gives way to fury as matters escalate wildly: Sharon discovers she’s gone to bed with a man she’s never set eyes on; then there’s the handing out of spurious McCone business cards, the unwelcome counseling of prospective McCone clients, and, worst of all, the nasty phone calls to members of the McCone family—all acts perpetrated by McCone’s would-be clone. When the real Sharon is almost arrested for petty larceny, she knows she better do something proactive. It’s about then that a promising idea gets needlessly sabotaged. Instead of the crisp, lean action piece Muller was well on her way to producing, she diverts to a Ross Macdonald—like journey into the pretender’s past. Bad decision. The past turns out to be lengthy, derivative, and dull. And narrative muscle converts to flab. Starts well, stumbles, never recovers.