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Page history last edited by Randal Brandt 2 years, 9 months ago

O’Dell, Kathleen.

Lost in the City: A Julie Mystery. American Girl Publishing, Inc., 2013.

| setting: San Francisco (1970s) | series: American Girl Mysteries (Julie Albright) | juvenile | find it |

 

O’Keefe, Bobbie.

Family Secrets. Five Star Publishing, 2011.

| setting: Northern California coast [Marin County?] | series character: Sunny Corday | find it |

 

O’Leary, Ed. [see Spilken, Aron]

 

O’Malley, Matthew F.

Coastside Detectives: The Grand View. Llumina Press, 2010.

| setting: San Francisco (Tenderloin), Pacifica | series character: Mike Mason | find it |

Summary: The views of San Francisco, so well known from dozens of film noir tales and classic novels, are the backdrop to a tale rooted in the smart-bombed skyline of present-day Baghdad, with results in San Francisco just as deadly. Detective Mike Mason now lives in Pacifica, a small coastal town just south of San Francisco, but is drawn back to the rough streets of the city’s Tenderloin District by a new client, Laura Grandviewer, who is as beautiful as she is untrustworthy. Lies and half-truths send Mike upon a crooked path, and before he can unsnarl all of the loose ends Laura has set waving in the criminal winds, a growing body count will work to unnerve this hardened detective and end in a climactic splash of blood.

 

O’Malley, Patrick.

The Affair of the Blue Pig. M.S. Mill Company, 1965.

| setting: San Francisco | series characters: Harrigan and Hoefler | find it |

 

O’Marie, Carol Anne.

A Novena for Murder. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1984.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Sister Mary Helen | Hubin | find it |

Summary: Sister Mary Helen, at seventy-five, had resisted retirement. She feared she’d find only prayer, peace, and a little pinochle. But she’d no sooner arrived at Mount St. Francis College for Women in San Francisco when [sic] she was greeted by an earthquake, a hysterical secretary, and a fatally bludgeoned history professor. Homicide inspectors Kate Murphy and Dennis Gallagher promptly made a very human error: They arrested an innocent. Perhaps it was divine inspiration, but Sister Mary Helen knew a mistake had been made. So as another sister invoked aid from St. Dismas, the patron saint of murderers, Sister Mary Helen turned her own talents into a hunt for the guilty—and found that nothing is sacred when it comes to catching a killer with a habit for murder.

Advent of Dying. Delacorte Press, 1986.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Sister Mary Helen | Hubin | find it |

The Missing Madonna. Delacorte Press, 1988.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Sister Mary Helen | Hubin | find it |

Murder in Ordinary Time. Delacorte Press, 1991.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Sister Mary Helen | Hubin | find it |

Murder Makes a Pilgrimage. Delacorte Press, 1993.

| setting: San Francisco, Spain | series character: Sister Mary Helen | MRJ | find it |

Summary: San Francisco’s Sister Mary Helen and her friend Sister Eileen win a trip to Spain and make a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James in Santiago de Compostela.

Death Goes on Retreat. Delacorte Press, 1995.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Sister Mary Helen | find it |

Summary: In the grounds of a house where priests are holding a retreat, Sister Mary Helen, the 70-something amateur private investigator from San Francisco, stumbles upon the body of the assistant cook’s boyfriend, a former seminarian who was a bit of a radical. Was he a victim of love or religion?

Death of an Angel. St. Martin’s Press, 1997.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Sister Mary Helen | Hubin | find it |

Summary: The San Francisco sleuthing nun, Sister Mary Helen of Mount St. Francis College, takes it as a personal affront when a rapist-murderer kills a wealthy woman benefactor of her college. Over the objections of police she sets out to bring the killer to justice.

Death Takes Up a Collection. St. Martin’s Press, 1998.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Sister Mary Helen | Hubin | find it |

Requiem at the Refuge. Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2000.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Sister Mary Helen | Hubin | find it |

Summary: After Sister Cecilia dies in her sleep, Sister Patricia replaces her as the president of San Francisco’s Mount St. Francis College. Sister Patricia has a reputation for bringing in new blood. This frightens eighty-year old Sister Mary Helen, who is not ready to retire. Rather than wait to be fired, Sister Mary Helen resigns and begins working at The Refuge, a center for battered and homeless women. The manager of the Refuge, Sister Anne. strongly feels that her friend Sister Mary Helen can contribute. Everyone in the convent knows that where Sister Mary Helen goes, homicides follow. The Refuge proves that theory as Sister Mary Helen finds the murdered corpse of a prostitute named Melanie. A few hours earlier, Melanie had blurted out the names of people who she feared. Detectives Gallagher and Murphy begin to investigate knowing full well that Sister Mary Helen will do her own sleuthing.

The Corporal Works of Murder. Thomas Dunne Books, 2002.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Sister Mary Helen | find it |

Summary: Elderly nun Sister Mary Helen is once again drawn into a murder investigation after a young woman dies in her arms outside the Refuge, a drop-in shelter for homeless women in downtown San Francisco where Mary Helen volunteers. The dead woman turns out to be an undercover Vice cop named Sarah Spencer who was investigating a neighborhood prostitution ring. Even though the police investigating the case want her to stay out of it, Mary Helen is determined to find Sarah’s killer.

 

O'Neill, Gene.

Taste of Tenderloin. Apex Publications, 2009.

| setting: San Francisco (Tenderloin) | short stories | tpo | find it |

Summary: Eight stories of dark science fiction and fantasy weave a path through the underbelly of San Francisco's most notorious district in Taste of Tenderloin. Best known for his strong sense of place and uniquely vibrant characters, O'Neill brings the gritty underside of the city to life with eight interwoven stories of broken lives, missed dreams, and all that can go wrong with both reality and fantasy among the down and out. The city itself opens wide to swallow all comers with the temptation of its secrets and sins, while O'Neill brings dignity and humanity to a set of characters often overlooked in both society and fiction.

 

O’Shaughnessy, Perri.

Unfit to Pactice. Delacorte Press, 2002.

 

Obenzinger, Hilton.

Cannibal Eliot and the Lost Histories of San Francisco. Mercury House, 1993.

 

Offord, Lenore Glen.

Murder on Russian Hill. Macrae-Smith-Company, 1938.

| setting: San Francisco (Russian Hill) | series characters: Coco and Bill Hastings | Baird & Greenwood 1940, Hubin, Herron | find it |

Summary: Coco Hastings is young, recently married, gainfully employed, loves to read murder mysteries, and is a member of the San Francisco smart set. One morning, while her husband is away on business, she arrives late to work and finds that her boss, Tony Austin, has not yet arrived. After receiving a call summoning her to his Russian Hill apartment, Coco finds Tony dead with a bullet wound in his heart. As Inspector Geraghty of the San Francisco police leads the investigation, Coco at first likes the idea of helping to catch real murderer. She soon decides that its not so fun when all of the suspects are friends—and even she and her husband, who had returned to the city in time to have done away with Tony himself, come under suspicion before the killer is revealed. Set in the Bay Area at the time of the construction of the Bay Bridge, the novel offers a glimpse of the region as it prepares to transition from the ferryboat era to the bridge era. Coco and her husband, Bill, live in Berkeley and they commute by streetcar and ferryboat to San Francisco. While Coco anticipates being able to drive or take a train directly to the city, she also laments the beloved boats that will soon be forgotten.

The 9 Dark Hours. Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1941.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Cameron Ferris | Baird & Greenwood 1942, Hubin, Herron | find it |

Summary: Cameron Ferris is a young woman, making her own way in San Francisco. She returns home one night early from a weekend away to find a strange man occupying her apartment. After she refuses to be bluffed into leaving, the man, Barney, takes her into her confidence and tells her a fantastic story of conspiracy, sabotage, and the kidnapping of the young daughter of a crusading newspaper editor. The kidnappers are hiding out in the apartment next to hers, the ransom is to be paid that night, and Barney and his confederates are hoping to catch them and rescue the baby. Before the night is over, Cameron has to figure out who is lying and who is telling the truth … or die trying.

Skeleton Key. Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1943.

My True Love Lies. Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1947.

The Smiling Tiger. Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1949.

Walking Shadow. Simon and Schuster, 1959.

 

Ohnemus, Günter.

The Russian Passenger. Bitter Lemon Press, 2004.

| setting: Europe (Germany, France, Italy), San Francisco | Translation of Riese in die Angst (Droemer, 2002); translated by John Brownjohn | tpo | find it |

Summary: The story of Harry Willemer, a loner Munich taxi driver who picks up a beautiful Russian named Sonia Kovalevskaya. She is an ex-KGB agent and wife of a Russian Mafioso who is on her way to Luxembourg to collect the four million dollars she stole from her husband’s “Firm.” Harry, who is still haunted by the death of his young daughter twenty-two years ago, offers to drive her all the way to the money. On the run from hit-men that Sonia’s husband sends after her—and then the German police after a couple of Russians end up dead—they make their way through Germany, France, and Italy. They eventually land in San Francisco in this tale of angst, redemption, murder, desperate love, and the cruel history that binds Russia and Germany.

 

Oleck, Howard L.

A Singular Fury. World Publishing Company, 1968.

 

Olsen, D. B. [Dolores Birk Hitchens]

The Clue in the Clay. Phoenix Press, 1938.

 

Olshaker, Mark. [see Douglas, John E.]

 

Olson, John B.

Shade. B&H Publishing Group, 2008.

| setting: San Francisco | Christian fiction | tpo | find it |

 

Orgain, Diana.

Bundle of Trouble. Berkley Prime Crime, 2009.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Kate Connolly (Maternal Instincts Mystery 1) | pbo | find it |

Summary: Kate imagined she’d spend her maternity leave crooning lullabies and snuggling her beautiful new baby. But then she receives a disturbing phone call telling her that a body has been pulled from San Francisco Bay, and the police think it may be her brother-in-law. Now, in addition to trying to solve the mystery of how one six-pound baby can generate ten times her weight in laundry, Kate finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation with multiplying victims. And when her husband is detained in connection with the crimes, Kate must crack the case faster than you can say ‘diaper rash’ to keep her little family together...

Motherhood is Murder. Berkley Prime Crime, 2010.

| setting: San Francisco, San Francisco Bay | series character: Kate Connolly (Maternal Instincts Mystery 2) | pbo | find it |

Summary: Nights out are hard to come by for new parents. So when Kate’s new-mommy club, Roo & You, holds a dinner cruise, she and her husband, Jim, leave baby Laurie with Kate’s mom and join the grown-ups for some fine dining on the San Francisco Bay. But when one of the co-founders of Roo & You takes a fatal spill down a staircase, the police department crashes the party. Suddenly every guest is a suspect, and it seems like every mom and her man has a motive. Kate’s on deck to solve the mystery—but a killer’s determined to make her rue the day she joined the first-time-mom’s club...

Formula for Murder. Berkley Prime Crime, 2011.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Kate Connolly (Maternal Instincts Mystery 3) | pbo | find it |

Summary: Sleuth and first-time mom Kate Connolly and her baby are the victims of a hit-and-run, but escape unharmed. A witness identifies the car’s French diplomatic license plates, yet when Kate and her hubby try to get some answers, they get le cold shoulder. But there’s something going on at the French consulate that’s dirtier—and far deadlier—than any diaper.

Nursing a Grudge. Self-published, 2013.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Kate Connolly (Maternal Instincts Mystery 4) | pbo |

Summary: Kate Connolly would like nothing more than to cuddle with her new baby, except to solve her next case and become a bonafide P.I. She gets her chance when San Francisco’s hottest critic writes a particularly scathing review about the trendy new restaurant, Philosophie. The critic’s boyfriend falls to his death under mysterious circumstances from Painted Rock Cliff, and Kate fears that the restaurant critic may be targeted next. Battling sleep deprivation, diaper blowouts and breastfeeding mishaps Kate muddles through her own investigation, Mommy style. To Do: 1. Buy Diapers! 2. Order dust kit & Lock pick set (need real P.I. tools!) 3. Figure out what happened to Perry—was it accidental death? 4. Find skull cap man and figure out why he’s following me. 5. Get back in shape!

A First Date with Death. Berkley Prime Crime, 2015.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Georgia Thornton (A Love or Money Mystery 1) | pbo | find it |

 

Orpet, Fred.

Murder's No Accident. Arcadia House, 1954.

 

Orton, Thomas.

The Lost Glass Plates of Wilfred Eng. Counterpoint, 1999.

 

Osborn, David.

Murder in the Napa Valley. Simon & Schuster, 1993.

 

Osborne, Richard.

Basic Instinct. Signet, 1992.

| setting: San Francisco, Stinson Beach | Movie novel (based on the screenplay by Joe Eszterhas) | pbo | Hubin | find it |

Summary: Novelization of the movie written by Joe Eszterhas and filmed by Paul Verhoeven, starring Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas. SFPD Homicide Detective Nick Curran investigates a brutal sex crime—the ice pick murder of Johnny Boz, a former rock star and San Francisco nightclub owner. The prime suspect is the victim’s girlfriend, a novelist named Catherine Trammell who had included a murder scene in her latest book that is eerily similar to the crime at hand. As Nick gets deeper into the case, he becomes involved in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with the manipulative and seductive Catherine. Since this book is based on the film, it follows the cinematic version very closely. Osborne does a very good job, however, describing various Bay Area locales, from Pacific Heights to Stinson Beach to Berkeley. Editor’s note: If you are actually going to read this book, I can recommend, from experience, doing so on the beach at Stinson.…

 

Ostow, Micol.

Changeling Places. Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2005. [based on the television series Charmed, created by Constance M. Burge]

House of Shards. Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2007. [based on the television series Charmed, created by Constance M. Burge]

 

Ostrowski, Michael.

Lost in the Fog. Quill, 2021.

| setting: San Francisco | tpo | find it |

Summary: San Francisco. Disgraced investigative journalist Camden Swanson spends his nights guzzling beer and penning nonsensical poetry. Forced into working as a museum guard after writing a drug-addled story that lost him his job, his life takes a wild twist when he's offered a huge sum to help steal his employer's prized Matisse statues. But when someone else mysteriously snatches the sculptures first, Camden's beautiful benefactor accuses him of the crime and demands he return them... or die. Unable to persuade the vengeful femme fatale that he didn't double-cross her, Camden engages the help of Veronica Zarcarsky, a recent journalism school grad. When they discover a shocking secret and everything they've learned turns out to be a lie, Swanson suffers a brutal attack and his partner is nearly murdered. Can the ragtag duo crack the case before they end up in the obituaries?

 

Outland, Orland.

Death Wore a Smart Little Outfit. Berkley Prime Crime, 1997.

| setting: San Francisco | series characters: Doan McCandler, Binky van de Kamp | pbo | Hubin | find it |

Summary: San Francisco drag queen/amateur sleuth Doan McCandler and his lovely sidekick, Binky van de Kamp, journey into the glamorous world of the San Francisco art scene to investigate the murders of several artists.

Death Wore a Fabulous New Fragrance. Berkley Prime Crime, 1998.

| setting: San Francisco | series characters: Doan McCandler, Binky van de Kamp | pbo | Hubin | find it |

 

 

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