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Aaron, Chester

Whispers. Zumaya Publications, 2004; Zumaya Enigma, 2009.

| setting: East Bay | tpo |

Summary: A series of brutal rapes strikes a tiny Jesuit-run college, and award-winning college journalist Eve Gallagher is shocked to discover the administration is determined to keep the matter buried in silence. As she fights to bring the crimes into the open and the perpetrator to justice, Eve is driven to solve another riddle that was buried in silence years before: the truth about what happened to her sweet, disabled sister Tessa, a secret that has haunted her for most of her life. Set on the campus of the fictional Saint Catherine’s College in an unnamed East Bay city. Rape victims are treated at Highland Hospital in Oakland.

Murder by metaphor. Zumaya Enigma, 2009.

| setting: San Francisco | tpo |

Abbott, Jeff.

Downfall. Grand Central Publishing, 2013.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Sam Capra | find it |

Abbott, Keith.

Rhino Ritz: an American mystery. Blue Wind Press, 1979.

| setting: San Francisco; Paris | find it |

Abramo, J.L.

Catching Water in a Net. Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2001.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Jake Diamond | find it |

Summary: Los Angeles private eye Jimmy Pigeon is murdered, and his former protégée in the shamus business, Jake Diamond, is determined to find out why. Diamond—now operating in San Francisco—soon discovers that Pigeon was in a business dispute with his partner, Harry Harding, about whether to sell their Internet bounty-hunting business, Ex-Con.com. When Harding is also murdered, Diamond becomes a suspect. Forced to solicit help from two mob bosses and his ex-wife’s family, dodge the thugs of another gangster, and keep the police at bay, Diamond goes on the lam, running between San Francisco and Los Angeles as he searches for the real murderer. This novel was the winner of the 2000 Private Eye Writers of America/St. Martin’s Press Award for Best First Private Eye Novel.

Clutching at Straws. Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2003.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Jake Diamond | find it |

Summary: Lefty Wright breaks into Judge Chancellor’s empty house easy as pie. He has no clue about why he is being paid such a handsome sum for doing it, but the job description didn’t mention the corpse of a prominent criminal court judge lying halfway under the bed. Charged with murder, Lefty contacts San Francisco private investigator Jake Diamond. Jake takes the case, but it soon leads down a series of side paths that sprawl out from Lefty’s prison cell like the tentacles of an octopus.

Counting to Infinity. Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2004.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Jake Diamond | find it |

Summary: San Francisco private investigator Jake Diamond is forcibly persuaded to meet Max Lansdale for a job he can’t refuse. Max wants Jake to find Harry Chandler who was reported dead in a shoot-out. Max says that a private investigator reported to him that he ran into Harry. The reason Jake is chosen for the job is that his mentor and associate Jimmy Pigeon reported that Harrison died. Max believes that the mantle has passed to Jake. Max wants to find Chandler because he killed Max’s brother Randolph. When Jake returns to San Francisco his trusty associate Darlene tells him that Max is connected to the mob. Jake buys time to figure out how to handle the situation because Max has threatened Darlene and his ex-wife and lover if he doesn’t get results. When he finally meets with Chandler, an unknown person kills Harry. Soon after a bomb goes off in Jake’s apartment, killing Sally and injuring Jake. When he recovers, Jake and his friends put into motion a plan to bring Max down.

Circling the Runway. Down & Out Books, 2015.

Summary: Private Investigator Jacob Diamond and San Francisco Detective Sergeant Roxton Johnson are famous for not getting along. Cats and dogs. Oil and water. Liston and Ali. Jake and Rocky. When an assistant district attorney is murdered in his high-rise apartment building, and Johnson suspects his lieutenant may have something to do with it, he can think of no one else to turn to for help-no one he can trust-except Jake Diamond. If the mismatched duo can avoid stepping on each other's toes long enough-they may be able to stop circling the runway and land on the villain's doorstep. Lieutenant Laura Lopez, Detective Ray Boyle, Joey Clams, Vinnie Strings and Darlene Roman are all back in the first new Jake Diamond escapade since Counting to Infinity.

Abramson, Mark

Beach Reading. Lethe Press, 2008.

Cold Serial Murder. Lethe Press, 2009.

Russian River Rat. Lethe Press, 2009.

Snowman. Lethe Press, 2010.

Wedding Season. Lethe Press, 2011.

Summary: When San Francisco’s cattiest television personality Rosa Rivera sponsors a gay wedding contest, Tim Snow’s boyfriend begins pressuring him to get hitched. Life for his friends in the Castro becomes comic and chaotic as the lavish ceremony is promised to be held at the restaurant where Tim works. Meanwhile, his beloved Aunt Ruth has been harboring a homeless woman. Is she protecting her nephew from some family secret? As the city’s golden boys walk about shirtless in dapper collar n’ cuffs with the annual Gay Pride Parade, the drama and the laughs intensify. Will Rosa’s meltdown bring the parade to a standstill? Who is being sent to a ritzy detox center?

California Dreamers. Lethe Press, 2012.

Summary: Tim Snow is recruited along with other HIV patients for an experiment with Neutriva, an AIDS drug with the peculiar side effects of enhancing dreams and expanding latent psychic abilities. The team enters a trance-like state ostensibly in order to predict and prevent suicides from the Golden Gate Bridge. But is something sinister going on with these trials? Warnings come from all directions, including from an elderly fortune teller named Malvina who has been plying her trade from a storefront in the Mission District for decades. And who is the mysterious young man who saves the life of Tim’s employer?

Love Rules. Lethe Press, 2013.

Acker, Rick

The Lost Treasure of Fernando Montoya. Kregel Publications, 2003.

Summary: While on vacation in San Francisco, sibling sleuths Arthur and Kirstin Davis are hired by Michael Franklin, a friend of their Uncle Connie, to investigate a lost treasure, putting at risk Franklin’s family business and, perhaps, Kirstin’s life.

Adams, Alina.

Murder on Ice. Berkley Prime Crime, 2002.

Summary: Since starting her research job at Network 24/7, Bex Levy has had to learn everything there was to know about figure skating. That way when TV commentators Francis and Diana Howarth are commenting on a live show they have all the needed material at their fingertips. At the World Figure Skating Championship in San Francisco, everyone expects cute Erin Simpson to take the gold. When the final results are tabulated, the Russian girl Xenia Trubin wins the top prize. The fans, the TV commentators and Erin’s mother all say that Erin was cheated out of the gold. The four Russian judges voted for Xenia and the four western judges voted for Erin. The tie-breaker vote was cast by Italian Judge Silvana Potenza who later was found murdered in the refrigerator room of the ice skating rink. The director of 24/7 tells Bex that if she wants a job next year she has to figure out who the killer is, which leaves her skating on thin ice.

Adams, Chandra.

Shades of Retribution. Adrolite Press, 2004.

| setting: Oakland | tpo | find it |

Adams, Cleve F.

Up Jumped the Devil. Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943.

Los Angeles private eye Rex McBride is in San Francisco on the trail of a stolen diamond necklace. Shortly after checking in to his Market Street hotel, McBride returns to his room to find a dead man in residence. The cops think he knows more about the killing than he is letting on and McBride tangles with ex-cons, mob thugs, gamblers, high society dames, government agents, and Nazi spies before uncovering the killer (and recovering the necklace). Along the way, he reveals a distinct love-hate relationship with the city of San Francisco: “McBride got to his feet … ‘Listen, you bastard! I had the misfortune to be born in Los Angeles, but I’m getting tired of paying for it every time I land in this lousy town of yours. Even your cab drivers take it as a personal affront if I inadvertently say Frisco instead of San Francisco. You are so smug you still think this is the only city on the Pacific Coast, and you’re too dumb to look in the census books and find out different … And, since you ask me, I will tell you the God’s truth about your conventions, your bridges and your town. I don’t like them.’ (p. 17)”; “McBride looked out at the slowly darkening sky. Lights were beginning to come on all around the bay; over in Oakland and Alameda across the Bay Bridge; over in Sausalito across the Golden Gate. Out in the middle, Alcatraz Island was a sour note, as gloomy and forbidding as ever. The rest of it was pretty beautiful, and McBride was a little regretful of some of the unpleasant things he had said about San Francisco. (p. 93)”

Addonizio, Kim.

My Dreams Out in the Street. Simon & Schuster, 2007.

| setting: San Francisco | find it |

Summary: Rita Jackson is a young woman on the skids, spending her time in shelters and on the dot-com-drunk streets of late 1990s San Francisco. She’s a young woman haunted by the murder of her mother when she was thirteen, and a young bride haunted by the disappearance of her husband, Jimmy, who split after a nasty argument more than a year earlier. Together Jimmy and Rita were slipping into drugs and hard times. Rita is filled with feelings of guilt and failure, and the hope that she will one day find Jimmy. She doesn’t know that he is still in the city, still in love with her, waiting tables in an expensive restaurant while trying to get a foothold in the straight life. When Rita witnesses the aftermath of a murder, her own life is endangered. She becomes involved with Gary Shepard, a married criminal investigator drawn to the dark side of this young woman. What unfolds is a story of three flawed people struggling with themselves as much as with their circumstances, as each of them is pulled more deeply and dangerously into the consequences of their decisions. When a drunken night leads Jimmy to jeopardize his second and last chance, it seems unlikely that these sweet, damaged people will ever come to anything, let alone find and—miracle of miracles—save one another.

Adler, Elizabeth.

The Secret of the Villa Mimosa. Delacorte Press, 1995.

Adler, M. A.

In the Shadow of Lies. She Writes Press, 2014.

Aiken, Albert W.

The Frisco Detective, or, The Golden Gate Find: A Story of Five Millions of Dollars. Banner Weekly, nos. 163-175, 1885-1886.

| setting: San Francisco | Johannsen BW163; Baird & Greenwood 25; Herron | dime novel |

Summary: Published serially in thirteen consecutive issues of The Banner Weekly (formerly Beadle’s Weekly) published between December 26, 1885 and March 20, 1886, this yarn takes place in San Francisco in the late 1870s and concerns a missing heir to $5,000,000.

Aiken, Ednah.

If Today Be Sweet. Dodd, Mead and Company, 1923.

Love and I. Dodd, Mead and Company, 1928.

| setting: San Francisco | Baird & Greenwood 35; Hubin | find it |

Summary: Marcia Robbins receives a message that her husband Howard is setting up an apartment in San Francisco. His business frequently keeps him overnight in the city, away from their Woodside home. When Warren Gaunt, a “bachelor lawyer” who represents the family, learns that Marcia has gone to surprise her husband at the new apartment, he knows immediately what Marcia does not—the apartment is not for her; it is a love-nest for Robbins (the “love-pirate”) and his latest mistress. Shortly after she enters the apartment, shots are fired. When Gaunt reaches the bedroom he finds Robbins dead, a girl on the bed, Marcia in shock, and an automatic on the floor. Not knowing who pulled the trigger, but seeking to protect Marcia at all costs, Gaunt quickly positions the gun to suggest suicide and convinces the women to concoct a story that the girl is the new governess. After installing everyone—the girl included—back at the Woodside home, Gaunt launches an investigation into the girl’s background that takes him to San Diego, Pasadena, and Santa Barbara, and uncovers some unsavory family secrets along the way.

Alexander, Brandon.

Kiss of Darkness. Pocket Pulse, 2000.

| setting: San Francisco | based on the television series Charmed, created by Constance M. Burge | pbo |

Alexander, Jan.

The Jade Figurines. Curtis Books, 1973. [pbo]

Alexander, Karl.

Time After Time. Delacorte Press, 1979.

Allan, Joan.

Who’s on First? Kensington Publishing Corp., 1979. [pbo]

Allende, Isabel.

Ripper. Harper, 2014.

| setting: San Francisco | find it |

Allison, Jennifer.

Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator. Sleuth/Dutton, 2005.

| setting: San Francisco | juvenile |

Summary: During the summer before ninth grade, intrepid Gilda Joyce invites herself to the San Francisco mansion of distant cousin Lester Splinter and his thirteen-year-old daughter, where she uses her purported psychic abilities and detective skills to solve the mystery of the mansion’s boarded-up tower.

Alverson, Charles.

Goodey’s Last Stand. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1975.

Summary: After accidentally mistaking the mayor’s cousin for a gunman and shooting him, Joe Goodey’s career as a San Francisco police detective is over. But, his boss offers him a deal that he cannot refuse: resign from the force and get out of town, preferably go to Mexico for six months, then, after things cool down, return and start his second career as a private detective. But Goodey’s exile from San Francisco is short-lived. He is summoned back to the city to investigate the death of Tina D’Oro, San Francisco’s most popular topless dancer. Joe knew Tina slightly, but the mayor, Sanford F. Kolchick, was a much more intimate friend of the stripper. Kolchick wants the murder solved quickly and with his name left out of the investigation. As he uncovers Tina’s mysterious past, Goodey’s investigation takes him from the strip clubs of North Beach to the alleys of Chinatown; from a night in jail to a nursing home to interview an aging gangster; from the office of an unscrupulous plastic surgeon to the mayor’s luxurious home (inexplicably located in Tiburon in Marin County—doesn’t San Francisco have residency requirements for elected officials?). Along the way, Joe discovers that a girl like Tina can never truly escape her past … and that he’s a pretty good private eye.

Not Sleeping, Just Dead. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977.

Summary: San Francisco private eye Joe Goodey is hired to investigate the mysterious death of a young woman, Katie Pierce, at a commune, called The Institute, near Big Sur, in Monterey County. Katie’s grandfather, Frederick Melhuish Crenshaw, is not satisfied when his granddaughter’s death is ruled an accident—she fell from the roof of a building on The Institute’s property—and he asks Goodey to prove that someone gave her a push. The Institute is presided over by the charismatic Hugo Fischer, who has seemingly absolute power over The Institute’s residents. When J.B. Carter, the eccentric millionaire who owns the property, is found dead at the bottom of a cliff, Carter’s widow, Emma, hires Goodey to investigate her husband’s death. Are the two deaths connected? Are the residents of The Institute all nuts? Will Goodey allow himself to be seduced by a frustrated young bride? Will he even get out of The Institute alive?

Amo, Thomas.

An Apple for Zoë. Book I, The Forsaken. Gothic Twist Publishing, 2011.

Summary: The City of San Francisco is locked in a grip of fear. A series of occult murders has led, Inspector Thomas James, to a crime scene similar to a murder committed 90 years ago in the once grand Aleris Hotel. A place where power barons of the early 20th century engaged in witchcraft. And silent film stars indulged in the most wicked of sins. A place where no one questions the black smoke that rises from the hotel’s incinerators in the middle of the night.

Anderson, Clay.

The Black Rose Murder and Other Cases. Black Galaxy Publications, 2006.

| San Francisco | series character: Jason Justice | tpo |

Summary: Jason Justice, a sophisticated private investigator in San Francisco, is searching for the answers to several exciting mysteries. Will JJ catch the fat man who escaped after embezzling millions of dollars from a city construction project? Did the millionaire playboy rape the party girl or was she lying about the attack? Did the redheaded clown in a black tuxedo really deliver a bomb in a flower bouquet to a federal office? Did the high-powered politician that loves to dress in women’s clothes have his wife killed, so that he could be with his bisexual female lover? The Black Rose Murder has the answers to all these questions, plus violence, car chases, shoot-outs and of course, plenty of sex.

Anderson, Jack Albin.

The Society Ball Murders. Walker and Company, 1990.

| setting: San Francisco | Hubin |

Summary: San Francisco Journal society columnist Patty Nottingham investigates the murders of several scions of San Francisco’s social elite. Wealthy women—with names like Binky, Neenie, and Buffy—are dying under suspicious circumstances during benefit events. At first the deaths are attributed to botched cosmetic surgeries—all of the victims had been patients of the same pair of doctors, who have now vanished from the city. When Patty discovers a mysterious substance at the bottom of a champagne flute, she is able to prove that the women are being poisoned. With the help of her lover, piano player Rex Murphy, she uses her social connections to expose the killer. This comic novel features several thinly disguised San Francisco public personalities and institutions.

Anderson, Poul.

Perish by the Sword. Macmillan, 1959.

Murder in Black Letter. Macmillan, 1960.

Murder Bound. Macmillan, 1962.

Anderson-Minshall, Diane, and Jacob Anderson-Minshall.

Blind Curves. Bold Strokes Books, 2007.

| setting: Woodside (San Mateo County) | series character: Yoshi Yakamota | tpo |

Summary: The murdered body of lesbian publisher Rosemary Finney is found on a remote hiking path south of San Francisco. Local police of the wealthy Woodside enclave quickly focus on a prime suspect: Investigative Reporter Velvet Erickson. Velvet appeals to her friend and former lover—private eye Yoshi Yakamota, whose detective skills more than make up for her failing eyesight—for help. Yoshi dedicates the resources of her firm, Blind Eye Detective Agency, to proving her friend’s innocence. But every time the investigators rule out one suspect, another takes their place. What has Rosemary Finney done to make so many enemies? And which one did it?

Blind Leap. Bold Strokes Books, 2007.

| setting: San Francisco; Golden Gate Bridge | series character: Yoshi Yakamota | tpo |

Summary: The camera doesn’t lie, but sometimes it captures a story worth killing for. When Jeff Conant, the new executive director of San Francisco’s Frameline Film Festival, takes a header off the Golden Gate Bridge, he is considered just another statistic—one of the thousands who’ve leapt from the landmark to commit suicide—until an independent filmmaker’s camera on the bridge reveals that Jeff’s death was neither accident nor suicide. Yoshi Yakamota and the investigators at Blind Eye Detective Agency uncover evidence suggesting that Jeff was murdered because he’d viewed a film that someone didn’t want to see the light of day. But what was on the film? It’s missing from Jeff’s office, and the Blind Eye team soon discovers that the person that sent it has also turned up dead in suspicious circumstances. Clearly someone has a secret they’re willing to kill for, and a Blind Eye team member is getting dangerously close to exposing it.

Blind Faith. Bold Strokes Books, 2008. [tpo]

Andreopoulos, Spyros. (see Dong, Eugene)

Andrews, Brian T.

Knife Under Fire. Caduceus Press/Custom & Ltd. Editions, 1993.

Anonymous.

Belfry Murders of San Francisco, or, The Strangest Crime of a Century. Munro, July 20, 1895. (Old Cap Collier Dime Novel No. 606).

| setting: San Francisco | Baird & Greenwood 214; Herron | dime novel |
Summary: Old Cap Collier fails to solve the mystery surrounding the discovery of two bodies in a San Francisco church belfry. Based on the Theodore Durrant case. Another version of this crime was published in 1957 in a true-crime paperback edition entitled The Girl in the Belfry (Gold Medal Series of Classic Murder Trials), by Joseph Henry Jackson and Lenore Glen Offord.

Anonymous (“A Californian”).

The Mysteries and Miseries of San Francisco. Garrett & Co., Publishers, 1853.

Anonymous (Rev. P. Shelden Drury, editor).

The Startling and Thrilling Narrative of the Dark and Terrible Deeds of Henry Madison, and his Associate and Accomplice, Miss Ella Stevens, Who Was Executed by the Vigilance Committee of San Francisco, on the 20th September Last. Barclay & Co., 1857. [dime novel]

Anonymous.

3,000 Miles by Freight, or, The Mystery of a Piano Box. Street & Smith, [n.d.] [dime novel]

Antoncich, Betty.

The Mystery of the Chinatown Pearls. D. McKay, 1965.

Archer, Frank. (pseud. Richard O’Connor)

The Malabang Pearl. Published for the Crime Club by Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1964.

| setting: San Francisco | series character: Joe Delaney | Baird & Greenwood 1931; Hubin |

The Widow Watchers. Published for the Crime Club by Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1965.

The Turquoise Spike. New York: Fawcett Gold Medal, 1967. [pbo]

Archer, Miles. (pseud. Richard Posner)

Too Many Spies Spoil a Case. Clocktower Books, 2000.

| setting: San Francisco (1970s) | series character: Doug McCool | tpo |

The Emerald Triangle. NovelBooks, Inc., 2003.

| setting: San Francisco (1974) | series character: Doug McCool | tpo |

Aresbys, The. (joint pseud. Helen R. Bamberger and Raymond S. Bamberger)

Who Killed Coralie? Ives Washburn, 1927.

Armstrong, Campbell.

Concert of Ghosts. Hodder & Stoughton, 1992; HarperCollins, 1993.

| setting: San Francisco, upstate New York | find it |

Ashe, Gordon. (pseud. John Creasey)

A Rabble of Rebels. Popular Dogs Publishing Co., 1971; Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972.

| setting: San Francisco Bay Area (“Mid-Cal University”) | series character: Patrick Dawlish | find it |

Atherton, Gertrude.

The Avalanche: A Mystery Story. Frederick A. Stokes Company, Publishers, 1919.

| setting: San Francisco | Baird & Greenwood 99; Hubin; Herron | find it |

The Foghorn: Stories. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1934.

Atkins, Ace.

Devil’s Garden. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2009.

Atkins, Darrin.

The Money You Took From Me. Writers Club Press, 2002. [tpo]

Away from Lisa Larkin. Writers Club Press, 2002. [tpo]

The Bad Side of San Francisco. iUniverse.com, 2003. [tpo]

The Famous Liar. iUniverse, Inc., 2003. [tpo]

Atkins, Peter.

Morningstar. HarperPaperbacks, 1992.

Avallone, Michael.

Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen. Pinnacle Books, 1981.

Averbeck, Jim.

A Hitch at the Fairmont. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2014.

| setting: San Francisco (Fairmont Hotel; 1956) | juvenile | find it |

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