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Miranda Corbie Mystery #3
City of Ghosts: A Miranda Corbie Mystery
June, 1940.
For the United States, war is on the horizon.
For Miranda Corbie, private investigator and erstwhile escort, there are debts to be paid and memories—long-suppressed and willfully forgotten—to be resurrected. Enter the U.S. State Department and the man who helped Miranda get her PI license. A man she owes. A man who asks her to track a chemistry professor here in San Francisco whom he suspects is a spy for the Nazis. Playing along may get Miranda a ticket to Blitz-bombed England and answers about her past…if she survives.
Through sordid back alleys and art gallery halls, from drag dress nightclubs to a Nazi costume ball, Miranda's journey into fear takes her on the famed City of San Francisco streamliner and to Reno, Nevada, the Biggest Little City in the World…where she finds herself framed for a murder she never anticipated. Forced to go underground, Miranda soldiers on alone, determined to find the truth about a murder, a Nazi spy, and her own troubling past.
But Miranda will have to learn the difference between reality and illusion, from despair to deceit and factual to fake, as she tries to get her life back…and navigates a City of Ghosts.
Miranda Corbie's back. Noir will never be the same.
And Kelli Stanley will once again mesmerize readers with the most thrilling novel yet in her award-winning series.
For the United States, war is on the horizon.
For Miranda Corbie, private investigator and erstwhile escort, there are debts to be paid and memories—long-suppressed and willfully forgotten—to be resurrected. Enter the U.S. State Department and the man who helped Miranda get her PI license. A man she owes. A man who asks her to track a chemistry professor here in San Francisco whom he suspects is a spy for the Nazis. Playing along may get Miranda a ticket to Blitz-bombed England and answers about her past…if she survives.
Through sordid back alleys and art gallery halls, from drag dress nightclubs to a Nazi costume ball, Miranda's journey into fear takes her on the famed City of San Francisco streamliner and to Reno, Nevada, the Biggest Little City in the World…where she finds herself framed for a murder she never anticipated. Forced to go underground, Miranda soldiers on alone, determined to find the truth about a murder, a Nazi spy, and her own troubling past.
But Miranda will have to learn the difference between reality and illusion, from despair to deceit and factual to fake, as she tries to get her life back…and navigates a City of Ghosts.
Miranda Corbie's back. Noir will never be the same.
And Kelli Stanley will once again mesmerize readers with the most thrilling novel yet in her award-winning series.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published February 5, 2013
10 people are currently reading
193 people want to read
About the author
Kelli Stanley
20 books111 followersKelli 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
April 20, 2018
And the 2018 Award for the "Author Who Most Needs a Thesaurus" goes to Kelli Stanley! Here is a paragraph: "She breathed out a long stream of smoke, willing herself to calm down. Jasper was queer. Edmund was queer. They were both at the exhibit. But there were a lot of queers in San Francisco. She'd need proof." (Proof of what? That there are a lot of gay -see how easy it is to use other words, Ms. Stanley- men in SF who go to art exhibits?). Yes, today, many gay/queer folks use the word "queer" proudly. That's fine. My problem is this: bad, repetitive writing and over-complicated plots. (Perhaps Stanley was under some kind of deadline with this one, as the first two in this series were so good and so well-written.) The author piles villains on top of villains, then adds some Nazis cause she needs more villains. I lost count of the number of people murdered by page 300 and even on page 317 the author writes, "Too many disappearances, for one thing..." Well, yes, way too many. This plot is a train wreck, imo. Then again, I like very much the detective in this series, Miranda Corbie (ex-prostitute turned P.I., and a P.I. with a very dirty mouth no less) and I do want to find out what happened to her mother, who has skipped off to Ireland because she killed someone. Besides, Stanley is a master with atmosphere, and for that I'm giving this book a second star. And I do want to find out if it's true there are a lot of queers in San Francisco so I'll read the fourth in the series I'm sure. (I'm currently doing my own "Mid-20th Century American Crime Readathon" and I'm reminded so much of why mystery/crime is my favorite fiction genre and always has been.)
January 16, 2017
“City of Ghosts”, the third of Kelli Stanley’s Miranda Corbie detective mysteries, might be the best of the lot. It retains the excellent feel for time (late 1930s, early 1940s) and place (San Francisco) found in “City of Secrets” and “City of Dragons” but also is more densely plotted and ventures further afield (including a trip aboard the “City of San Francisco” streamliner and a brief layover in a very seedy Reno). I found this an enjoyable read; and am hoping additional volumes find their way into print.
December 7, 2014
not my favorite from this writer but ok. felt the outcome was out of nowhere
April 27, 2014
Miranda Corbie is back.
After the love of her life, reporter Johnny Hayes, is killed in the Spanish Civil War, former Red Cross nurse Miranda Corbie returns to San Francisco, the city of her birth, to reinvent herself: first as a paid "escort" (read, prostitute), then as a private investigator—an unusual, if not unsuitable, job for a woman. When the Golden Gate International Exposition comes to Treasure Island, she takes a job working security for Sally Rand's Nude Ranch. It is during the winter closure of the Fair, at the beginning of 1940, that the first novel in the series, City of Dragons (2010), is set. In that story, Miranda investigates the murder of Eddie Takahashi, a Japanese youth with ties to a local gangster, in Chinatown. The case, which the local cops want hushed up, illuminates the growing political and racial tensions between the Japanese and Chinese communities in the wake of the recent Japanese invasion of China and the subsequent Nanking massacre. Her next case, documented in City of Secrets (2011), finds Miranda again at odds with the police as she investigates the murder of a young woman working in the Artists and Models exhibit at the Fair who is found stabbed to death with an anti-Semitic slur written on her body in her own blood.
Now, in City of Ghosts, it is June 1940 and the U.S. is starting to pay more attention to what Hitler is doing in Europe. Miranda gets drawn into the fray when James MacLeod, an agent from the State Department, asks her to investigate a University of California chemistry professor suspected of passing secrets to the Nazis. The government is clearly using Miranda to do a dirty job that they don't want to do themselves, and they are very clear that if anything goes wrong, she'll be on her own. But, she takes the job anyway, mostly because of the promise of a ticket to England, where Miranda believes she will find her mother. As she gets closer to the professor, Dr. Huntington Jasper, she uncovers his connections to a network of dealers and collectors trading in art treasures looted by the Germans, especially in entartete Kunst, paintings deemed "degenerate" by the Nazis. Then the bodies start to pile up and Miranda is the prime suspect. With her best friend, Rick Sanders, now enlisted in the navy and MacLeod refusing to take her calls, Miranda is on her own to find the killer and prove her innocence.
One of the hallmarks of the Corbie series is the near-poetic evocation of the city of San Francisco and the 1940s. Stanley clearly imparts her love for The City through Miranda:
After the love of her life, reporter Johnny Hayes, is killed in the Spanish Civil War, former Red Cross nurse Miranda Corbie returns to San Francisco, the city of her birth, to reinvent herself: first as a paid "escort" (read, prostitute), then as a private investigator—an unusual, if not unsuitable, job for a woman. When the Golden Gate International Exposition comes to Treasure Island, she takes a job working security for Sally Rand's Nude Ranch. It is during the winter closure of the Fair, at the beginning of 1940, that the first novel in the series, City of Dragons (2010), is set. In that story, Miranda investigates the murder of Eddie Takahashi, a Japanese youth with ties to a local gangster, in Chinatown. The case, which the local cops want hushed up, illuminates the growing political and racial tensions between the Japanese and Chinese communities in the wake of the recent Japanese invasion of China and the subsequent Nanking massacre. Her next case, documented in City of Secrets (2011), finds Miranda again at odds with the police as she investigates the murder of a young woman working in the Artists and Models exhibit at the Fair who is found stabbed to death with an anti-Semitic slur written on her body in her own blood.
Now, in City of Ghosts, it is June 1940 and the U.S. is starting to pay more attention to what Hitler is doing in Europe. Miranda gets drawn into the fray when James MacLeod, an agent from the State Department, asks her to investigate a University of California chemistry professor suspected of passing secrets to the Nazis. The government is clearly using Miranda to do a dirty job that they don't want to do themselves, and they are very clear that if anything goes wrong, she'll be on her own. But, she takes the job anyway, mostly because of the promise of a ticket to England, where Miranda believes she will find her mother. As she gets closer to the professor, Dr. Huntington Jasper, she uncovers his connections to a network of dealers and collectors trading in art treasures looted by the Germans, especially in entartete Kunst, paintings deemed "degenerate" by the Nazis. Then the bodies start to pile up and Miranda is the prime suspect. With her best friend, Rick Sanders, now enlisted in the navy and MacLeod refusing to take her calls, Miranda is on her own to find the killer and prove her innocence.
One of the hallmarks of the Corbie series is the near-poetic evocation of the city of San Francisco and the 1940s. Stanley clearly imparts her love for The City through Miranda:
She leaned out the window, looking down Market toward the Ferry Building, shining like Sodom, as holy as the Promised Land.
Still there. Her city.
Mother and father and lover, always changing, always constant.
Never untrue.
San Francisco, built and rebuilt, wicked and always willing, forever old, forever young, smelling of sex and sin and newly minted money, guardian, lover, mentor, the cobbled streets and dim lights and salt-stained tears and wave-lapped piers, the smell of fresh-baked sourdough and jook from Sam Wo's, grappa in front of the Italian saints, quiet Victorians nodding on quiet streets, ice shaking in cocktails at the Top of the Mark.
Lying city, dying city, Lazarus and the phoenix. Wide open and proud of it, a city built on stolen sand and abandoned ships, reclaimed by the ones that stayed and built for the ones that left. A city made by dreamers who died paupers and paupers who lived like kings, dream keeping them alive in the only way that mattered.
City of Dreams, broken or not, it didn't matter.
No need for a City of Angels when there's gold in the mountains and cars that climb hills and bridges that span seas.
Miranda watched the smoke from her Chesterfield float across the Do Not Walk sign and curl around a lamppost, caressing the dark metal before gently falling apart, falling to earth.
She closed her eyes and said a prayer to San Francisco.
Miranda Corbie is one of the most interesting and provocative characters in contemporary detective fiction. The series started out with a bang and has gotten better with each entry. I can't wait to find out what happens next.
April 5, 2018
Mystery noir - very well written.
November 22, 2014
Miranda Corbie risks her life and her career for her country in her latest investigation. Yet nothing is what it seems when you enter the world of espionage--particularly who should be considered heroes and villains. I admire Miranda's intelligence, resourcefulness and sense of ethics.
This book deals with an issue that makes me queasy, and I have to put my discussion of it behind spoiler tags.
I am very much looking forward to reading Miranda's next adventure. I hope she gets to unlock the mysteries involving her past that have been preoccupying her so long.
This book deals with an issue that makes me queasy, and I have to put my discussion of it behind spoiler tags.
I am very much looking forward to reading Miranda's next adventure. I hope she gets to unlock the mysteries involving her past that have been preoccupying her so long.
March 12, 2018
This was my least favorite of the three books. What's with Miranda legs trembling and hands shaking even when she isn't in a hard spot. Lots of repetition. I rounded up to give it a 3.
May 29, 2016
This is the third of a series starring a female detective in San Francisco in the immediate period before the U.S. entered World War II.
Miranda Corbie's been through a lot -- a troubled family life growing up, tragedy and loss as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War.
It's a tremendously interesting setting, and it's obvious that Kelli Stanley has researched it meticulously. And the plot line itself is well done. But now that we've reached book #3 in the series, I'm having a bit of trouble suspending some disbelief about Miranda's continued ability to function. As I said, she's been through a lot, developing what we'd now recognize as very serious PTSD. Yet she continues to plow forward, drinking heavily, getting regular blows on the head, and it's harder to believe the metaphorical wheels haven't completely fallen off. I think her character arc needs a little more bend, in one direction or the other.
Miranda Corbie's been through a lot -- a troubled family life growing up, tragedy and loss as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War.
It's a tremendously interesting setting, and it's obvious that Kelli Stanley has researched it meticulously. And the plot line itself is well done. But now that we've reached book #3 in the series, I'm having a bit of trouble suspending some disbelief about Miranda's continued ability to function. As I said, she's been through a lot, developing what we'd now recognize as very serious PTSD. Yet she continues to plow forward, drinking heavily, getting regular blows on the head, and it's harder to believe the metaphorical wheels haven't completely fallen off. I think her character arc needs a little more bend, in one direction or the other.
February 28, 2015
The third book in the Miranda Corbie loses a little of the glamour and excitement of the prior two novels. The United States government enlists Miranda in the growing concern over the war in Europe. This story displays many disappointments such as Rick Sanders, Mark Gonzalez, James MacLeod, and Dianne, and this reader will not spoil the story of why so many disappointments. The story begins with Miranda focused on locating her mother in England, but the trip to England does not take place, but the reader receives snippets of information about those early days of Catherine Corbie. Miranda blindly rushes to save the world, and pays dearly for her courage and stubbornness. The language and setting are not as descriptive as in prior novels, and I miss that element. I enjoy the way that Stanley incorporates period music into the story, as well as the words of Shakespeare to introduce a new section.
July 15, 2015
I have enjoyed reading this book and its follow-on, and I am in the middle of reading the first book in the series. Part of the fun is looking for--what are they called?--references to things that don't fit the time period. In this one, there was a mention of container ships—which didn't happen until the early '50s, and I am not sure that electric walk/don't walk signs were used in San Francisco in the early '40s, but they might have been. Cherry cokes, yes. Not manufactured by Coca Cola but by individual soda fountains.
Miranda Corbie is a little more foul mouthed than I suspect would fit the period. Yes, I know, she is a tough street-wise dectective, but Sam Spade did not use the f-word, and I think maybe a wise female detective would use the term a little less frequently than Miranda.
The period is swell, and I like the books. I sure hope Miranda slowly gets over the pain she feels deep in her soul about Johnny.
Miranda Corbie is a little more foul mouthed than I suspect would fit the period. Yes, I know, she is a tough street-wise dectective, but Sam Spade did not use the f-word, and I think maybe a wise female detective would use the term a little less frequently than Miranda.
The period is swell, and I like the books. I sure hope Miranda slowly gets over the pain she feels deep in her soul about Johnny.
July 9, 2015
Written in an almost stream-of-consciousness style, P.I. Miranda Corbie is hired by the U.S. State Department in the form of a friend, James MacLeod, to whom she owes a few favors. Plus the money is very good. He wants her to find out about the true allegiance of a chemistry professor at Berkley. Seems easy enough.
It’s 1940 in San Francisco and the threat of spies is real. Miranda, a cigarette-smoking gal, knows San Fran. well. What she doesn’t anticipate is the murder of two of her clients. Of course she’s under suspicion, but that’s not her immediate worry. She wants to earn the money, but learns quickly that her employer didn’t tell her everything. Which puts her in danger. The first section of the book is named “Bait” and rightly so. Beautifully written, the third in the series. Minotaur 2014
It’s 1940 in San Francisco and the threat of spies is real. Miranda, a cigarette-smoking gal, knows San Fran. well. What she doesn’t anticipate is the murder of two of her clients. Of course she’s under suspicion, but that’s not her immediate worry. She wants to earn the money, but learns quickly that her employer didn’t tell her everything. Which puts her in danger. The first section of the book is named “Bait” and rightly so. Beautifully written, the third in the series. Minotaur 2014
July 23, 2017
This was a strange read for me. Miranda Corbie is a private investigator whose life has taken many turns. In some ways she is sensitive yet she exhibits a tough approach to life. When she loses friends she realizes that she is very lonely and misses them intensely. I found it hard to understand her, where she was coming from, and the probelms she encounters. From her life experiences, it seemed to me that she should be better able to cope with her life as an investigator, thus avoiding some of the conflict she encounters. I'm trying to decide if I should read more by this author. No doubt others will have different reactions than I.
August 28, 2014
I have been a Miranda Corbie fan since the first mystery and this new book confirms how terrific this series is. This time Miranda is involved in murders of her friends,working secretly for the shadowy U.S. Government mission with Nazi's and art dealers which seems to related with the murders inn her own case.
The best thing about this series is the attention to historical detail that Kelli Stanley gives to Miranda's world. Ms. Stanley is at the top of her game always.
One of those series I'll keep reading.
The best thing about this series is the attention to historical detail that Kelli Stanley gives to Miranda's world. Ms. Stanley is at the top of her game always.
One of those series I'll keep reading.
December 22, 2015
It was quite brilliant. Her writing is sophisticated, detail is amazing. I can hardly wait for the next one.
I hope she is off on an adventure. I do not want to reveal the plot.
I hope she is off on an adventure. I do not want to reveal the plot.
April 6, 2015
I had a hard time getting engaged with this book. I suspect that reading the previous installments in the series would have greatly enhanced my involvement with the characters.
January 25, 2017
Enjoyed this female detective in 1940s San Francisco fearlessly solving murder and art theft.
July 8, 2017
More twists and turns for Miranda Corbie! Book #4 due March 2018 - Can hardly wait!
December 29, 2018
I think that I would’ve like this book better if I had read the books the author had written with the same characters before I read this one. Definitely has some nice twists. Written as a noir type book. Even though I gave this one three stars I will go ahead and read the first one she wrote. This was a book I enjoyed reading it while I was reading it. But it didn’t bother me to set it aside for a while.
June 12, 2018
My favorite thing about this book was the noir feel of the entire novel. A fascinating female lead, mystery and a time period that I absolutely love. It was also written in a grittier, more unique style than I had anticipated it would be. Overall, I would definitely seek out another book by the author, especially with the same character!
November 26, 2018
I want more of Miranda Corbie ... hopefully soon!
February 9, 2019
The story was good, but I got tired of every cigarette, lighter, ashtray, and I forget what else, named by brand throughout the book.
April 21, 2021
Lacked something the first two books in the series had.
September 4, 2014
A female detective in 1940 San Francisco! Right up my alley, I thought. But the writing was to choppy and disjointed for me. Especially annoying were the cryptic allusions to things that happened in the previous books in series. I read the first 50 pages and then gave in to frustration and picked up the latest Patricia Cornwell for sure-fire reading satisfaction.
wish-list-possibles
August 3, 2014Book 3 in series
Big article by Tom Nolan in Aug 3 WSJ on this
Big article by Tom Nolan in Aug 3 WSJ on this
June 16, 2019
Detailed.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews