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Page history last edited by Randal Brandt 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Cadenasso, Silvio.

The Bridge. PublishAmerica, 2004.

 

Cadnum, Michael.

Flash. Farrar Straus Giroux, 2010.

| setting: San Francisco Bay Area | juvenile | find it |

Summary: One bright California morning, a bank heist goes wrong for thieving brothers Bruce and Milton. To ruin their day further, they know their criminal activity has been witnessed—aurally—by Terrence, a blind neighbor. The brothers have every reason to worry, because Terrence tells his girlfriend, Nina, and her brother, Carraway, a wounded military policeman just back from Iraq. Carraway is a stickler for law and order, sort of, and when he disappears, Nina is afraid he is going to do something to the brothers. By nightfall, she is fearful of what the brothers will do to Terrence. Set in contemporary San Francisco Bay Area, Flash tells the story of an explosive day and night in the lives of five young people: two who are hell-bent on a destructive path, two who will stand in their way, and one whose actions may be the spark to set the whole thing off.

 

Calder, James.

Knockout Mouse. Chronicle Books, 2002.

Summary: Bill Damen, a documentary filmmaker in San Francisco, gets drawn into the high-stakes world of biotechnology when he accepts a job filming an “industrial” for a Silicon Valley firm. After one of the research scientists, a molecular biologist he meets at a dinner party hosted by his girlfriend, dies of an allergic reaction to a food she has not eaten, Bill suspects murder and starts to investigate. He follows a trail that leads from cancer research to genetic engineering, exposing a cover-up—and a motive—along the way.

About Face. Chronicle Books, 2003.

Summary: Eternal youth—genetic engineering—murder. A biotech company is on the verge of announcing gene therapy that can stop skin from aging: the stakes are high, the technology top secret, and the jockeying for power is intense. At what should be the triumphant moment, a key player is found dead, throat slashed, holding a seven-inch knife and a handwritten note. Filmmaker-turned-detective Bill Damen doesn’t believe it was suicide. His investigation takes him through the back rooms of escort services and venture capitalists, and into places influential people don’t want him to go.

In a Family Way. Chronicle Books, 2005.

Summary: It's a parent’s nightmare: the fertility doctor who tinkers with the very essence of a child. After his cousin’s daughter is kidnapped, Bill Damen is drawn into the world of embryo manipulation, where life, death, money, and power are chillingly intertwined. With the help of his new assistant, the fearless and sharp-witted Clementine, Bill tracks one family’s journey into the dark realm of reproductive engineering in their attempt undo the past and redeem a tragedy. He soon discovers that the circumstances of their daughter’s birth have everything to do with her death. Set in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Bill Damen series continues to explore what it’s like to be a human being in a ‘posthuman’ world and grapples with the hard truth that when science sets out to change human nature, human nature fights back.

 

Caletti, Deb.

Girl, Unframed. Simon Pulse, 2020.

| setting: San Francisco | young adult | find it |

Summary: Sydney Reilly has a bad feeling about going home to San Francisco before she even gets on the plane. How could she not? Her mother is Lila Shore -- the Lila Shore -- a film star who prizes her beauty and male attention above all else... certainly above her daughter. But Sydney's worries multiply when she discovers that Lila is involved with the dangerous Jake, an art dealer with shady connections. Jake loves all beautiful objects, and Syndey can feel his eyes on her whenever he's around. And he's not the only one. Sydney is starting to attract attention -- good and bad -- wherever she goes: from sweet, handsome Nicco Ricci, from the unsettling construction worker next door, and even from Lila. Behaviors that once seemed like misunderstandings begin to feel like threats as the summer grows longer and hotter. It's unnerving, how beauty is complicated, and objects have histories, and you can be looked at without ever being seen. But real danger, crimes of passion, the kind of stuff where someone gets killed -- it only mostly happens in the movies, Sydney is sure. Until the night something life-changing happens on the stairs that lead to the beach. A thrilling night that goes suddenly very wrong. When loyalties are called into question. And when Sydney learns a terrible truth: beautiful objects can break.

 

Calhoun, Charles W.

–Until Proven Guilty. Western Publishing Company, 1917.

| setting: Berkeley | Hubin; Smith, G.D. Amer. fiction, 1901-1925, C-37 | find it |

Summary: San Francisco book publisher John Temple receives a frantic message from Mildred Webb, a young woman he has known since they were both children. John, who is in love with Mildred and plans to ask her to marry him, rushes to the Webb mansion in the Berkeley hills north of “The Circle.” When he arrives, he learns that Mildred’s father, banker Anson Webb, is insisting that Mildred marry Mr. Westland, a wealthy Englishman who lives next door and has business dealings with Webb. Desperate to escape her father’s plan, Mildred asks John to marry her, instead. Of course, he agrees, much to the extreme displeasure of Webb. While they are arguing about it, two gunshots are fired into Webb’s study from outside. Later, John is waiting for the chauffeur to bring the car around to take him back to the streetcar when Mildred screams that her father has been killed, stabbed in the chest with a jeweled paper knife. They summon the Berkeley police and John is quickly identified as the prime suspect. Realizing that if he is arrested, the police will stop looking for the real killer, he escapes and goes into hiding, which only strengthens the police officers’ belief in his guilt. But, he manages to get a message to his private secretary, Alma Norman, who quickly comes to Berkeley, where she soon teams up with Arthur Gilman, the “smartest man” of the West Coast Detective Agency, who has been hired by Mildred to solve the crime. With John still in hiding, but making random, unexpected appearances—usually to attack Westland while he is verbally molesting a woman—Gilman takes over the investigation of the case, with able assistance by Alma. They piece together the clues, outwit the police, uncover the killer, and end up happily ever after (with John marrying Mildred and Arthur marrying Alma). This is the only known novel by Calhoun and provides an interesting glimpse of early 20th century Berkeley, especially the transportation system, with descriptions of the Key Route system and Tunnel Road, which was opened to automobile traffic in 1915.

“Another question is this,” resumed Alma. “How did you know that the chauffeur had taken the auto out on Tunnel Road last night? He had not even hinted at it before you spoke.”
   “That’s easy,” Gilman replied. “So easy, that I had forgotten about it as another piece of scientific deduction. You probably know that there are very few main roads leading out of Berkeley or Oakland, where one could go on a trip taking that length of time. The Foothill Boulevard to Haywards [sic] and San Jose is paved, and consequently is not muddy. The road through Dublin Pass to Livermore is likewise paved. The Tunnel Road is oiled macadam up to the summit where the tunnel is, and on the other side, in Contra Costa County, is probably the worst stretch of road in California. The Orinda Park Road is in the same condition, but it is only a longer route joining the Tunnel Road at Bryant, a few miles beyond the Tunnel. San Pablo Avenue also goes into Contra Costa County, leading to Martinez through Franklin Canyon. Therefore, in view of all the muddy roads leading into Contra Costa County, they evidently went there, and, of course, by the shortest route, which is the Tunnel Road.”

 

Cantero, Edgar.

This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us. Doubleday, 2018.

| setting: San Francisco | find it |

Summary: You'll find their names on the frosted glass of a dingy office in Fisherman's Wharf. Adrian and Zooey Kimrean. Private Eyes. A.Z., as they are collectively known, are twin brother and sister. He's pure misanthropic logic, she's sloppy hedonistic creativity. He's Sherlock Holmes, the Cumberbatch version. She's Ace Ventura. A.Z. have been locked in mortal battle since they were in utero... which is tricky because they, very literally, share one single body. Still with me? One body, two pilots. The mystery and absurdity of how Kimrean functions, and how they subvert every plotline, twist, explosion, and gunshot -- and confuse every cop, neckless thug, cartel boss, ninja, and femme fatale -- in the book is pure magic. Someone is murdering the sons of the ruthless drug cartel boss known as the Lyon in the biggest baddest town in California -- San Carnal. The notorious A.Z. Kimrean must go to the sin-soaked, palm-tree-lined streets of San Carnal, infiltrate the Lyon's inner circle, and find out who is targeting his heirs, and while they are at it, rescue an undercover cop in too deep, deal with a plucky young stowaway, and stop a major gang war from engulfing California. They'll face every plot device and break every rule Elmore Leonard wrote before they can crack the case, if they don't kill each other (themselves) first.

 

Capelli, Ace. [Stephen D. Frances]

‘Frisco Hi-Jack. Kaye Publications, 1950.

 

Capurro, Scott.

Fowl Play. Headline, 1999.

 

Carey, Bernice.

The Reluctant Murderer. Published for the Crime Club by Doubleday, 1949.

The Body on the Sidewalk. Published for the Crime Club by Doubleday, 1950.

 

Caris, John.

Reality Inspector. Westgate House, 1982.

| setting: San Francisco | tpo | find it |

Summary: An early, perhaps the first, computer-hacking novel. A world championship chess match is the backdrop for this intriguing science fiction detective story. The main computer of the Federal Reserve [in San Francisco] is being tampered with by a sinister power, and the results could wreak havoc with the fiscal policy, causing the U.S. economy to fragment into pieces. Actual chess games are used, and they act as launching pads for journeys into strange and challenging worlds. The book includes 24 chess diagrams and an appendix with 17 master chess games.

 

Carlisle, Kate.

Homicide in Hardcover. Obsidian, 2009.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Brooklyn Wainwright (A Bibliophile Mystery 1) | pbo | find it |

The Lies That Bind. Obsidian, 2010.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Brooklyn Wainwright (A Bibliophile Mystery 3) | pbo | find it |

Murder Under Cover. Obsidian, 2011.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Brooklyn Wainwright (A Bibliophile Mystery 4) | pbo | find it |

Summary: When she receives an exquisite copy of the Kama Sutra from her best friend, Robin, to appraise and restore, Brooklyn Wainwright anticipates re-creating a beautiful book and spicing up her love life. But before Brooklyn can get started, Robin winds up in big trouble: Her apartment is ransacked, and the great guy she recently met lies murdered in her bed. Now Robin is the number one suspect. Luckily, Brooklyn’s boyfriend, British security expert Derek Stone, has moved to San Francisco and is ready to help. And not a moment too soon, because Brooklyn’s own apartment is found thoroughly searched. To make matters worse, a bleeding Russian stranger barges in and the earlier victim is identified as Ukrainian, making it clear to Brooklyn that she’s involved in an international conspiracy. Obviously, exploring the Kama Sutra’s bliss will have to wait until after Brooklyn finds the killer ...

One Book in the Grave. Obsidian, 2012.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Brooklyn Wainwright (A Bibliophile Mystery 5) | pbo | find it |

Peril in Paperback. Obsidian, 2012.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Brooklyn Wainwright (A Bibliophile Mystery 6) | pbo | find it |

A Cookbook Conspiracy. Obsidian, 2013.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Brooklyn Wainwright (A Bibliophile Mystery 7) | find it |

The Book Stops Here. Obsidian, 2014.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Brooklyn Wainwright (A Bibliophile Mystery 8) | find it |

Ripped From the Pages. Obsidian, 2015.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Brooklyn Wainwright (A Bibliophile Mystery 9) | find it |

Books of a Feather. Obsidian, 2016.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Brooklyn Wainwright (Bibliophile Mystery 10) | find it |

Summary: San Francisco book-restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright's latest project is for the birds, but it may have her running for her life. Brooklyn's friend Ian runs the Covington Library, which is hosting an exhibit featuring John James Audubon's massive masterpiece, Birds of America, currently on loan from an Arab sheik. During the gala celebrating the book, she is approached by Jared Mulrooney, the president of the National Birdwatchers Society, who urgently needs Brooklyn's skilled hands to repair a less high-profile book of Audubon drawings that's fallen victim to spilled wine. At the same party, Brooklyn is flying high after she's asked to refurbish and appraise a rare copy of Poor Richard's Almanac. But everything runs afoul later that evening when Mulrooney's body is discovered in the library.

Once Upon a Spine. Berkley Prime Crime, 2017.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Brooklyn Wainwright (Bibliophile Mystery 11) | find it |

Summary: San Francisco bookbinder Brooklyn Wainwright stumbles through the looking glass in a tale of murder, rare books, and a quest for the perfect pie... Brooklyn's oh-so-proper future in-laws are traveling from England to meet her, and if that's not enough to set her on edge, rumors abound that the charming Courtyard shops across the street may be replaced by high-rise apartments. Their trendy neighborhood will be ruined unless Brooklyn and her fiancé, Derek Stone, can persuade the shopkeepers not to sell. But with a rare edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland causing bad blood at the Brothers Bookshop and a string of petty vandalism making everyone nervous, Brooklyn and Derek feel like they're attempting six impossible things before breakfast. Then the owner of the Rabbit Hole juice bar is felled by his own heavy shelves, and the local cobbler lies dead beside him. An accident . . . or something more sinister? Things get curiouser and curiouser when a second priceless copy of Alice is discovered. Will it stir up more trouble within the close-knit community? As the Brits descend, Brooklyn learns they're not so stuffy after all. Derek's dad is won over with chocolate cream pie, and his psychic mum would kill to help Brooklyn solve this murder -- before another victim takes a tumble.

Buried in Books. Berkley Prime Crime, 2018.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Brooklyn Wainwright (Bibliophile Mystery 12) | find it |

Summary: Matrimony and murder collide as San Francisco book-restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright walks down the aisle... Brooklyn has it all covered. She's triple-checked her wedding to-do list, and everything is on track for the upcoming ceremony with the love of her life, security expert Derek Stone. Not everyone has been as lucky in love as Brooklyn. Her old college roommates Heather and Sara lost touch twelve years ago when Sara stole Heather's boyfriend. Brooklyn was caught in the middle and hasn't seen her former besties since their falling-out. When they both show up at her surprise bridal shower, Brooklyn is sure drama will ensue. But she's touched when the women seem willing to sort out their differences and gift her rare copies of The Three Musketeers and The Red Fairy Book. Brooklyn's pre-wedding calm is shattered when one of her formerly feuding friends is found murdered and Brooklyn determines that one of the rare books is a forgery. She can't help but wonder if the victim played a part in this fraud, or if she was targeted because she discovered the scam. With a killer and con artist on the loose, Brooklyn and Derek -- with the unsolicited help of their meddling mothers -- must catch the culprit before their big day turns into a big mess.

The Book Supremacy. Berkley Prime Crime, 2019.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Brooklyn Wainwright (Bibliophile Mystery 13) | find it |

Summary: Newlyweds Brooklyn and Derek are enjoying the final days of their honeymoon in Paris. As they're browsing the book stalls along the Seine, Brooklyn finds the perfect gift for Derek, a first edition James Bond novel, The Spy Who Loved Me. When they bump into Ned, an old friend from Derek's spy days, Brooklyn shows him her latest treasure. Once they're back home in San Francisco, they visit a spy shop Ned mentioned. The owner begs them to let him display the book Brooklyn found in Paris as part of the shop's first anniversary celebration. Before they agree, Derek makes sure the security is up to snuff -- turns out, the unassuming book is worth a great deal more than sentimental value. Soon after, Derek is dismayed when he receives a mysterious letter from Paris announcing Ned's death. Then late one night, someone is killed inside the spy shop. Are the murders connected to Brooklyn's rare, pricey book? Is there something even more sinister afoot? Brooklyn and the spy who loves her will have to delve into the darkest parts of Derek's past to unmask an enemy who's been waiting for the chance to destroy everything they hold dear.

The Grim Reader. Berkley Prime Crime, 2020.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Brooklyn Wainwright (Bibliophile Mystery 14) | find it |

Summary: San Francisco book-restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright was hoping for a fun, relaxing weekend at a local book fair, but a murderer made other... Brooklyn and her new hunky husband, Derek, are excited to be guests at Dharma's first annual Book Festival. The entire town is involved and Brooklyn's mom Rebecca is taking charge. In addition to all of her other event related duties, she's got Brooklyn doing rare book appraisals and is also staging Little Women, the musical to delight the festival goers. If that wasn't enough, she and Meg -- Derek's mom -- will have a booth where they read palms and tarot cards. Brooklyn couldn't be prouder of her mom's do-it-all attitude so when a greedy local businessman who seems intent on destroying Dharma starts harassing Rebecca, Brooklyn is ready to take him down. Rebecca is able to hold her own with the nasty jerk until one of her fellow festival committee members is brutally murdered and the money for the festival seems to have vanished into thin air. Things get even more personal when one of Brooklyn's nearest and dearest is nearly run down in cold blood. Brooklyn and Derek go into attack mode and the pressure is on to catch a spineless killer before they find themselves skipping the festival for a funeral.

Little Black Book. Berkley Prime Crime, 2021.

| setting: San Francisco; Scotland | series character: Brooklyn Wainwright (Bibliophile Mystery 15) | find it |

Summary: San Francisco book-restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright is on the case when a rare edition of Rebecca leads to murder... Brooklyn and her hunky husband, security expert Derek Stone, have just returned from a delightful trip to Dharma, where the construction of their new home away from home is well underway, when a little black book arrives in the mail. The book is a rare British first edition of Rebecca, and there's no return address on the package. The day after the book arrives, Claire Quinn shows up at Brooklyn and Derek's home. Brooklyn met Claire when the two women worked as expert appraisers on the television show This Old Attic. Brooklyn appraised books on the show and Claire's expertise was in antique British weaponry, but they bonded over their shared love of gothic novels. Claire reveals that she discovered her beloved aunt was missing during a recent trip to Scotland and that her home had been ransacked. Among her aunt's belongings, Claire found the receipt for the package that wound up with Brooklyn and Derek. Claire believes both her own life and her aunt's are in danger. She worries that some shadows from her past are coming back to haunt her, but just as Brooklyn and Derek begin to investigate, a man who Claire thinks was following her is found murdered in their garage. With a death on their doorstep, Brooklyn and Derek must page through the clues to keep her friend's past from destroying their future.

The Paper Caper. Berkley Prime Crime, 2022.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Brooklyn Wainwright (Bibliophile Mystery 16) | find it |

Summary: Brooklyn is excited to be included in the Covington Library's first annual Mark Twain Festival. She'll rebind a rare first edition of The Prince and the Pauper before an enthusiastic audience of book nerds -- her favorite people. The festival is the passion project of wealthy media mogul, book lover, and newspaper owner Joseph Cabot, who considers himself Twain's biggest fan. Brooklyn's hunky husband, Derek, and his security team once rescued Joseph from a corporate kidnapping attempt. Now Derek and his agents are charged with keeping Joseph and his beautiful young wife safe during the festivities taking place all over town. The centerpiece of the festival is a citywide contest based on The Prince and the Pauper: one lucky look-alike will trade places with Joseph for a few days -- with access to all the money and power that Joseph commands. Brooklyn and Derek worry that the contest might be generating some dangerous attention. And when someone is mysteriously poisoned right before Brooklyn's eyes, she's not convinced that the victim was the intended target. Now she and Derek must frantically chase clues and suspects through the streets of San Francisco before another murder becomes front-page news...

 

Carnahan, Danny.

A Jig Before Dying. Xlibris Corporation, 2008.

| setting: San Francisco (Richmond District) | series characters: Niall and Rose Sweeney | tpo | find it |

Summary: It is 1992 and Niall Sweeney is a satisfied man. He’s got a good day job in San Francisco as an engineer (one that recently took him to Dublin for two years on a job working for the Anglo-Irish Bank), a beautiful, intelligent wife, Rose, and a second career as an Irish fiddler (he has just released his first CD to moderate success), playing regular sessions at a Richmond District pub called the Bag of Nails. His world is turned upside down, however, when he is attacked by a music critic, first in print in a scathing review of his CD, then literally in the pub, when the reviewer, a recent transplant from Ireland named Michael Blayney, comes after him with a string of seemingly incoherent curses and a knife. When Blayney turns up murdered later that night, Sweeney is, of course, the prime suspect. Things begin to look really grim when the police link him to a banking scam involving the IRA and he is promptly fired from his job. Convinced that one or more of the pub musicians must know more than he, or she, is telling—and also convinced that this is the only way he is going to stay out of jail—Sweeney starts an investigation of his own. Meanwhile, Rose, who is a literature professor at San Francisco State University, recognizes a similarity between Blayney’s ravings and a thousand-year old Irish poem, The Legend of Mad Sweeney, and begins her own investigation. With the help of one of Sweeney’s friends in Ireland, they begin to uncover the secrets and sins of the past—both political and personal—and are faced with the terrible task of giving the police a plausible solution to the mystery that is both just and completely false.

 

Carnoy, David.

Knife Music. Overlook Press, 2010.

| setting: Menlo Park; Palo Alto | find it |

Summary: Dr. Ted Cogan is an emergency room surgeon at Parkview Hospital in Menlo Park. He is also single and has a reputation as a ladies’ man. Six months after saving the life of Kristen Kroiter, a 16-year-old accident victim, Cogan is shocked when he is questioned by police in the wake of her baffling suicide. Before she died, Kristen wrote in her diary that she had had sex with Cogan and that he was now refusing to talk to her. This claim is backed up by Kristen’s best friend, Carrie Pinklow, who claims she witnessed the act. Kristen and Carrie did spend a night at Cogan’s house, showing up there after Kristen passed out at a Stanford University fraternity party hosted by Carrie’s older brother. The girls were afraid that if Kristen went home in that state, her parents would punish her. If Cogan committed a crime -- statutory rape -- which indirectly led to the girl’s death, he could be held accountable. With the police following his every move, Cogan decides to take matters into his own hands by hiring an attorney -- a former lover -- and figuring out what really happened that fateful night.

The Big Exit. Overlook Press, 2012.

| setting: San Francisco; Silicon Valley | find it |

Summary: Richie Forman is fresh out of prison. By night, he makes a living impersonating Frank Sinatra in San Francisco’s lounges and corporate parties. But then his ex-best friend -- the man who stole his fiancée while he was in prison -- is found hacked to death in his garage, and Richie is the prime suspect.

Lucidity. Overlook Press, 2017.

| setting: Menlo Park; Silicon Valley; New York | find it |

Summary: Twenty years after the unsolved case of Stacey Walker's disappearance went cold, a Silicon Valley executive hires retired Menlo Park Police Detective Hank Madden to find her body and track down her missing husband, the prime suspect in her unsolved murder. Four months later, author Candace Epstein is pushed in front of a car near Central Park. Her editor Max Fremmer becomes entangled in the investigation of her attempted murder, though he is adamant that he is not involved. As he digs into Candace's background to clear his own name, Fremmer grows suspicious of his client's connection to a nefarious institute for lucid dreaming on the Upper East Side and its staff, whose stories never seem to add up -- all while an unexpected link emerges to Detective Madden's investigation in California. As similarities arise between the cases on each coast, Detective Madden and Fremmer forge an unlikely partnership to expose what misconduct lurks beneath the façade of the Lucidity Center -- but can they unravel the secret that links their investigations together in time, or are they only dreaming?

 

Carpenter, Don.

Hard Rain Falling. Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1966.

| setting: San Quentin, San Francisco | find it |

Summary: Jack Levitt, a white foundling, and Billy Lancing, a Negro drifter, are seventeen and sixteen when they first briefly encounter each other in Portland, Oregon—one a formidable, tough-looking fugitive from an orphan asylum, the other already a brilliantly accomplished pool-hall hustler. Years later they meet again, in San Quentin, where Jack has landed on a charge of statutory rape, Billy for forgery. In the interim, Billy has married, begotten a son, taken a mistress, gone to college; Jack has boxed, bucked logs, worked in a cannery, robbed gas stations, rolled drunks, and spent time in reform schools and county jails. What happens in San Quentin is crucial to both men, and helps shape the ironic conclusion of the story in San Francisco.

 

Carpenter, Grant.

The Night Tide: A Story of Old Chinatown. The H.K. Fly Co., 1920.

| setting: San Francisco (Chinatown) | Baird & Greenwood 412; Hubin | find it |

Summary: In turn-of-the-century San Francisco, Fung Ching (aka Fung, the Perfect, aka “Little Pete”) relates the story of the mysterious and sinister fortune-teller Quan Quock Ming, the “promoter of longevity and happiness.” Quan’s schemes involve slave-trading and drug-dealing, and lead to tong wars and murder.

 

Carrington, Glen C.

The Oakland Hills Vodou Murders. AuthorHouse, 2005.

| setting: Oakland | series character: Det. Bill Lincoln | find it |

Summary: This novel is about the murder of Hillary Chatham Dillard, an interracial co-ed at an affluent college campus in California's Oakland Hills. The body, covered in duck feathers with a majestic mallard duck head protruding from her mouth, is discovered after an annual alumni affair. Was it voodoo -- or, as pronounced in Caribbean slang, vodou? Retired Detective Bill Lincoln enters the case after an unsuccessful police investigation and delves into the quirks and quagmires of suspects with monetary and social affluence, alleged Mafia connections, local explosive politics, and the necromantic elements of voodoo. The landscape tracks from the beautiful hills of Oakland California, where the affluent and powerful sit ruling their flat land subjects, to the murky crevices and dark corners of the New Orleans bayou -- where superstition supersedes reality and having a gun may not be enough...

Murder in Napa. AuthorHouse, 2014.

| setting: Napa Valley | series character: Det. Bill Lincoln | find it |

Summary: The novel is about the murder of Dr. Clarence Watson, a wealthy, distinguished, San Francisco psychiatrist who was found murdered at the estate of his friend, another affluent celebrity status psychiatrist, in the wine country of Napa. The body was found on the living room coffee table completely wrapped in white latex, giving the image of an alien being or a gigantic condom. What's going on? The Napa Police force is not well experienced in murders due to the low crime rate and even less so in involvement with high profile cases. Because the body was found in the home of the esteemed psychiatrist Dr. Bates, the physician automatically calls Detective William Monroe Lincoln to get him involved since Dr. Bates had worked on an earlier case with Detective Lincoln, providing requested psychological data to quickly determine the mental status of a criminal holding hostages in an extremely fast moving and precarious situation. The Watson family wants to know who the murderer is and the investigation quickly determines there are several paths of inquiry. The deceased had a unique personality and his sexuality becomes a factor; was Dr. Watson gay? An extremely sexual and voluptuous woman named ?Lolita? was Dr. Watson's patient and ex-patient; and, an unusual relationship follows. Dr. Watson's patient list has one client who is potentially dangerous, homophobic, and has violence in his background. The victim's ex-wife was now dating a Union official who despised the ex-husband and the feelings between the two men were of strong mutual disrespect. The various characters spanning many social circles keeps the detective guessing; and with certain dangers lurking, Detective Lincoln again calls upon his unique friend, Lenny McDerch, to help protect him.

 

Carroll, Glenda.

Dead in the Water. Beachbreak Press, 2013.

| setting: Marin County; San Francisco; Contra Costa County | series character: Trisha Carson (1) | tpo | find it |

Summary: Trisha Carson is sitting in the hot summer sun at the edge of a cool Sierra lake. She thinks she is a witness to an accidental drowning during an open water swim race. What else could it be? An elite athlete doesn't sprint away from the pack, stop, never to move again. Then a week later, another swimmer known more for her beauty than athletic ability drives her car off a 20-foot cliff into the Pacific Ocean. Only Trisha believes the accidents aren't so accidental. Naively she asks too many questions to precisely the wrong people and is soon drawn into an expanding web of intrigue, revenge and danger.

Drop Dead Red. Beachbreak Press, 2017.

| setting: Marin County; San Francisco; East Bay | series character: Trisha Carson (2) | tpo | find it |

Summary: What happened to Shari Grantner? One day the tall red-haired lawyer is running a successful open water swim clinic. Less than 24 hours later, her body washes up on a beach near San Francisco. Shari's sister reaches out to Trisha Carson, an amateur sleuth, asking for her help. No need to ask twice. Trisha jumps into the investigation and soon discovers that the seemingly strait-laced barrister had a sizzling secret life. Trisha begins to untangle an ever-growing list of suspects. There is Shari's hot-headed younger brother who badgered her for money. Her good-looking boyfriend who the dead girl was about to dump. The mysterious man who shows up in compromising photographs. And the quiet unassuming sister who is now in charge of the family's well-endowed trust. As Trisha inches closer to the culprit and the motive, the trail circles back to a familiar location ... where the killer is waiting.

 

Carroll, Grace. [Carol Grace Culver]

Shoe Done It. Berkley Prime Crime, 2011.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Rita Jewel (An Accessories Mystery 1) | pbo | find it |

Died With a Bow. Berkley Prime Crime, 2012.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Rita Jewel (An Accessories Mystery 2) | pbo | find it |

Summary: April in San Francisco may be all about layers, but it also marks one year since the stylish Rita Jewel began working at Dolce’s, an upscale boutique. And while it may seem like a glamorous world, someone’s about to get ugly.... Things have been less than pretty for Rita lately. There’s her lackluster love life. Then Dolce hires a new salesgirl. Fast-talking fashionista Vienna Fairchild is young, confident, and horribly entitled. She’s rearranged the store and relegates Rita to answering her phone—and the men are ringing for Vienna as though it were going out of style. Lucky for Rita, Dolce has tickets to a charity bachelor auction—but what to wear? While Rita opts for something simple, Vienna stuns the crowd in a breathtaking black dress with a pink bow on the back. Rita is even more stunned when she sees Vienna in that same dress the following day—dead on the sales floor of Dolce’s. With Rita’s fingerprints all over the scene and a believable motive, she’s going to need to find some clues and throw together the perfect outfit that says: ‘I’m innocent.’

Murder After a Fashion. Berkley Prime Crime, 2013.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Rita Jewel (An Accessories Mystery 3) | pbo | find it |

 

Carroll, Jerry Jay.

Inhuman Beings. Ace Books, 1998.

Summary: Private investigator Goodwin Armstrong, a former policeman, hunts for space aliens who have infiltrated the city hall and the police department in San Francisco. Tipped to their presence by a woman psychic, Armstrong has discovered that the aliens intend to take over the United States.

 

Carrozzi, Craig J.

India Basin Triangle. Oasis Publishing, 2013.

| setting: San Francisco (1982) | tpo | find it |

Summary: India Basin Triangle is a crime novel in the San Francisco Noir tradition. Based on an actual case involving international drug traffickers in the rollicking 1980s, the story juxtaposes the thoughts and actions of three main characters as they move inevitably toward a final collision that is quietly orchestrated by a mysterious woman. Henry Acuña, the dedicated, straight-shooting FBI agent in charge is one angle of the triangle. Jairo Restrepo, the cunning and intelligent Colombian drug lord is another. And Jack Lauer, a ne'er-do-well, good time Charley ex-Navy Seal completes the pyramid and creates a snapshot of the era. San Francisco, Costa Rica and an exotic Caribbean island form the backdrop for this journey to a spider web of political intrigue and ambiguity, moral relativism and unbridled hedonism.

 

Carson, Robert.

The Revels Are Ended. Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1936.

 

Carter, Chickering (editor).

Nick Carter's Earthquake Clue, or, Amid Falling Walls in San Francisco. Street & Smith, April 18, 1906. (New Nick Carter Weekly No. 503)

| setting: San Francisco (1906) | series character: Nick Carter | dime novel | find it |

 

Carter, Nick. [Lionel White and Valerie Moolman]

The Mind Poisoners. Award Books, 1966.

| setting: San Francisco (Chinatown); Berkeley | series character: Nick Carter (Killmaster #18) | Hubin | pbo | find it |

Summary: The student peace movement was anything but peaceful. Suddently, it swept beyond the bounds of democratic demonstration into widespread mass rioting that approached a state of insurrection and civil war. Cars were overturned, burned; girls were drawn into wild and sadistic orgies; hordes of students were catapulted into an incredible vortex of violence. The entire nation rocked in stunned horror. And as the hideous madness spread from campus to campus, Axe agent Nick Carter assumed the identity of a college professor. What he taught some of his students wouldn't be found in any library What he learned from them made his skin crawl! It went beyond radicalism. It was the ruthless plot of an organization of mind-poisoners who couldn’t have cared less about the ruined lives of thousands of students they had made into the instruments of national downfall!

 

Castleman, Michael.

The Lost Gold of San Francisco. 21st-Century Publishing, 2003.

| setting: San Francisco (1906 and 1989) | series character: Ed Rosenberg | find it |

Summary: It’s the day of the Big One, the 1906 earthquake. Fire engulfs the San Francisco Mint, as armed gangs plan to loot its vault. In the smoky chaos, a large shipment of misstruck $20 gold pieces leaves the Mint, headed for Denver to be melted back into bullion. The coins disappear. Only two of the gold pieces ever turn up. The become the most storied coins in U.S. history. The rest become the lost gold of San Francisco, the city’s most enduring mystery. Fast-forward to 1989. The billionaire publisher of San Francisco’s leading newspaper, The Foghorn, donates his priceless coin collection to the venerable California Museum. It contains one of the two known misstruck 1906 $20 gold pieces. Brash reporter Ed Rosenberg covers the even. Then the founder of the Museum turns up murdered. Ed chases the story all over the City by the Bay. Along the way, he encounters a rogue’s gallery of feisty San Franciscans: the bombastic editor of the alternative weekly, an art dealer with a thug on his payroll, the publisher of a sleazy skin magazine, a rabbinical school drop-out who shoots a mean game of pool, a young Chinese-American reporter with a black belt in karate, and a talented public relations woman who’s even more talented in private. More bodies drop, and Ed suspects a connection with the lost gold. Soon Ed isn’t just reporting the story. Someone is shooting at him.

Death Caps. Last Gasp, 2007.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Ed Rosenberg | find it |

A Killing in Real Estate. MacAdam/Cage Publishing, 2010.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Ed Rosenberg | find it |

Summary: San Francisco’s Mission District is on fire and the arsonist is at large. The morning after the latest blaze, newspaper columnist Ed Rosenberg discovers the lifeless body of his good friend and colleague naked, bound, and gagged for S&M. As the search for the killer runs dry and the fires continue to rage, Ed launches his own investigation, plunging him into the unseemly realms of city politics, kinky sex, and family secrets. With the looming fires striking closer and closer to home, Ed quickly realizes that uncovering the sinister truth behind the Mission fires and solving his friend’s murder could put his own life in jeopardy.

Killer Weed. MP Publishing, 2013.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Ed Rosenberg | find it |

Summary: Out-of-work journalist Ed Rosenberg is turning his toking into a full-time job when Silicon Valley billionaire Gene Simons suddenly hires him to research the hippie era of San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury. Ed’s reporter’s instinct leads him to investigate the unsolved murder of Gene’s mother, a low-level pot dealer brutally killed in Golden Gate Park in 1968. Meanwhile, Ed’s wife Julie has become the media maven for mayoral candidate Dave Kirsch, a former pot dealer and the author of best-selling guides to growing weed. In front of Julie’s eyes, Kirsch is assassinated: suddenly Ed has another crime to unravel. Ed’s research into Haight-Ashbury’s tie-dyed past introduces him to a rogue’s gallery of aging hippies, who, he discovers, may have been involved in Kirsch’s demise. Then bullets start flying at Ed.

 

Chadwick, Whitney.

Framed. Macmillan (London), 1998.

| setting: San Francisco, Vienna, Paris | series character: Charlotte Whyte | find it |

Summary: This novel introduces Charlotte Whyte -- a San Francisco art historian whose research takes her from art to murder -- in a mystery of lost wartime art treasures, long-buried secrets and deadly betrayals.

 

Chamberlain, Esther, and Lucia Chamberlain.

The Coast of Chance. The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Publishers, 1908.

| setting: San Francisco; San Mateo | Baird & Greenwood 432; Hubin | find it |

Summary: Flora Gilsey, fatherless and motherless, has been in San Francisco society for three years. She lives in the home of a young widow, Clara Britton, and is engaged to the charming Harry Cressy. Her adventure begins when she learns about the daring theft of an old and valuable ring that was going to be auctioned from the estate of a young woman named Bessie Chatsworth who had died suddenly and tragically. Harry, who had seen the ring before it was stolen offers this description: “Like a bit of an old gold heathen god curled round himself, with his head, which was mostly two yellow sapphires, between his knees, and a big, blue stone on top. Soft, yellow gold, so fine you could almost dent it. And carved!” The theft has all the earmarks of a job by a notorious English thief named Farrell Wand, who has so far eluded Scotland Yard. Consequently, suspicion immediately falls upon Mr. Kerr, a mysterious Englishman who has recently arrived in San Francisco. Then Harry takes Flora to Chinatown to buy her an engagement ring where they deal with a strange “blue-eyed Chinaman” and come away with a beautiful blue sapphire. Flora soon realizes that she is possession of part of the Chatsworth ring and that Harry knows more about it than he is letting on. A bit long on exposition and a bit short on plot, the novel, nevertheless, offers an intriguing glimpse of turn-of-the-century San Francisco.

 

Chamberlain, Lucia. [see also Chamberlain, Esther]

The Other Side of the Door. The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Publishers 1909.

| setting: San Francisco | Baird & Greenwood 434; Hubin; Herron | find it |

Summary: In 1865 San Francisco, young Ellie Fenwick is out shopping early one morning. On her way home, she detours down Dupont Street. As she is passing by a notorious gambling parlor, she hears a gunshot. A man falls through the door into the street, dead, closely followed by another man, Johnny Montgomery, holding a smoking pistol in his hand. At Montgomery’s murder trial, Ellie’s testimony helps to convict him. But Ellie remains unconvinced of his guilt and when a mysterious “Spanish Woman” interferes with the course of justice, Ellie is torn between her feelings for Johnny and her desire to do the right thing.

 

Chambers, Whitman.

The Campanile Murders. D. Appleton-Century Company, Incorporated, 1933.

| setting: University of California, Berkeley (“State University”) | find it

Summary: Bill Bartlett, police reporter for the Times-Star, gets personally involved in a murder investigation after an argument with his would-be girlfriend, Lillian Voyne, a college student/roadhouse singer. After dropping her off on campus so that she can keep an appointment with Malcolm Jannings, one of her classmates who is the chimes-ringer in the Campanile—the clock tower at the center of the campus—Bill decides to wait around for her. The music stops suddenly and a shot rings out from the top of the tower. The police arrive and Bill accompanies them to the top, where they find Jannings shot in the head...and the killer mysteriously vanished. Not trusting the police to solve the crime, Bill enlists the aid of Dr. C. Edson Hawley, a popular chemistry professor at the University and a noted criminologist who has succeeded where the police had failed in the past. Lillian is soon identified as the prime suspect—by both the police and Dr. Hawley—and Bill makes it his mission to prove them all wrong. Although (in typical Chambers style) the names “Berkeley” and “California” are never mentioned, and the university is called “State University,” it is clear that the actions takes place on and around the University of California. The description of the Campanile matches Sather Tower exactly, and references to other Berkeley landmarks like the Greek Theater and College Avenue, in addition to San Quentin and the ferryboat system, make it pretty obvious that the setting is Berkeley.

13 Steps. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1935.

| setting: San Quentin; Oakland | Baird & Greenwood 438; Hubin | find it |

Summary: A hanging scheduled at San Quentin prison triggers a series of flashbacks in the mind of Oakland newspaperman Al Herrick, who is there to witness the execution of a former colleague. With each step the condemned man takes up the gallows stairs, Herrick recalls events beginning at a New Year’s eve party at a roadhouse and his meeting Diane Polk, the wife of the man who just took his job away from him. Adultery, fear of scandal, and blackout drunkenness lead to murder. But is the right man being punished for it? Only Al knows that he might be innocent … because he isn’t sure that he is not the murderer, himself.

Dead Men Leave No Fingerprints. Published for the Crime Club, Inc. by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1935.

| setting: San Francisco; Marin County | find it |

Summary: San Francisco private eye Stanton Lake takes the case of Hilda Haan, a Danish film star who has sent a look-alike back home to Denmark so that she can spend time with her lover Theodore Raybourne at his beach hideaway in Dipsea, sixteen miles north of the city. Now she wants out of this relationship, but Raybourne has other ideas -- either she agrees to marry him or he exposes their affair to the press and ruins her career. When Lake arrives in Dipsea, he finds a house party in full swing, and Raybourne dead, his skull crushed with a poker. Two other deaths quickly follow and in all three cases, the only fingerprints found on the murder weapons belong to John Royal, who died a year before in San Quentin Penitentiary after swearing revenge on the Raybourne family...

Dog Eat Dog. Published for the Crime Club, Inc. by Doubleday, Doran & Co., Inc., 1938.

| setting: San Francisco | Baird & Greenwood 436; Hubin | find it |

Summary: What connection could there be between the murder of a drunken runner for a bailbond broker and Serge Melnikoff, wealthy importer of Oriental 'objets d'art'? Even stranger still, why should Melnikoff invite Big Abe, the bailbond broker, to dinner aboard his yacht to announce his engagement to the woman who was to become his fourth wife? Why did Melnikoff also invite two of his former wives to attend the dinner? And last but not least, what prompted Melnikoff's first wife, pronounced legally dead for twenty years, to come out of the obscurity with which she had surrounded herself, and pay a visit to to the yacht the night of that fateful dinner which was to result in three murders? It was a stirring and hazardous chase that Pierre O'Brien, private investigator, engaged in as he went in pursuit of the unknown killer...

Once Too Often. Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1938.

| setting: Oakland | find it |

Summary: On her wedding night, beautiful syndicated newspaper columnist Laura Lane confesses to press agent Les Burns that she is not in love with her husband, Harry Hanneman—she is in love with Les. A week later, on the night Laura arrives home from her honeymoon alone, she and Les discover her husband’s murdered body in the living room of their Oakland hills home. Even though he knows Laura is not telling him the whole truth, Les vows to protect her at all costs. Hanneman had recently inherited a fortune and was a leading congressional candidate; Laura was planning on using her new status as a Congressman’s wife as an entrée into Washington society and continuing her journalistic career there. Soon Laura is the prime suspect in her husband’s murder. As the police and the crime beat reporters close in, Les and Laura play a deadly game that could leave them either swinging at the end of a gallows noose or the victims of a killer.

Bring Me Another Murder. E.P. Dutton & Company, 1942.

| setting: Oakland | Baird & Greenwood 435 | find it |

Summary: On election night in Oakland, Herald reporter Bill Randall, just returned from a five-year stint as a screenwriter in Hollywood, is assigned to cover the returns at City Hall. During a blackout—common in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the year before—Lili McGee, the wife of a local press agent, falls to her death from the thirteenth floor. Was it suicide? An accident? Or murder? Bill, who was one of the last to talk to Lili before her death (she was trying to seduce him), is drawn into the investigation. The police soon determine that Lili had been strangled before she fell and the list of suspects grows—including her husband, several of the City Hall reporters, and even Bill’s estranged movie-star wife. Although Oakland is never mentioned by name, it is clear that the action is set there. There are several references to Oakland streets, the bay, and even Highland Hospital. However, Baird & Greenwood mistakenly establish the setting as Los Angeles.

 

Champlin, Tim.

King of the Highbinders. Ballantine Books, 1989.

| setting: San Francisco (Chinatown; 1880s) | pbo | find it |

Summary: No one in San Francisco can figure out who heisted three million dollars in gold from the U.S. Mint, until young Jay McGraw turns up at the police station with Lee Sing, a beautiful Chinese slave girl, and an incredible story. Yen Ching, the bloodthirsty head of the most powerful and murderous tong in Chinatown, had stolen the gold and secretly hidden it in Jay's beer wagon. Unless Yen Ching is stopped, he'll smuggle it back to China. Only Jay and Lee Sing can recognize the diabolically clever leader, and with the police they begin the dangerous chase. The only question is, will they get Yen Ching and the gold before his hatchet men get them?

Deadly Season: A Western Story. Five Star, 1997.

| setting: San Francisco (Chinatown; 1880s) | find it |

Summary: In 1880s San Francisco, detective Fred Casey teams up with visiting detective Sherlock Holmes to solve a murder in Chinatown. A tale of opium smuggling.

 

Chance, Alex.

The Final Days. William Heinemann, 2008.

 

Chandler, Randy. [see Winter-Damon, T.]

 

Chang, Lee.

The Year of the Tiger. Manor Books, 1973. (Kung-Fu #1)

The Year of the Snake. Manor Books, 1974. (Kung-Fu #2)

 

Chang, Leonard.

Over the Shoulder. Ecco Press, 2000.

Fade to Clear. Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2004.

Crossings. Black Heron Press, 2009.

 

Chapman, Sally. [see also Griffin, Annie]

Raw Data. St. Martin’s Press, 1991.

Love Bytes. St. Martin’s Press, 1994.

Cyberkiss. St. Martin’s Press, 1996.

Hardwired. St. Martin’s Press, 1997.

 

Chapot, Hank.

Bordello Politique: Dolly Fine and the Fall of the House of McDonough. Hank Chapot, 2011.

| setting: San Francisco (1937) | e-book | find it |

 

Charleston, Wally.

The Hero Rat. Warner Books, 1975.

 

Chavez, Heather.

No Bad Deed. William Morrow, 2020.

| setting: Santa Rosa | find it |

Summary: When Santa Rosa veterinarian Cassie Larkin sees a man and woman fighting on the side of the road she calls 911. She then gets out of her minivan and chases after the violent man, trying to help his victim. He turns on her and spits out an ominous threat: "Let her die, and I'll let you live" and then steals her car. Now he has her name, her address, and he knows about her children. The next day -- Halloween -- her husband disappears while trick-or-treating with their six-year-old daughter. Cassie will have to go to terrifying extremes to save her family.

 

Chevalier, Haakon.

For Us the Living. Alfred A. Knopf, 1948.

 

Chevalier, Joanie.

Deadly Dating Games. Spider Books Publishing, 2014.

| setting: San Francisco | tpo |

Summary: Most of the women in the newly formed book club were simply looking for friendship, a good read and maybe even a few dating tips. Greed snowballs into jealousy and hatred and several women realize too late they’ve been roped into crimes that force them to flee for their lives. Alyssa: Cougar-complete with short skirts, stiletto heels and an insatiable appetite Bess: Desperate-looking for love in all the wrong places Julianna: Girl-Next-Door-low self-confidence and bad judgment leads her astray Traci: Cunning-determined to get what she wants, no matter who gets in the way Aaron: Is he part of the crime circle or is he capable of saving the woman he loves? BLACKMAIL. MURDER. ROMANCE. Four women. Four personalities. Who will Overcome; Who will Survive?

 

Cheyney, Peter.

Can Ladies Kill? Collins, 1938.

 

Chiao, Mary Miller.

Death on the Funeral Yacht: A 1950s San Francisco Mystery. Mary Miller Chiao, 2020.

| setting: San Francisco (1950-1959) | tpo |

Summary: Jane Kitteridge dreams of being an attorney in San Francisco during the 1950s. She puts herself through school, graduates close to the top of her law class, and easily passes the bar. But positions are few for women in the male-dominated legal field. With her savings depleted, she has no choice but to take a position as secretary to flamboyant attorney, Jay Lucas. In 1959, he falls to his death from the deck of The Dearly Departed while dispersing the ashes of his lover into the Bay. Was it an accident? Follow Jane to discover the truth.

 

Chiaverini, Jennifer.

Sonoma Rose. Dutton, 2012.

| setting: Sonoma County; Berkeley; Southern California (1920s) | series: Elm Creek Quilts 19 | find it |

 

Child, Lee.

Make Me. Delacorte Press, 2015.

| setting: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix | series character: Jack Reacher | find it |

Summary: Why is this town called Mother's Rest? That's all Reacher wants to know. But no one will tell him. It's a tiny place hidden in a thousand square miles of wheat fields, with a railroad stop, and sullen and watchful people, and a worried woman named Michelle Chang, who mistakes him for someone else: her missing partner in a private investigation she thinks must have started small and then turned lethal. Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there and there's something about Chang; so he teams up with her and starts to ask around. He thinks: How bad can this thing be? But before long he's plunged into a desperate race through LA, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco, and through the hidden parts of the internet, up against thugs and assassins every step of the way -- right back to where he started, in Mother's Rest, where he must confront the worst nightmare he could imagine. Walking away would have been easier. But as always, Reacher's rule is: If you want me to stop, you're going to have to make me.

 

Chittenden, Margaret.

Dying to Sing. Kensington Books, 1996.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Charlie Plato | Hubin | find it |

Dead Men Don’t Dance. Kensington Books, 1997.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Charlie Plato | Hubin | find it |

Dead Beat and Deadly. Kensington Books, 1998.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Charlie Plato | Hubin | find it |

Don’t Forget to Die. Kensington Books, 1999.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Charlie Plato | Hubin | find it |

Dying to See You. Kensington Books, 2000.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Charlie Plato | Hubin | find it |

 

Choi, Angela S.

Hello Kitty Must Die. Tyrus Books, 2010.

| setting: San Francisco (Chinatown) | find it |

 

Christian, M.

The Very Bloody Marys. Haworth Positronic Press/Harrington Park Press, 2007.

 

Chua, Amy.

The Golden Gate. St. Martin's Press, 2023.

| setting: Berkeley (1944) | find it |

Summary: In Berkeley, California, in 1944, Homicide Detective Al Sullivan has just left the swanky Claremont Hotel after a drink in the bar when a presidential candidate is assassinated in one of the rooms upstairs. A rich industrialist with enemies among the anarchist factions on the far left, Walter Wilkinson could have been targeted by any number of groups. But strangely, Sullivan's investigation brings up the specter of another tragedy at the Claremont, ten years earlier: the death of seven-year-old Iris Stafford, a member of the Bainbridge family, one of the wealthiest in all of San Francisco. Some say she haunts the Claremont still. The many threads of the case keep leading Sullivan back to the three remaining Bainbridge heiresses, now adults: Iris's sister, Isabella, and her cousins Cassie and Nicole. Determined not to let anything distract him from the truth -- not the powerful influence of Bainbridges' grandmother, or the political aspirations of Berkeley's district attorney, or the interest of China's First Lady Madame Chiang Kai-Shek in his findings -- Sullivan follows his investigation to its devastating conclusion.

 

Chute, Verne.

Flight of an Angel. William Morrow and Company, 1946.

 

Ciambrone, David.

Napa Nights. Mystery and Suspense Press, 2001.

| setting: Napa Valley | series character: Virginia Davies | tpo | find it |

 

Ciencin, Scott.

Luck Be a Lady. Simon Spotlight, 2004. [based on the television series Charmed, created by Constance M. Burge]

Light of the World. Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2006. [based on the television series Charmed, created by Constance M. Burge]

 

Clarke, Marion.

The Jade Pagoda. Dell, 1992.

 

Claxon, Colin C.

Gone Missing: A Marin County Mystery. Cairn Stone Publishing, 2018.

| setting: Marin County | tpo |

Summary: Abducted at the age of three by his hippie mother who fled the east coast for freewheeling 1970s California, Jason goes missing until his father rescues him at a commune north of San Francisco. During the ensuing custody battle, Jason's mother once again tears him away, this time in full view of a shocked courthouse. Inspired by actual events that took place in Marin County, this mystery is crafted by the trial attorney who handled the case and who remains haunted by it. Colin Claxon tells a remarkable tale in the enthralling way that only someone who witnessed it could.

 

Claypool, Les.

South of the Pumphouse. Akashic Books, 2006.

 

Clemen, Gina D. B.

Mystery in San Francisco. Black Cat, 2005.

 

Clements, Colin. [see Ryerson, Florence]

 

Clevenger, Jaime.

The Unknown Mile. Bella Books, 2004.

Call Shotgun. Bella Books, 2005.

 

Clifford, James O., Sr.

Philip's Code: No News is Good News-- To a Killer. Self-published, 2006.

| setting: San Francisco Bay Area | tpo | find it |

Summary: The story of San Francisco Bay Area reporter Phil Davis, who pounded out a 40-year career that carried him from typewriters to computers. This nuts and bolts story is Journalism 101 for anyone who ever wondered who decides what is news and what isn't. It is, to use a favored news media term, a "whistle blower." With more levels than an elevator shaft, it is also a gripping crime novel in which a man says goodbye to everything he loved, including his soul.

 

Coffman, Virginia.

The High Terrace. Lancer Books, 1966.

A Dear of Heights. Lancer Books, 1973.

Hyde Place. Arbor House, 1974.

The Lombard Heiress. Arbor House, 1983.

 

Cogan, Mike. [Eileen Lottman]

The Presidio. Pocket Books, 1988.

| setting: San Francisco (Presidio) | movie novel | pbo | find it |

 

Cogan, Susan Brassfield.

Murder on the Waterfront. Hilliard & Harris Publishers, 2004.

| setting: San Francisco (Chinatown ; 1935) | series character: Lady Margaret Thompson, Countess of Chesterleigh | tpo | find it |

 

Coggins, Mark.

The Immortal Game. Poltroon Press, 1999.

| setting: San Francisco, Silicon Valley | series character: August Riordan (1) | find it |

Vulture Capital. Poltroon Press, 2002.

| setting: Silicon Valley, Napa Valley, San Francisco | series character: August Riordan (2) | find it |

Candy From Strangers. Bleak House Books, 2006.

| setting: San Francisco (SoMa, Mission District, North Beach), Berkeley, Union City | series character: August Riordan (3) | find it |

Runoff. Bleak House Books, 2007.

| setting: San Francisco (Chinatown, Mission District, Civic Center) | series character: August Riordan (4) | find it |

The Big Wake-Up. Bleak House Books, 2009.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: August Riordan (5) | find it |

No Hard Feelings. Down & Out Books, 2015.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: August Riordan (6) | find it |

Summary: Winnie doesn’t remember the last time she felt anything below her neck. Her spine is severed at the seventh vertebrae, but thanks to implants from a sabotaged biomedical start-up, she has regained mobility. She is a prototype: a living, breathing—walking—demonstration of revolutionary technology that never made it to market. Her disability has become her armor. Because she doesn’t register fatigue, she has trained relentlessly. Her hand, arm, and leg strength are off the scales for a woman, and she has honed self-defense techniques to channel that strength. She’s a modern-day Amazon who feels no pain. When the sociopath who torpedoed the start-up sends killers to harvest the implants from her body, Winnie must team up with broken-down private investigator August Riordan to save both their lives—and derail sinister plans for perverse military applications of the technology.

The Dead Beat Scroll. Down & Out Books, 2019.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: August Riordan (7) | find it |

Summary: Private investigator August Riordan returns to San Francisco to avenge the death of his friend and one-time partner, Chris Duckworth. Duckworth has taken over Riordan’s old business, his old office, and even his old apartment, and Riordan suspects Duckworth’s death is linked to the missing-person case he was working when he died. An alluring young woman named Angelina hired Duckworth to look for her half-sister, but what Riordan finds instead is a murderous polyamorous family intent on claiming a previously unknown manuscript from Beat writer Jack Kerouac. Following clues from Duckworth and a trail of mutilated bodies left by the family, Riordan soon realizes that avenging his partner will first involve recovering the manuscript—then saving Angelina and himself from kidnap, torture, and death. As the bodies pile up, Riordan must work with old allies and enemies to untangle Duckworth’s last case before time runs out.

 

Cohen, Irving R.

The Passover Commando. Crown Publishers, 1979.

 

Cohen, Stanley.

The Diane Game. Stein and Day, Publishers, 1973.

 

Colbert, James.

Profit and Sheen. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1986.

| setting: New Orleans, San Francisco, Miami | Herron | find it |

 

Collins, Mary.

Dead Center. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1942.

Only the Good. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1942.

The Sister of Cain. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1943.

Dog Eat Dog. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1949.

 

Combs, David.

Sleepwalker. Avon Books, 1983.

 

Comer, Curtis Christopher.

Midnight Whispers. Bold Strokes Books, 2010.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Blake Danzig (Blake Danzig Chronicles) | tpo | find it |

 

Compton, Jodi.

Hailey’s War. New York: Shaye Areheart Books, 2010.

| setting: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Mexico | find it |

 

Connell, Evan S.

The Diary of a Rapist. Simon and Schuster, 1966.

| setting: San Francisco | find it |

 

Conners, Aaron.

The Pandora Directive. Prima Publishers, 1995.

| setting: San Francisco (2042) | series character: Tex Murphy | science fiction | Hubin | pbo | find it |

Under a Killing Moon. Prima Publishers, 1996.

| setting: San Francisco (2042) | series character: Tex Murphy | science fiction | Hubin | pbo | find it |

 

Conot, Robert E.

Ministers of Vengeance. J.B. Lippincott Company, 1964.

 

Conrad, Hy. [see also Goldberg, Lee]

Mr. Monk Helps Himself. Obsidian, 2013.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Adrian Monk (15) | based on the television series Monk, created by Andy Breckman | find it |

Summary: While studying for her private investigator license, Natalie investigates the apparent suicide of a self-help guru who was about to go bankrupt and enlists the help of her obsessive compulsive partner, Monk, when she suspects foul play.

Mr. Monk Gets On Board. Obsidian, 2014.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Adrian Monk (16) | based on the television series Monk, created by Andy Breckman | find it |

Summary: Of all the things that make Adrian Monk uneasy, change ranks high on the list. So when Natalie completes her P.I. license--and technically becomes Monk's boss--it's not easy for him to accept. Nor can he accept Natalie attending a business seminar at sea without him, even if it means spending a week with her on a cruise ship. Between choppy waters and obnoxious kids, Monk finds himself in a perfect storm of anxiety. Luckily, Mariah, the cruise director, is always able to smooth things over ... until the crew fishes her dead body out of the water. Even after the ship's doctor declares Mariah's death an accident, Monk isn't convinced. So when the captain hires Monk and Natalie to look into a mysterious rash of vandalism on board, Monk steers the investigation toward murder... 

Mr. Monk is Open for Business. Obsidian, 2014.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Adrian Monk (17) | based on the television series Monk, created by Andy Breckman | find it |

Summary: After failing to win back his girlfriend, Ellen, in Summit, New Jersey, Monk returns to San Francisco, where he is surprised to find that another relationship has taken a new turn. Natalie decided to make things official by setting up an office for Monk and Teeger, Consulting Detectives. With Monk's typical response to change of any kind, they have more than a few wrinkles to iron out of their new routine. But when Lieutenant Amy Devlin comes to them for help, it's time to stop bickering and get to work. A disgruntled employee of a small import business, Wyatt Noone came into work one day and started shooting, killing three coworkers and leaving a female hostage severly wounded. Spotting Wyatt through the office windows, the police surrounded the building, but he still managed to disappear, leaving Lieutenant Devlin with a messy and baffling mystery on her hands. Visiting the bedridden survivor, Sarabeth Winslow, Monk finds her to be helpful, cooperative, and, now that he's on the rebound from Ellen, quite charming as well. But as he and Natalie try to track down Sarabeth's assailant, they discover that Wyatt has left behind barely a trace of his past, almost as if he managed to disappear from existence altogether.

Mr. Monk and the New Lieutenant. Obsidian, 2015.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Adrian Monk (18) | based on the television series Monk, created by Andy Breckman | find it |

Summary: Monk and Natalie have finally settled into a new office routine. Now they just need to work things out with their neighbors-a print shop run by hippies whose music leaks through the walls, driving Monk nuts. But the detectives soon have a more serious conflict to deal with: Captain Stottlemeyer's new lieutenant, A.J. Cartledge-a man of limited skills whom Monk finds insufferable. Even the presence of Lieutenant Cartledge won't keep Monk and Natalie from attending the funeral of Judge Oberlin, and it's a good thing. In typical fashion, Monk examines the body in the casket-and finds evidence of poison. The judge was murdered. While there are no traces of the poison at the judge's house, Monk detects that there had been an intruder. The next rainy day, when Captain Stottlemeyer begins to show the same symptoms, Monk deduces that there's a diabolical killer at work, someone who wanted both the judge and the captain dead. Monk and Natalie turn to the captain's ex-lieutenant in Summit, New Jersey for help, but even that might not be enough to solve this crime. With his friend in danger and an enemy close, Monk will have to put his reservations aside to crack the case in time."-- 

 

Conway, Martha.

12 Bliss Street. St Martin’s Minotaur, 2003.

 

Cooke, Grace MacGowan.

The Man Behind the Mask. Frederick A. Stokes, 1927.

 

Cooke, John Byrne.

The Committee of Vigilance: A Novel of Gold Rush San Francisco. Bantam Books, 1994.

| setting: San Francisco (1856) | pbo | find it |

 

Coovelis, Mark.

Gloria. Pocket Books, 1994.

 

Corbett, David.

The Devil’s Redhead. Ballantine Books, 2002.

| setting: San Francisco; Contra Costa County | find it |

Done For a Dime. Ballantine Books, 2003.

| setting: “Rio Mirada” | find it |

The Mercy of the Night. Thomas & Mercer, 2015.

| setting: “Rio Mirada” | tpo | find it |

 

Corley, Donald.

The Cremation Murders. AuthorHouse, 2004.

 

Corpi, Lucha.

Eulogy for a Brown Angel. Arte Público Press, 1992.

| setting: Oakland, Napa Valley, East Los Angeles | series character: Gloria Damasco | find it |

Cactus Blood. Arte Público Press, 1995.

| setting: Oakland | series character: Gloria Damasco | find it |

Black Widow’s Wardrobe. Arte Público Press, 1999.

| setting: Oakland, San Francisco, Mexico | series character: Gloria Damasco | Hubin | tpo | find it |

Crimson Moon: A Brown Angel Mystery. Arte Público Press, 2004.

| setting: Oakland, San Francisco, Denver | series character: Dora Saldana, Justin Escobar | tpo | find it |

 

Corris, Peter.

Heroin Annie and Other Cliff Hardy Stories. G. Allen & Unwin, 1984.

The Big Drop and Other Cliff Hardy Stories. G. Allen & Unwin, 1985.

 

Coulter, Catherine.

Beyond Eden. Dutton, 1992.

| setting: San Francisco | find it |

The Maze. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1997.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Dillon Savich, Lacey Sherlock | find it |

The Target. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1998.

| setting: San Francisco; Chicago | find it |

Eleventh Hour. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2002.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Dillon Savich, Lacey Sherlock | find it |

Double Take. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2007.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Dillon Savich, Lacey Sherlock | find it |

Backfire. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2012.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Dillon Savich, Lacey Sherlock | find it |

 

Covino, Joseph, Jr.

Edgar Allan Poe’s San Francisco: Terror Tales of the City. Epic Press, 2005.

| setting: San Francisco | tpo | find it |

San Francisco’s Finest: Gunning for the Zodiac. Epic Press, 2012.

| setting: San Francisco | tpo | find it |

Francesco Ferrari Navigates Fisherman's Wharf. Epic Press, 2016.

| setting: San Francisco (Fisherman's Wharf) | series character: Francesco Ferrari | tpo | find it |

Summary: San Francisco has a new iconic private detective for the times ... His name's Francesco Ferrari. A former Franciscan seminarian-turned-shamus, he drives a Ferrari California T sports car, packs a .357 magnum and operates out of a flat in the historic Buena Vista Cafe on the city's northern waterfront. And he covers only those cases affecting the city he loves -- his namesake City of Saint Francis. In his debut novel, Francesco Ferrari Navigates Fisherman's Wharf, the theme is ethnic cleansing. Something's ominously amiss in Ferrari's own neighborhood of Fisherman's Wharf, where some outlandish and deadly things are happening. Someone's out to make over the wharf for the Italians again -- and by any means necessary. The Port of San Francisco's being terrorized and a new organized crime family in the city, bossed by a stunning femme fatale, could be the sinister culprit responsible. After the dead body of a former lover is fished out of San Francisco Bay, Francesco Ferrari is sucked into a case so strange -- involving even sunken treasures, killer pirates, an imposing Italian villain, and a death struggle on San Francisco Bay in sight of the Golden Gate Bridge -- the festive Fisherman's Wharf of the tourist-and-travel brochures will never seem the same again....

Francesco Ferrari Combs North Beach. Epic Press, 2017.

| setting: San Francisco (North Beach) | series character: Francesco Ferrari | tpo | find it |

Summary: Francesco Ferrari's latest case begins with a big bang once a Cadillac and two driverless Tesla cars collide and explode on the crooked section of the city's famed Lombard Street. A mysterious Egyptian harboring secret motives hires Ferrari to find a missing associate whose photograph reveals him to be Ferrari's familiar mobster nemesis, Vic Velotta, who may or may not have survived his presumed demise in the preceding saga. Before long, after seeking out the help of Velotta's favorite henchman and an investigative journalist, Ferrari becomes entangled with the Egyptian's youthful femme fatale, a teenage French prostitute; gets threatened by the FBI; and discovers the brutal strangulation murder of a Bureau clerk who's leaked to criminals the name of an important government informant. That's just the start of a complicated case involving the city's dark underworld of fancy brothels, hookers, dives, residential hotels -- and even the past hangouts of Beatnik poets -- as Ferrari scours North Beach in search of something even more sinister: the reason why some secret software could aid and abet a nefarious terrorist plot. With the informant as the living pawn in a deadly shell game, Ferrari's pitted against FBI agents and killers in a race against time to prevent the plot and save the life of the young girl he's slowly falling for. A climactic confrontation at San Francisco's celebrated Coit Tower decides who survives the fatal collision of opposing forces.

Francesco Ferrari Mines the Mission: A Homage to Vertigo. Epic Press, 2018.

| setting: San Francisco (Mission District) | series character: Francesco Ferrari | tpo | find it |

Summary: Francesco Ferrari, a former Franciscan seminarian-turned-shamus, drives a Ferrari California T sports car, packs a .357 magnum and operates out of a flat in the historic Buena Vista Cafe on the city's northern waterfront. And he covers only those cases affecting the city he loves -- his namesake City of Saint Francis. This time out, Ferrari's hired by the president and CEO of an internet pornography company, located in the city's largely Latin Mission District, to watch and follow his young and enigmatic Catalonian wife, whom he claims is obsessed with a once celebrated but dead Spanish dancer known as Señorita Carmelita. A feminist anti-pornography activist plummets to her death from the Mission Dolores basilica bell-tower and Ferrari's quickly implicated in her demise. Once Ferrari falls -- and falls hard he does -- for the sultry and seductive subject of his surveillance, becoming obsessed with solving the secret mystery she lures him into, he's forced to follow a haunted trail that turns as emotionally daunting as it does deadly -- leading, dizzyingly, to a shocking, climactic conclusion from which the tough and tenacious detective may never fully recover.

Francesco Ferrari Explores Chinatown. Epic Press, 2021.

| setting: San Francisco (Chinatown) | series character: Francesco Ferrari | tpo | 

Summary: Rachel Chung saves private detective Francesco Ferrari's life only to lure him into a dangerous case involving the most treacherous practice of that insidious crime of sex slavery. Dispatched to prove that a young murdered Chinese girl is not a Chinatown prostitute, the tough private detective is compelled to embark upon an exploration in which forces, both past and present, collide and collude to pose life-altering dilemmas for these suddenly endangered characters. From the barracoons to the brothels to the temples, Ferrari's taken on a grand, guided tour of Chinatown's most sinister and forbidden corners, leading to a climactic encounter with a Chinese godfather atop San Francisco's iconic Transamerica Pyramid.

 

Cowdrick, J. C.

Shadowing a Shadow, or, The Pacific Slope Detective’s Triple Trail. Beadle and Adams, December 4, 1889.

Sheriff Stillwood, the Regulators of Raspberry, or, The “suspects” from ‘Frisco. Beadle and Adams, July 16, 1890.

 

Cox, Susan.

The Man on the Washing Machine. Minotaur Books, 2015.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Theo Bogart (1) | find it |

Summary: Former party girl and society photographer Theophania Bogart is hiding in San Francisco to escape a high-profile family scandal, but then she sees Tim Callahan fall from a window. The police don't believe his death was an accident, and they think Theo had sufficient motive to wish him dead. And when Theo's friend is also murdered days later, the police start digging into the secrets Theo's been running from.

The Man in the Microwave Oven. Minotaur Books, 2020.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Theo Bogart (2) | find it |

Summary: Fleeing from a murder and family tragedy in her native England, where she was the scandal du jour for the tabloid press, Theo Bogart changed her name and built an undercover life in a close-knit San Francisco neighborhood. She didn't expect to find love and friendship there, and now she doesn't know how-or if-to reveal the truth. After a confrontation with a difficult neighbor, Theo fears her secrets are about to be uncovered after all. When the woman who threatened to expose her is murdered, Theo is embroiled in the kind of jeopardy she crossed an ocean to escape. Worse yet, dangerous family secrets have followed her. Theo's grandfather unveils a glimpse of the shadowy world he once inhabited as an agent for the British Secret Service, bringing an even bigger breed of trouble-and another death-to Theo's doorstep. She finds herself fighting to protect herself, her family, and her new friends, aware that one of them might be a murderer.

 

Craig, M. S.

To Play the Fox. Dodd, Mead, 1982.

 

Cramer, Cahroul.

Twisted. Intercontinental Pub., 1997.

 

Crane, Frances.

The Yellow Violet. J.B. Lippincott Company, 1942.

| setting: San Francisco | series characters: Pat and Jean Abbott | Hubin; Baird & Greenwood 570 | find it |

Summary: Private detective Pat Abbott is back home in San Francisco, just hours away from marrying Jean Holly, when a fellow detective is murdered in his office. The only clue a yellow violet. A beautiful Spanish entertainer, a refugee from the Spanish Civil War -- whose trademark is the yellow violet -- is in town on tour accompanied by her mother, her manager, and a dachshund named Pancho. Throw in a few Italian fascists ("They don't fight very well," says Pat, "but they know how to spy") and you've got enough trouble to halt anyone's nuptials.

The Shocking Pink Hat. Random House, 1946.

| setting: San Francisco | series characters: Pat and Jean Abbott | Hubin; Baird & Greenwood 568 | find it |

Summary: On one of San Francisco's fabulously steep hills, in a heavy fog, Pat and Jean Abbott see a car crash into a hydrant, and it's no surprise to anyone when a murdered man is found slumped behind the wheel. The dead man, however, is the estranged husband of a very good friend of the Abbotts, Nancy Leland. Because Nancy is suspected of the murder, the Abbotts are from then on involved in two more murders, mayhem and a few other slightly illegal activities. A grim chain of apparently unrelated clues leads them to the murderer, and to a solution of more than passing interest to the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.

13 White Tulips. Random House, 1953.

| setting: San Francisco | series characters: Pat and Jean Abbott | Hubin; Baird & Greenwood 569 | find it |

Summary: Jack Ivers, an urban sophisticate with a particular fondness for wealthy women, lies peacefully in his bed, dead. This scenario is greatly convenient for the woman who finds him, as she was on the scene to kill him herself. More curious, the thirteen red tulips she noticed entering Ivers' home had been replaced by thirteen white tulips before she made her exit. A number of people had good reason to want Jack Ivers dead, and naturally it falls to Jean and Pat Abbott to solve the confounding case.

The Man in Gray. Random House, 1958.

| setting: San Francisco | series characters: Pat and Jean Abbott | Hubin; Baird & Greenwood 567 | find it |

Summary: Pat and Jean Abbott solve the mystery of the murder of wine expert Daniel Vincent Willoz in San Francisco, who spent too much time on enology and too little time on toxicology. 

Death-Wish Green. Random House, 1960.

| setting: San Francisco; Golden Gate Bridge | series characters: Pat and Jean Abbott | Hubin; 1001 Midnights | find it |

Summary: Did she jump--  or was she jumped? An abandoned car on the Golden Gate Bridge usually carries the sad suggestion of suicide. But after Pat and Jean Abbott spot the car in the fog and learn that it belongs to a friend's niece, Katie Spinner, they begin to suspect that she is not in a watery grave but in the clutches of a kidnapper. When one of Katie's friends -- who was supposed to go with her to the North Beach arts festival -- turns up dead, the mystery of the missing young woman becomes only more challenging.

The Amber Eyes. Random House, 1962.

| setting: San Francisco | series characters: Pat and Jean Abbott | Hubin | find it |

Summary: When some new neighbors move in near the San Francisco home of Pat and Jean Abbott they seem to be a very strange family indeed, and soon they present as puzzling and as nasty a series of attempted murders and suspicious deaths as one could find in the annals of crime. First a child is found dead (suffocation? poison? or both?). Pat Abbott is engaged by one of the grown daughters to investigate, but Homicide is called in, in the person of the saturnine Inspector Sam Bradish and his imperturbable sergeant, Cohen. There are plenty of suspects, for, they find, nearly every one of the Alby family had both motive and opportunity for killing the child. There are various attempts upon the lives of the people involved, including the lovelorn Rona, second wife of Dr. Alby, she of the amber eyes, who would readily sacrifice a fortune for the sleek Don Quayle, who isn't quite so insensible to the uses of money. Then there is the attempt to kill the elder sister and Rona's wild swing when she takes a shot at Pat Abbott. Finally Pat uncovers the ugly story of an earlier murder, and the pattern begins to take form. In his masterly reconstruction of the series of crimes, Pat takes a knife thrust which is not serious but which puts the final confirmation on his deductions.

Worse Than a Crime. Robert Hale Limited, 1968.

| setting: Sausalito; San Francisco | find it |

Summary: Malcolm Mackenzie is a young man of gentle background who married in haste a much older widow. After five years all he cares about is the garden he has created around her decrepit house high on a hill in Sausalito, California. Malcolm quarrels with his wife, Isabelle, when she refuses to let him relocate the grave of her pet dog in order to plant a rare fuchsia. She screams at him. He slaps her and rushes out and moves the grave. While searching the house for some money to tip the men who helped him, he discovers a fat roll of greenbacks in his wife's bag. When he goes to apologize to her, he finds her lying on the floor, dead. His first impulse is to call the police. But as he begins to discover that she is a miser who has kept him in near poverty, hoarding the money that he earned, he panics and buries her in the hole made for the fuchsia. Malcolm then meets and falls in love with a young woman named Marcellyn Dean, and as he finds more and more money hidden about the house he becomes intensely happy and dreams of a future in which not even his memory of the blunder in burying the body will haunt him.

 

Cranston, Pamela.

The Madonna Murders. St. Huberts Press, 2003.

| setting: San Francisco (Holy Virgin Cathedral); Berkeley (Graduate Theological Union) (1990) | find it |

 

Crist, Frank "Skip".

Fatal Flashback. Preserve Publishing Company, 2002.

| setting: San Francisco; Palo Alto; South Bay; Lassen County | legal | tpo | find it |

Summary: Fatal Flashback is a fictional account of a law case that the Skip Crist, the author, handled in the late 70's. The true story involved his wife, her housekeeper, the housekeeper's young son and his teacher. In the novel, the housekeeper is jailed 300 miles from home in Lassen County and charged with first degree murder of a fifth grade teacher. The woman suffers from amnesia, and has no recollection of any of the events of which she is accused. Palo Alto attorney Skip Massey, the protagonist in the novel, conducts an exhaustive investigation and prepares the defense of his life.

 

Creasey, John. [see Ashe, Gordon]

 

Crosby, Ellen.

The Sauvignon Secret: A Wine Country Mystery. Scribner, 2011.

| settings: Napa Valley, San Francisco, Virginia | series character: Lucie Montgomery | find it |

 

Crouch, Janie.

Primal Instinct. Harlequin, 2014.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Adrienne Jeffries | romantic suspense | pbo | find it |

 

Crumley, James.

The Last Good Kiss. Random House, 1978.

 

Curzon, Daniel.

From Violent Men. IGNA, 1983.

 

Cuthbert, Margaret.

The Silent Cradle. Pocket Books, 1998.

 

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