Download or read book Maids of Misfortune written by M. Louisa Locke and published by M. Louisa Locke. This book was released on 2009-11-28 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First book in the USA Today bestselling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series. It’s the summer of 1879, and Annie Fuller, a young San Francisco widow, is in trouble. Annie’s husband squandered her fortune before committing suicide five years earlier, and one of his creditors is now threatening to take the boardinghouse she owns to pay off a debt. Annie Fuller also possesses a secret. She supplements her income by giving domestic and business advice as Madam Sibyl, one of San Francisco’s most exclusive clairvoyants, and one of Madam Sibyl’s clients, Matthew Voss, has died. The police believe his death was suicide brought upon by bankruptcy, but Annie believes Voss has been murdered and that his assets have been stolen. Nate Dawson wrestles with a difficult decision. As the Voss family lawyer, he would love to prove that Matthew Voss didn't leave his grieving family destitute. But that would mean working with Annie Fuller, a woman who alternatively attracts and infuriates him as she shatters every notion he ever had of proper ladylike behavior. Sparks fly as Anne and Nate pursue the truth about the murder of Matthew Voss in this light-hearted, cozy historical mystery set in the foggy, gas-lit world of Victorian San Francisco. Maids of Misfortune is the first book in M. Louisa Locke’s USA Today bestselling Victorian San Francisco mystery series, followed by Uneasy Spirits, Bloody Lessons, Deadly Proof, Pilfered Promises, Scholarly Pursuits, and Lethal Remedies. Locke’s shorter works, collected in Victorian San Francisco Stories: Vols 1 and 2, and Victorian San Francisco Novellas, feature beloved minor characters from the series. There are also two boxed sets of the novels, Victorian San Francisco Mysteries: Books 1-4 and Victorian San Francisco Mysteries: Books 5-7.

Download or read book The Motive written by John Lescroart and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2005-12-27 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With their park view and old-fashioned detail, the Victorian houses on San Francisco's Steiner Street were highly valuable. But with their wooden construction, they were also highly vulnerable. So when Paul Hanover's multimillion-dollar home went up in flames, it was all over very quickly. And when the bodies of Hanover and his girlfriend were found in the charred debris, it appeared that the end came even more quickly for them-judging from the bullet holes in their heads. But this isn't just any double homicide. Hanover was a friend-and donor-to the mayor, who wants answers. And in trying to provide them, Abe Glitsky and Dismas Hardy will face an old lover and an old enemy-and follow a trail of evidence that stretches far beyond their usual jurisdiction.

Download or read book The Barbary Plague written by Marilyn Chase and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2004-03-09 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The veteran Wall Street Journal science reporter Marilyn Chase’s fascinating account of an outbreak of bubonic plague in late Victorian San Francisco is a real-life thriller that resonates in today’s headlines. The Barbary Plague transports us to the Gold Rush boomtown in 1900, at the end of the city’s Gilded Age. With a deep understanding of the effects on public health of politics, race, and geography, Chase shows how one city triumphed over perhaps the most frightening and deadly of all scourges.

Download or read book Scholarly Pursuits written by M. Louisa Locke and published by M. Louisa Locke. This book was released on 2019-03-05 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Something is rotten in the state of Berkeley” --1881 Blue and Gold Yearbook, University of California: Berkeley In Scholarly Pursuits, the sixth full-length novel in the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco mystery series, Locke explores life on the University of California: Berkeley campus in 1881, where Laura and her friends face the remarkably modern problems of fraternity hazings, fraught romantic relationships, and fractious faculty politics. While Annie and Nate Dawson and friends and family in the O’Farrell Street boardinghouse await a blessed event, Laura Dawson finds herself investigating why a young Berkeley student dropped out of school in the fall of 1880. No one, including her friend Seth Timmons, thinks this is a good idea, since she is juggling a full course load with a part-time job, but she can’t let the question of what happened to her friend go unanswered. Not when it means that other young women might be in danger. This cozy historical mystery of romantic suspense is set in the period immediately after the fifth book in the series, Pilfered Promises, and two novellas, Kathleen Catches a Killer and Dandy Delivers. However, it can be read as a stand-alone.

Download or read book Deadly Proof A Victorian San Francisco Mystery written by M. Louisa Locke and published by M. Louisa Locke. This book was released on 2016-11-26 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It’s the summer of 1880, and once again the lovely and inquisitive businesswoman, Annie Fuller, is helping San Francisco lawyer and beau, Nate Dawson, with a troublesome case. Nate’s client, a female typesetter accused of murdering her boss, refuses to help in her own defense. Complicating matters, Nate’s sister Laura insists on getting involved in the potentially dangerous investigation, while Laura’s friend Seth Timmons, troubled Civil War veteran, finds himself a witness for the prosecution. Will Nate be able to win his first big case? Will Laura and Seth find some way of becoming friends? And finally, will Annie and Nate’s upcoming nuptials be derailed by their attempts to track down a killer? Old friends and new readers alike will enjoy Deadly Proof, this fourth installment of the cozy Victorian San Francisco Mystery series that blends light romance, suspense, and a glimpse into the lives of late 19th century women who worked.

Download or read book Mrs O Malley s Midnight Mystery written by M. Louisa Locke and published by M. Louisa Locke. This book was released on 2020-06-08 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life in 1881 San Francisco is difficult if you are a poor widow like Mrs. O’Malley, especially when you have seven children and are forced to live in one of the crowded neighborhoods South of Market. Late one night, as she sat at the window of her crowded flat, sewing and worrying, she noticed something strange going on across the street. Her decision to investigate will have unexpected consequences. Mrs. O’Malley’s Midnight Mystery is a short story in the Victorian San Francisco Mystery series, and it comes right after the short story, Dandy’s Discovery, and before Lethal Remedies, the seventh novel in the series.

Download or read book A High End Finish written by Kate Carlisle and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-11-04 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE FIRST NOVEL IN THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING FIXER-UPPER MYSTERY SERIES! Don't miss the Hallmark Movies & Mystery Originals starring Jewel, based on the Fixer-Upper Mystery series! In the seaside town of Lighthouse Cove in northern California, everyone knows the best man for the job is actually a woman—contractor Shannon Hammer. But while her home-renovation and repair business is booming, her love life needs work. On a blind date with real estate agent Jerry Saxton, Shannon has to whip out a pair of pliers to keep Jerry from getting too hands on. She's happy to put her rotten date behind her, but when Jerry’s found dead in a run-down Victorian home that she’s been hired to restore, the town’s attractive new police chief suspects that her threats may have laid the foundation for murder. Determined to clear her name, Shannon conducts her own investigation—with the help of her four best friends, her eccentric father, a nosy neighbor or two, and a handsome crime writer who’s just moved to town. But as they get closer to prying out the murderer’s identity, Shannon is viciously attacked. Now she’ll have to nail down the truth—or end up in permanent foreclosure...

Download or read book Bloody Lessons A Victorian San Francisco Mystery written by M. Louisa Locke and published by M. Louisa Locke. This book was released on 2016-11-26 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Bloody Lessons, it's the winter of 1880, and the teachers of San Francisco are under attack: their salaries slashed and their competency and morals questioned in a series of poison pen letters. Annie Fuller, the reluctant clairvoyant, has been called in to investigate by Nate Dawson, her lawyer beau, and the case becomes personal when they discover that Laura, Nate's sister, may be one of the teachers being targeted. In this installment of the Victorian San Francisco Mystery series, readers will find the same blend of a cozy mystery and romantic suspense, played out against the historical backdrop of late 19th century San Francisco, that they found in Maids of Misfortune and Uneasy Spirits. If you are new to this series, you will still enjoy spending time with the lively residents of Annie Fuller's boarding house and visiting San Francisco when Golden Gate Park was filled with horse-drawn carriages, politics were controlled by saloon-keepers, and kisses were stolen under gaslight.

Download or read book Lethal Remedies written by M. Louisa Locke and published by M. Louisa Locke. This book was released on 2020-03-12 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: San Francisco 1882: Annie has a problem. She has a beautiful child, a loving husband, a well-run boardinghouse with a supportive circle of friends and family, but she’s feeling restless and unhappy. Dr. Charlotte Brown, the doctor who delivered Annie’s baby, has a different problem. The Pacific Dispensary for Women and Children, the clinic and hospital she co-founded, is being threatened by financial and legal difficulties caused by the mysterious illness of a former patient. When Annie takes up the challenge to help Dr. Brown and the dispensary, she will discover that getting back into the business of investigating crimes is exactly the remedy she requires. Lethal Remedies is the seventh novel in the Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and comes after Scholarly Pursuits.

Download or read book Uneasy Spirits A Victorian San Francisco Mystery written by M. Louisa Locke and published by M. Louisa Locke. This book was released on 2016-11-25 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this sequel to Maids of Misfortune, it is the fall of 1879 and Annie Fuller, a young San Francisco widow, has a problem. Despite her growing financial success as the clairvoyant Madam Sibyl, Annie doesn’t believe in the astrology and palmistry her clients think are the basis for her advice. Kathleen Hennessey, Annie Fuller’s young Irish maid, has a plan. When her mistress is asked to expose a fraudulent trance medium, Arabella Frampton, Kathleen is determined to assist in the investigation, just like the Pinkerton detectives she has read about in the dime novels. Nate Dawson, up-and-coming San Francisco lawyer, has a dilemma. He wants to marry the unconventional Annie Fuller, but he doesn’t feel he can reveal his true feelings until he has a way to make enough money to support her. In this cozy historical mystery of romantic suspense, Annie delves into the intriguing world of 19th century spiritualism, encountering true believers and naïve dupes, clever frauds and unexplained supernatural phenomena. She will soon find there are as many secrets as there are spirits swirling around the Frampton séance table. Some of those secrets will threaten the foundation of her career as Madam Sibyl and the future of her relationship with Nate Dawson, and, in time, they will threaten her very life itself.

Download or read book The Second Chair written by John Lescroart and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2004-12-28 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 New York Times bestselling author John Lescroart weaves together a story of a privileged youth on trial for murder and an entire city on the brink of panic in this suspensful and stylish Dismas Hardy legal thriller. Although he appears to have reached the top, Dismas Hardy, rainmaker and managing partner of his thriving San Francisco law firm, has lost his faith in the justice system. When his young associate, Amy Wu, brings in a high profile, controversial double murder case, he decides to sit second chair—in defense of a wealthy, privileged young man even he has trouble believing. At the same time, Hardy’s friend Abe Glitsky has just been promoted to deputy chief of the Investigations Bureau, and has trouble of his own. Hounded by a hostile media, distanced from day-to-day police work, Glitsky must struggle against a wave of violence that has put the city on the verge of panic. As the tension builds around them, Hardy and Amy’s search for the truth will take them down a perilous path, and force Hardy to face his own demons in order to clear his client—and save himself.

Download or read book Maisie Dobbs written by Jacqueline Winspear and published by Soho Press. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A female investigator every bit as brainy and battle-hardened as Lisbeth Salander." —Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air, on Maisie Dobbs Maisie Dobbs got her start as a maid in an aristocratic London household when she was thirteen. Her employer, suffragette Lady Rowan Compton, soon became her patron, taking the remarkably bright youngster under her wing. Lady Rowan's friend, Maurice Blanche, often retained as an investigator by the European elite, recognized Maisie’s intuitive gifts and helped her earn admission to the prestigious Girton College in Cambridge, where Maisie planned to complete her education. The outbreak of war changed everything. Maisie trained as a nurse, then left for France to serve at the Front, where she found—and lost—an important part of herself. Ten years after the Armistice, in the spring of 1929, Maisie sets out on her own as a private investigator, one who has learned that coincidences are meaningful, and truth elusive. Her very first case involves suspected infidelity but reveals something very different. In the aftermath of the Great War, a former officer has founded a working farm known as The Retreat, that acts as a convalescent refuge for ex-soldiers too shattered to resume normal life. When Fate brings Maisie a second case involving The Retreat, she must finally confront the ghost that has haunted her for over a decade.

Download or read book Still Life with Murder written by Patricia Burford Ryan and published by . This book was released on 2014-06-24 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "What a thoroughly charming book! A beautiful combination of entertaining characters, minute historical research, and a powerful evocation of time and place." -NYT bestselling author Barbara Hambly Boston, 1868: The dawn of the Gilded Age, an era of burgeoning commerce and invention, of unimaginable new fortunes and lavish excess-for some. Born into poverty, young Nell Sweeney scratches by on her wits and little else until fortune blesses her with a position as nursery governess to the fabulously wealthy Hewitts. But she soon learns that ugly secrets lurk beneath the surface of their gold-plated world. The Hewitts' eldest son, William, a former Union Army battle surgeon and the black sheep of the family, was reported to have died years before in a notorious Confederate prison. But one snowy February afternoon, his parents learn that he is, in fact, still alive-and in jail for having murdered a man while on opium. Infuriated by his son's deception and convinced of his guilt, August Hewitt forbids his wife from coming to Will's aid, so she begs Nell to help exonerate him. Nell finds that she must delve into the kind of dark and treacherous underworld she thought she'd left far behind if she is to unearth the truth before the hangman's noose tightens around William Hewitt's throat. Still Life with Murder is a #1 national bestseller originally published by Berkley Prime Crime. 91K words. "P.B. Ryan makes a stunning debut with Still Life with Murder, bringing Nineteenth Century Boston alive, from its teeming slums to the mansions on Boston Common, and populating it with a vivid and memorable cast of characters... I couldn't put the book down... I can't wait for the next installment." -Bestselling author Victoria Thompson "P.B. Ryan captures an authentic flavor of post-Civil War Boston... The atmosphere is that of The Alienist, but feisty Irish nursemaid Nell Sweeney is a more likable protagonist. I look forward to seeing her in action again." -New York Times bestselling author Rhys Bowen "Still Life with Murder is a skillfully written story of intrigue and murder set during Boston's famous Gilded Age. Nell Sweeney is a winning heroine gifted with common sense, grit, and an underlying poignancy. With its rich sense of place and time and a crisp, intelligent plot, readers will speed through this tale and be clamoring for more." -Bestselling author Earlene Fowler"Utterly absorbing. Vividly alive characters in a setting so clearly portrayed that one could step right into it. A very clever plot in which each clue is clearly offered and yet the identity of the murderer is a complete surprise." -Bestselling author Roberta Gellis"If you like fast moving, accurately drawn, historical mysteries, you won't go wrong by trying Still Life with Murder." -Reviewing the Evidence"This debut mystery is a winner, with a feisty heroine, a colorful historical backdrop and a strong mystery rife with complexities. An ideal blend of history and mystery." -RT BookReviews"Still Life with Murder is sheer perfection... gripping... powerful... unforgettable... You'll know you've read one hell of a story after you turn the last page!" -Reader to Reader Reviews

Download or read book Murder by Misrule written by Anna Castle and published by Anna Castle. This book was released on 2014-06-01 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brilliant Francis Bacon is at a loss -- and in danger. Francis Bacon is charged with investigating the murder of a fellow barrister at Gray's Inn. He recruits his unwanted protégé Thomas Clarady to do the tiresome legwork. The son of a privateer, Clarady will do anything to climb the Elizabethan social ladder. Bacon's powerful uncle Lord Burghley suspects Catholic conspirators of the crime, but other motives quickly emerge. Rival barristers contend for the murdered man's legal honors and wealthy clients. Highly-placed courtiers are implicated as the investigation reaches from Whitehall to the London streets. Bacon does the thinking; Clarady does the fencing. Everyone has something up his pinked and padded sleeve. Even the brilliant Francis Bacon is at a loss — and in danger — until he sees through the disguises of the season of Misrule. “Castle’s characters brim with zest and real feeling.” — Kirkus Starred Review. Don’t dally! Jump right into this first book in the award-winning Francis Bacon mystery series.

Download or read book A Fatal Lie written by Charles Todd and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “If there’s ever been a more complex and compelling hero in crime fiction than Inspector Rutledge, I can’t think of one.” —Jeffery Deaver In one of his most puzzling cases, Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge must delve deep into a dead man’s life and his past to find a killer determined to keep dark secrets buried. A peaceful Welsh village is thrown into turmoil when a terrified boy stumbles on a body in a nearby river. The man appears to have fallen from the canal aqueduct spanning the valley. But there is no identification on the body, he isn’t a local, and no one will admit to having seen him before. With little to go on, the village police turn to Scotland Yard for help. When Inspector Ian Rutledge is sent from London to find answers, he is given few clues—a faded military tattoo on the victim’s arm and an unusual label in the collar of his shirt. They eventually lead him to the victim’s identity: Sam Milford. By all accounts, he was a good man and well-respected. Then, why is his death so mysterious? Looking for the truth, Rutledge uncovers a web of lies swirling around a suicidal woman, a child’s tragic fate, and another woman bent on protecting her past. But where among all the lies is the motive for murder? To track a killer, Rutledge must retrace Milford’s last journey. Yet death seems to stalk his every move, and the truth seems to shift at every turn. Man or woman, this murderer stays in the shadows, and it will take desperate measures to lure him—or her—into the light.

Download or read book The Poison Artist written by Jonathan Moore and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-01-26 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An enigmatic woman comes between a toxicologist and a murderer in this hypnotic and disturbing thriller” set in the shadowy fog of San Francisco (Guardian, UK). Caleb Maddox is a San Francisco toxicologist studying the chemical effects of pain. He’s out drinking after a bad breakup when a hauntingly seductive woman sits down beside him. He talks to Emmeline over absinthe, but their encounter is fleeting. She brushes her lips on his ear and disappears. He must find her. As Caleb scours the city, he begins helping the city’s medical examiner with a serial-murder investigation. Soon the search for the killer entwines with Caleb’s hunt for Emmeline, and the closer he gets to each, the more dangerous his world becomes. “A wicked mix of Poe, The Silence of the Lambs, and Vertigo,”* The Poison Artist spins a thrilling tale of obsession, damage, a man unmoored by an unspeakable past, and a woman who offers the ultimate escape (New York Times–bestselling author William Landay). “An electrifying read . . . I haven’t read anything so terrifying since Red Dragon.” —Stephen King “Magnificent, thoroughly unnerving . . . I dare you to look away.” —Justin Cronin

Download or read book Deadly Proof written by M. Louisa Locke and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-02-17 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: FIRST PLACE WINNER OF CHANTICLEER'S 2018 MYSTERY AND MAYHEM HISTORICAL MYSTERY AWARD It's the summer of 1880, and once again the lovely and inquisitive businesswoman, Annie Fuller, is helping San Francisco lawyer and beau, Nate Dawson, with a troublesome case. Nate's client, a female typesetter accused of murdering her boss, refuses to help in her own defense. Complicating matters, Nate's sister Laura insists on getting involved in the potentially dangerous investigation, while Laura's friend Seth Timmons, troubled Civil War veteran, finds himself a witness for the prosecution. Will Nate be able to win his first big case? Will Laura and Seth find some way of becoming friends? And finally, will Annie and Nate's upcoming nuptials be derailed by their attempts to track down a killer? Old friends and new readers alike will enjoy Deadly Proof, this fourth installment of the cozy Victorian San Francisco Mystery series that blends light romance, suspense, and a glimpse into the lives of late 19th century women who worked.