Miranda Corbin memory book

Miranda Corbie Mystery #short story prequel 2

by Kelli Stanley

Miranda Corbie returns in this stunning prequel story to Kelli Stanley's acclaimed historical series.San Francisco, 1939.The Golden Gate International Exposition has captured the imagination of the country. The fair is a spectacular blend of mankind's newest innovations and basest urges, and Miranda Corbie is smack in the middle of it, working security at Sally Rand's. A former Spanish Civil War nurse and escort and now a private investigator, she has seen more than her share of the glitter and the grit, not to mention the people looking to make a quick buck off of them.Virginia MacAvoy's grandmother seems to be one of the unfortunate innocents. Mrs. MacAvoy came to the fair to give her granddaughters the inheritance that she had been saving for them, but it was stolen. It consisted of $500, four gold coins, and a memory book—a scrapbook where she has been saving family memories. While Virginia is convinced that Miranda will be able to track them down, her grandmother isn't and only hires Miranda to convince her granddaughters of how there is nothing to be done. Mrs. MacAvoy makes a good point, but Miranda can't understand why she's so quick to give up, and it isn't long before she's looking for more than a stolen bag but for answers as well. With Memory Book, Kelli Stanley takes readers to a time and place where the sordid and the sublime come together, making for a stunning prequel story to her to acclaimed historical series.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Historical

66 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 6, 2011

About the author

Kelli Stanley is the multiple award-winning, critically acclaimed and bestselling creator of the Miranda Corbie series (CITY OF DRAGONS, CITY OF SECRETS, CITY OF GHOSTS, CITY OF SHARKS), noir novels set in 1940 San Francisco and featuring "one of crime's most arresting heroines" (Library Journal).

Kelli has also written an award-winning "Roman Noir" series set in Roman Britain (NOX DORMIENDA, THE CURSE-MAKER), and has published numerous short stories and essays.

Kelli also founded and was president of the non-profit publisher Nasty Woman Press, which published the award-winning anthology SHATTERING GLASS.

A winner of the Macavity, Bruce Alexander, Golden Nugget and Anthony awards (the latter as a publisher of SHATTERING GLASS), she was also a Shamus and Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, while the City and County of San Francisco awarded her a Certificate of Merit for her contributions to literature. She was named a literary heir of Dashiell Hammett by his granddaughter in a Publisher's Weekly article, and critics have compared her work to her icons Raymond Chandler and Norman Corwin. She was by the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention as its Historical Mystery Guest of Honor in 2024.

Her eagerly-anticipated next novel, THE RECKONING, is a thriller set in California's "Emerald Triangle" in 1985, and features the debut of new series character Renata Drake. THE RECKONING will publish in the US and UK on January 6, 2026, from Severn House.

Kelli holds a Master's Degree in Classics, and when she's not reading or writing, loves nature walks, jazz, classic film, travel, and, with her spouse, taking care of their two rescue cats. She's also honored to have served as faculty for the famed Book Passage Mystery Writers Conference for many years.

For more more information about Kelli and her work—including interactive, multimedia maps, videos, photos and ephemera—please visit her website at www.kellistanley.com.

Reviews

[Avid Series Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

Memory Book by Kelli Stanley, set in September 1939 at the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco, is a prequel to the Miranda Corbie mystery series. Miranda Corbie is working security for Sally Rand Nude Ranch. She is a former escort turned private eye. Miranda is more hard-boiled than any of the famous hard-boiled detectives of the genre. She smokes Chesterfields incessantly.She has an enormous chip on her shoulder. Miranda views the people around her as mindless idiots without purpose in their lives. Whereas she has had a significant and tragic past, losing her lover in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.
A young tourist comes to Miranda for help. Her grandmother has lost her precious Memory Book sometime during the day at the Fair. Her grandmother doesn't want to report the loss to the police. The Memory Book contained valuable gold coins for the granddaughters, as well as photographs of their family. Miranda arranges with the grandmother to look for a day only. She finds the Memory Book at a Lost and Found counter. However Miranda instantly knows from casual conversation going on around her that the grandmother has been blackmailed.
The story provides a fascinating glimpse of past historic events in San Francisco. Although it is only a glimpse at the sleazy underbelly of the Fair that Miranda sees.
So far I've read the first novel of the series, City of Dragons, and this prequel. City of Dragons was packed full of period details that made me feel like learning more of San Francisco's colorful history. I did not care for Miranda in the first book, and I think she's even more obnoxious in this prequel.

[Tania · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting prequel, given that I haven't read any of the books from the series yet. There wasn't very much to the mystery, even for a short story; but it was a good showcase for how the heroine thinks, so I wasn't really bothered by that. I was a little bothered by the heavy dosage of back story shoehorned into a small space. Reference to that much history in a prequel is almost a little meta. Given my lack of familiarity with the character, though, it may have been better with than without. It just interrupted though flow of the story a bit. This is not to say I disliked the story or the character. In fact, all that back story did convince me that this is complex and fully imagined character that I look forward to getting to know in the main series.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I haven't read any of this series, but I thought I'd be okay starting off with a short story marketed as a prequel. With too much mixing of past, present, and future, however, the reading ends up a bit confusing without being effective, especially for someone not familiar with the story. This did introduce me to an intriguing character, however, Miranda Corbie, once an escort now turned spunky PI in period San Francisco, so perhaps I'll have to read the first book at some point.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Best read after reading City of Dragons, the first book in the series. Lots of references to situations/events in that book, which otherwise are annoying or confusing.