how to check if Mutex is Released

[pacerier]

i've got a Set and a Get in a property. I want to allow multiple threads to do Get anytime they wish to, however if any thread tries to do Set, all threads must not be able to Get/Set until the Set is complete.

what i tried is this (lock is a Mutex):

 Public Shared Property someproperty() As Boolean
        Get
            lock.WaitOne()
             lock.ReleaseMutex()
            Return VAR_propvalue
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As Boolean)
            lock.WaitOne()
                      VAR_propvalue = value
       lock.ReleaseMutex()

        End Set
    End Property

the problem is that this is pretty inefficient because each request to Get will steal the Mutex and prevent other Gets until the stolen Mutex is Released.
Is there anyway to just check if a Mutex is released instead of using WaitOne because WaitOne checks and gains control of the Mutex which is not what i want