The Bughouse Affair

Carpenter and Quincannon #1

by Marcia Muller, Bill Pronzini

In The Bughouse Affair, the first of a new series of lighthearted historical mysteries set in 1890s San Francisco, former Pinkerton operative Sabina Carpenter and her detective partner, ex-Secret Service agent John Quincannon, undertake what initially appear to be two unrelated investigations. Sabina’s case involves the hunt for a ruthless lady “dip” who uses fiendish means to relieve her victims of their valuables at Chutes Amusement Park and other crowded places.

Quincannon, meanwhile, is after a slippery housebreaker who targets the homes of wealthy residents, following a trail that leads him from the infamous Barbary Coast to an oyster pirate’s lair to a Tenderloin parlor house known as the Fiddle Dee Dee. The two cases eventually connect in surprising fashion, but not before two murders and assorted other felonies complicate matters even further. And not before the two sleuths are hindered, assisted, and exasperated by the bughouse Sherlock Holmes.

Fans of Marcia’s Muller’s bestselling Sharon McCone novels and Bill Pronzini’s Nameless Detective series will applaud this and future exploits from the annals of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services.

Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Historical, Fiction, Audiobook, Mystery Thriller

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 8, 2013

About the author

Marcia Muller is an American author of mystery and thriller novels.
Muller has written many novels featuring her Sharon McCone female private detective character. Vanishing Point won the Shamus Award for Best P.I. Novel. Muller had been nominated for the Shamus Award four times previously.
In 2005, Muller was awarded the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master award.
She was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in Birmingham, Michigan, and graduated in English from the University of Michigan and worked as a journalist at Sunset magazine. She is married to detective fiction author Bill Pronzini with whom she has collaborated on several novels.

Reviews

[David Monroe · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are many things wrong and I could nit-pick. There are many things I enjoyed, too. The main problem for me, is that this is the fourth in Bill Pronzini's Quincannon series and first in the Carpenter and Quincannon Mystery, jointly written with his wife - noted mystery author, Marcia Muller. For me and I'm sure for many readers, it was our entree into these characters. So why add the extra distraction of including the most famous fictional Detective in modern history? In the Carpenter/Quincannon universe, Sherlock Holmes is a real person. He died a few years before. Now a "Bughouse" Londoner has shown up in San Francisco claiming to be Holmes. Except he's on the QT. Not even Watson knows he's still alive. So don't tell anyone. Except he does. All the time. He looks like Holmes. Dresses like Holmes. Plays the violin like Holmes and *calls* himself Holmes! This is set in 1894, a time when they have cameras, wax recording cylinders, telephones, telegraph and newspapers -- so why does one of the cleverest men in the world think no one would freak out because Sherlock Frickin Holmes is back from the dead? Well, they don't. No one believes him. I suppose because he seems very Holmes-lite. Think of the portrayal of Holmes in CBS' Elementary, which is more House and Monk (both, ironically Holmes knock-off) than BBC's Sherlock. So why would the authors throw in this really distracting -- is he or isn't he -- red herring into the first book of their new series? I wanted to get to know the characters but I was constantly Holmes-blocked. I've never read any of Mr. Pronzini's works, but I'm a fan of Ms. Muller's Sharon McCone series. Once she hit her stride, the characters in the McCone series became very fleshed out. We knew them. In later books, I think most fans read them not so much for the mystery but to catch-up on Sharon's life and the growing supporting cast. That's what surprised me so much about this book. The Bughouse Affair felt like the first few books in the McCone series. Tentative and clumsy but with promise. Except in those early McCone books, we were watching a good writer mature and grow into her craft. Now, this writing team has probably 50+ years and 100 books and dozens of awards between them - it's very surprising and ultimately, disappointing.

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really disappointed in this book. I love the Sharon McCone series, and I've read a couple of the Nameless Detective books by Pronzini and liked them as well, so I had high hopes for this one.

It seems that with the current vogue for "period mysteries," there seems to be a huge emphasis on the "period" and not so much on the "mystery." Fairly weak stories, characters who aren't particularly compelling, but loads of details to show how much the author has researched the period. For me, at least, if there's not a good story with an interesting mystery and interesting characters, I just don't care how many details the author(s) cram in.

The other thing that got tedious was that I sometimes felt that this was a street directory of San Francisco. Really? Do we need to know the name of every single street that is in any particular area, or that the characters ever walk on?

[Marcie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best thing about this book is the cover, seriously. There they stand, looking all turn-of-the-century steampunk with feisty, spunky expressions on their faces, this male/female team of private detectives working in 1890s San Francisco. I think there's actually enormous potential for these characters, and that is the obvious intention suggested by the promo on the cover identifying this as the FIRST in, I'm sure, a long series as a "Carpenter and Quincannon Mystery."

My main gripe is this: Use of colorful period jargon is fun and adds authenticity to the story, but too much confounds the reader who has NO idea what the characters are saying and what is happening. Serious breach of communication here. Sprinkle judiciously and make sure there is some context or subtext to provide clues! We know there will be future books, so hold some back, eh.

And, I was completely bored with the whole Sherlock Holmes tie-in. I was as annoyed with his pontification and gloating as the characters were. Wanted to skip over all parts he was in!

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fun outing is the collaborative effort of husband and wife Bill Pronzini and Marcia Muller. A burly, tough Scotsman John Quincannon and a former Pinkerton operative Sabina Carpenter run a private detective partnership in San Francisco late in the nineteenth century. I don't if Bill and Marcia wrote the male and female protagonists respectively, but the narrative is a seamless read if they did. I liked the historical details and vivid realistic setting besides the two protagonists. The minor characters are great too, especially the colorful and humorous Englishman calling himself Sherlock Holmes who may or may not be the actual one. The mystery element employs the satisfactory plot twists that I didn't see coming. Well worth my reading further into the series.

[Hazel West · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thoughts on the Overall Book: This was one of those books that I was mildly interested in enough to finish, but it wasn't great either, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It was there to fill idle time, but there was nothing about it that made me sit and read half the book in one sitting either. Apart from that, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be at first.

Cover--Yea or Nay: Undecided. It's not the worst character impressions I have seen; Quincannon is okay, but I don't care for Sabina.

Characters: Well, I did genuinely like Sabina, which was a surprise to me since I am usually wary of female characters in positions such as detectives in time periods when women didn't do that often, if at all; but while Sabina states that she approves of the "New Woman" she doesn't come across as a stupid suffragette type. She's sensible, she has no attitude, and she wasn't all like "oh, I'm the best because I'm a lady detective." Also, her human qualities like love of food, and hatpins endeared me to her for some reason. She wasn't as quirky as I usually like my detective characters, but she was okay, and I didn't have any problems with her. Quincannon on the other hand, rubbed me the wrong way. He was just an arrogant, conceited snob at the best of times. He could never admit to being wrong, carried a bee in his bonnet all the time, and never learned humility. Of course, I disliked him as soon as I found out he had what I can only term as 'lustful' feelings towards Sabina. Thankfully, it wasn't reiterated upon throughout the whole book, but it was enough to put him on my black list. Sabina gained even more respect from me for refusing his advances, ignoring him, and well she should considering she is a new widow who loved her husband. She also didn't care for Quincannon's arrogance any more than I did. If I were her, I never would have partnered with the man.

One problem I had was that I usually like partnerships because the characters play off each other. For one, Sabina and Quincannon, don't really have a lot of character, or quirkiness that makes a partnership work. For two, they hardly worked together at all. This probably would have bothered me more, if I liked both of them equally. However, I am undecided in whether I prefered it this way or not. If Quincannon was more likable and had more of a personality apart from being arrogant, I might have been more upset.

Also, the not "Sherlock Holmes" was just bloody annoying, but more on him later.

The Romance: None, and I hope it continues that way.

Writing Style: In truth, it was amateur. This book really felt like a first attempt, in fact, I could have given more leeway if it was a debut novel. However, since these authors are "award winning" this just doesn't cut it for me. It's filled with amateur mistakes, like putting WAY too much information in the first two chapters. So much so, that I nearly put the book down then. That is not expectable, especially in a mystery novel. Apart from that, the characters, while I did like Sabina, were just not that well crafted. They felt like people you know, but who are not like your best friends that you know a everything about. They were there, but kind of two-dimensional. The mystery too, was kind of mediocre and I had guessed it about half way through the novel. The dialogue and a lot of the wording was bland and had flow issues as well as clumsy wording, again, amateur mistakes. Also, this is just a nit picky thing, but I noticed that some of the slang, while most was American, there were a few words that I recognized from British slang that did not mean what they are meant to in this story. for example, "yaffle" to my knowledge meant "to yell" whereas in this story it was used to mean "nicked" or "apprehend". it's probably more a case of the Americans changing words the British use as is still happening today much to my chagrin.

Problems/What bothered me: Apart from the previous complaints, my main, huge complaint on the story was the inclusion of Sherlock Holmes. At first, I thought it was someone pretending to be Holmes and I would have been okay with that, but no, it's actually the "real" Sherlock Holmes (this is supposedly after Reichenbach and Holmes has come to America to hide out for a while while he's supposed dead) . My first problem with that, is that I do not like the idea of Sherlock Holmes being more then a fictional character in books unless they are cannon spin-offs or whatever. That was the first mark against it. Secondly, this was the worst interpretation of Holmes I have seen since that awful American tv show "Elementary". So awful in fact, that I really couldn't believe this was actually Holmes and not an impostor. He used every bloody quip and quote everyone and their mothers quotes from the series like "The Game's afoot" and "Elementary" and all the rest. He wore the typical deerstalker hat and inverness cape, and was so cartoony he was like a Halloween costume. Not to mention the fact that he was so blasted annoying. Holmes never annoyed me in the original series, and if this is what these authors think he was really like (they claimed in the author's note that their Sherlock Holmes was "As true to Conan Doyle's description of the original Sherlock Holmes as the nature and dictates of the story permitted". *laugh laugh sarcastic laugh*) If this was the "real" Holmes I never would have become a faithful Sherlockian because I never would have gotten through the first story. I have no idea why these authors saw the need to put Holmes into this story, unless it was a gimmick to get people to read it, and the people who would be interested to see Holmes in a story would hate it just as much as I did. The inclusion of Holmes only underrated their own detectives. I just don't understand.

Conclusion: 2 stars for the inclusion of the fake Sherlock. I probably won't continue this series unless I'm really desperate. I fear it's one that can only get worse.

Recommended Audience: I don't really know who to recommend this to, since it wasn't just my personal qualms that kept me from really enjoying it but common sense in the fact that it was just poorly written. I would suggest though that hard core Sherlockians not read this.

[Jim · Rating 1 out of 5]

This looked really interesting for all the lukewarm reviews. It might have been, but the stilted dialog was just too awful. The narrator exacerbated the problem, although he's probably not terrible under other circumstances. The concentration on the sexual tension between the two was hackneyed & then there was the info dump back stories. It all led to teeth grinding on my part. Not even taking out my frustrations by tearing boards off pallets could help. Abandoning.

[Carla Remy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but too many characters … Sherlock Holmes a character…eh…
Writing this with left hand

[Spuddie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok. That about sums it up. First in a historical mystery series featuring Sabina Carpenter, a former Pink Rose (female Pinkerton agent) and widow in her 30's, and John Quincannon, an ex-Secret Serviceman. They run a private detective agency in San Francisco together, and first thing out of the bag, there is that old "sexual tension and mutual attraction" that you know will be dragged on and on and ON for book after book. So, strike one.

Strike two, there were a bunch of historical terms thrown at me right away that I wasn't familiar with--which is cool, in and of itself. I love having to Google a word or look it up in my historical terms dictionaries. But then I discovered that one of the major offending words ("yegg" meaning safecracker or robber) wasn't actually used in print and not commonly known until 8-10 years after this book takes place. So...not great research. And then they used it over and over and over again. And over.

The book read very quickly, which is the main reason why I actually finished it. The story started out being quite interesting, despite the issues that cropped up right away...but then suddenly petered out. I figured out the main part of the mystery well in advance, which isn't unusual and doesn't typically spoil the book for me, but in this case I was irritated by the overly-dramatic reveal as though it were really some big surprise. And another thing: Sherlock Holmes? Really? That old plot stirrer? Bah.

Ok, that's it. Suffice it to say that I expected better, MUCH better, having been a long-time enjoyer of Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone mystery series, although I've not read anything by her husband and co-author before. I won't be reading any further in this series, that is certain.

[Laurie (barksbooks)]

Overdrive borrow

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bughouse Affair is book 1 of the Carpenter and Quincannon historical series by Marcia Muller. After retiring from the Secret Service, John Quincannon decided to establish a private detective agency. John Quincannon asked his friend Sabina Carpenter to came and joined forces with him. The Carpenter and Quincannon Private Detective agency was born. John Quincannon and Sabina were investigating two cases that at first thought were separate from each other. It was not the case. The readers will continue to follow John and Sabina investigation to find out why.

I enjoyed reading The Bughouse Affair. I had not read any of Marcia Muller books before and I differently will read more books in this series. I like Marcia Muller writing style in the way she names each chapter with the name of the character and the way Marcia Muller incorporates historical figures within the plot of The Bughouse Affair. I love Marcia Muller portrayal of her characters and the way she intertwines at times while reading The Bughouse Affair I had to laugh with the way Sabina Carpenter and John Quincannon react with each other.

The readers of The Bughouse Affair will learn about living in San Francisco during the eighteenth century. Also, how to be a private investigator in 1890s.

I recommend this book.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lively, fun story & narrators. I suspected I might have trouble focusing on a novel this week. This entertaining audio borrowed (online) from the library fit the bill!

[JBradford · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have admitted before that I sometimes select books based on their cover. That was the case in this one; I was looking for a mystery to get away from my recent fantasy/science fiction kick, and here was one that was clearly different. The protagonists are shown on the cover with clothing going back to at least the turn of the last century. They are a couple – or rather, they are a man and a woman; he is a dashing, tall and fairly broad shouldered young fellow with a nicely trimmed beard, she is a comely high breasted woman in what looks like a red satin dress carrying a parasol wearing a wide brim hat. The cover flap informed me that they are co-owners of a detective agency in San Francisco, and that he is former Secret Service while she is a former Pinkerton operative. I was also informed that this is the first in a series of books that will feature them — and, based on the title, also a third person, who claims to be the recently deceased Sherlock Holmes. The book is written in the third person with each chapter (or most of it) tracking whatever happens to one or the other of the two detectives. At the beginning of the book, John Quincannon, the male partner, has just picked up a new assignment — he has been hired by the head of a local insurance company to stop a series of burglaries and to recover the goods that have already been stolen. At the same time, Sabina Carpenter, the female partner, has also picked up a new case — she has been hired by the owner of an amusement park to stop a female pickpocket who has been preying on the park customers. It turns out that these two co-owners started their detective business strictly professionally, but that Quincannon would now like to make it more personal. I decided before I was halfway through the book that the only real tension was the issue of whether or not these two were going to wind up in bed together. The mysteries are neither mysterious nor believable, and most of the characters and dialogue seems incredibly hackneyed, if not trite. I think the authors probably did some homework to get their locale descriptions; they list four books as sources but one of them is irrelevant. The trouble is that the descriptions come across as if they were copied out of their workbooks. I just could not accept that people acted like this or talked like this in the last decade of the 18th century. Similarly, I was a little bothered by the convenience with which Sabina whips out a flint when she wants to explore the darkness inside a carriage barn but then a few pages further on flips on an electric light so that she can examine the litter in the office of a down-at-the-heels lawyer; I have a problem believing that even clever young ladies carried around with them flints that could act as torches, and I also seriously question whether scruffy San Francisco lawyers had electric lights in their offices in 1894.

I will not be bothering to look for subsequent novels in the series.

[Lweight · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having enjoyed many of Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone mysteries, I had high hopes for this new series, but was very disappointed. In the author's note at the back, they noted that they used a couple of books, "The Barbary Coast: An informal history of the San Francisco Underworld" by Herbert Asbury and "Champagne Days of San Francisco" by Evelyn Wells. Champagne Days, which was published in 1939, is not regarded by some as an accurate work of history. I would question such items as, on page 24, Sabine says she is not wearing a corset while in public. I don't believe corsets were optional in 1890's San Francisco for "respectable women". On page 118, "Holmes" quotes, "God made the cat so that man could have the pleasure of caressing the tiger", attributing it to "one of our more famous philosophers". Fernand Mery, who was not even born until 1907 is actually the author of that quote. On page 170, the character "Dippin Sal", an uneducated thief says that she was "listening to my arteries harden and my bones creak." Arteriosclerosis was just beginning to be discussed among physicians and researchers in the 1890s and it is very unlikely that an uneducated, lower class person would have known about arteries hardening. These are just a few of the items that jumped out at me as anachronisms, which spoil the flow of the story. In addition, an editing error on page 175 also interrupts the flow. The word shyness is used when it is apparent that the word slyness was intended. I also agree with other reader/reviewers that the Holmes character, whether an imposter or not, is very contrived. Too bad.

[Liz Clappin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have read both Muller and Pronzini separately and together before and I must admit by comparison, this was quite a disappointment. I was excited thinking it would be a similar series to Shirley Tallman's Sarah Woolson mysteries, same time period, same setting. I couldn't have been further from the truth. Carpenter and Quincannon are so devoid of any kind of chemistry (which lets face it is the glue that binds most team detective mysteries). I couldn't tell if this was because the chapters were written by the respective authors of the same gender (as I assumed) or if there was some sort of disconnect. The mystery itself was equally lackluster, I kept waiting for it to get exciting...but it never really did. I was able to figure out both mysteries a bit to easily, and the rest of the story dragged with little to keep me interested along the way. Even the bughouse Sherlock Holmes (my favorite character from literature) couldn't save this one. I had picked up the second book in the series The Spook Lights Affair first by mistake then switched over to this one so I read them chronologically, but now I'm not sure I'll bother.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is book one in a new series from Marcia Muller and her husband and fellow writer, Bill Pronzini. It's a tale of a detective agency set in 1890s San Fransisco and pulls in all the myriad cultures and precincts present there and then. The agency is comprised of John Quincannon, a former member of the Federal Secret Service, and Sabina Carpenter, a former Pinkerton agent.

Muller and Pronzini appear to have been very scrupulous in searching the background of the time for use in dialogue, descriptions of the locale, clothing, lifestyles, etc. It was an enjoyable read but perhaps more of a cozy than I usually read. Their individual books appeal a bit more. It almost seems a labor of love by a writing couple who must really enjoy each other's company and skills.

3.5

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book amusing, and I enjoyed reading it. Contrary to some of the other reviewers, I found the wandering presence of Sherlock Holmes to be fairly entertaining. I was less amused, though, by the not very inspired attempt at a "will they won't they" between the two main characters. They really didn't have much chemistry except as partners, which is where I would prefer they are left. I'm sure they'll wind up together in later books, unfortunately, and while I'm interested in reading more, I'll likely stop when the pushy male gets his way with the fairly disinterested, wasp waisted-regardless-of-healthy-appetite female. Honestly, I really liked both characters. I just found the stock romantic tension (which, to their credit, is not a constant presence) to be an annoying element.

[stormhawk · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of those myteries that makes use of the missing time between Sherlock Holmes plunge at the Reichenbach Falls and his reappearance in London by presuming that he spent that time in America solving a small mystery here and there just to keep in practice, not unlike stories of Jesus among the Native Americans, I suppose. It is one of those frustrating kinds of mysteries where the solution is revealed based on clues that are kept from the reader until the dramatic final chapter reveal. Neither great nor awful. I may have to try the next in the series to see if the story improves without Holmes.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable book written by a husband and wife team. I will ream more in the series.

[D. Norman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a great cozy. I especially like Sherlock Holmes.

[Julie]

Nothing about this was working for me. I got about 15% in.

[Roger · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Bughouse Affair seemed like a sure thing. It's written by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini, two Mystery Writers of America America Grandmasters. (Trivia: they're married.) Plus my wife really liked this book. What a bunch of solid recommendations! I hate to pan something my spouse has praised. But that is the position I am in. This novel is a period piece set in 1890's San Francisco, and features professional detectives Sabina Carpenter and John Quincannon. Of course they are attracted to each other-gosh I didn't see that coming. This set-up had been done to death (Moonlighting, anyone?) and there is nothing new going on here. Might as well mention Sherlock Holmes is also involved. This is not a spoiler if you have read the back cover. This Holmes is at the end of the "Great Hiatus" in which the world thinks he has perished at the Reichenbach Falls in mortal battle with Moriarty. Holmes himself states he stays "undercover" for three years after his "death" for fear Moriarty's remaining criminal network, especially Col. Sebastian Moran, may do him in. So Holmes's actions here make no sense whatsoever-if Sherlock Holmes had appeared publicly anywhere in the world during this time period it would have been major news, exactly the type of attention he was trying to avoid. (See Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventure of the Empty House.) If you haven't guessed this is a major stumbling block for me. Also the characterization of Holmes is way off-he is too voluble by half. Also I think our main protagonists Carpenter and Quincannon are cookie cutter characters-the authors attempts to invest them with some type of personality fall flat. This book gets two stars because the mystery we had to wrap up was well done and I have a good friend named Sabine-this is probably the only time I will ever have the opportunity to read about a fictional character whose name is even close to hers, because I am not reading anymore books in this series.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was another fun read. It was set in the late 1890s San Francisco and features two detectives solving mysteries and catching criminals. This is the first of the series. Some how Sherlock Holmes makes his appearance, or at least someone purporting to be him. I find the description of the city interesting, since I used to live there. But also some of the strange language they use. You won't be disappointed if you read it.

[Grandmama · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzoni’s historical mystery THE BUGHOUSE AFFAIR

This may well be the beginning of a very enjoyable mystery series. Like other successful series the authors have chosen a fascinating city, San Francisco, and a fascinating time period the, 1890’s. The heroine is adept in her deductive powers and does her job well. Her partner in the detective agency is a possible hero in the series but he has lots of flaws. He is much too boastful and confident in his deductive abilities. He might turn out to be likable but at this point it is questionable. His lingo of the period is enjoyable and helps the reader to identify with the era.

Many of the other characters were stereotypes of their positions in society such as the angry and petty policeman of the allegedly corrupt police force, the character who claims to be Sherlock Holmes and who is just as insufferable a bore as the Conan Doyle character, the pick pocket or “dip”, the housebreaker, and the grumpy insurance adjuster. It may well be that all of these characters, unbalanced as they are, led the authors to name The Bughouse Affair.

The plot was a good mystery one. There were subtle clues throughout to lead the reader to the correct outcome to solve the mystery about the same time that the detectives solve it. My interest in this series is sparked and I will look forward to following the direction these characters’ developments will take them in future mysteries.

[Gena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sabina Carpenter and John Quincannon run a private detective agency in 1890s San Francisco. She is on the trail of a "dip" or pickpocket working the nearby amusement park and he is hunting down a house burglar targeting wealthy homeowners. Oh yeah, and Sherlock Holmes shows up to help them figure out the cases. First off, I want to say listing a whole bunch of items in a room or location does not constitute descriptive writing. It's just a list. And secondly if you introduce a character who might or might not be the "real" Sherlock Holmes why not make the most of it? Even at the end we never find out if the "bug house" detective is the "real" Sherlock. I was not impressed with the writing or the plot and although I enjoyed the information dumped on the reader as to things of interest in old San Francisco, and how things worked back then, I didn't think the plot was very interesting. I like the idea of a Pinkerton "Pink Rose" and a Secret Service operative working together but the characters were not really fleshed out. I guess this is the first in a series but it didn't capture my interest enough to read the next one.

[GlenK · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been a fan of Pronzini's Nameless Detective for years so I was looking forward to this, the start of a new historical mystery series, written with his wife Marcia Muller and set in 1890's San Francisco. The major characters are ex-Pinkerton Sabina Carpenter and ex-Secret Service John Quincannon who are partnered in a detective agency that specializes in insurance investigations. Refreshingly, Carpenter, a woman ahead of her time, runs the operation. The plot was good with a classic "bring everybody together and reveal all" ending. My one problem with this book was the major supporting character of Holmes, who may or may not be Sherlock Holmes. I found the character to be an irritating presence and not at all necessary to the story.

[Phair · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely NOT blown away by this series opener (although I understand there have been other books featuring only Quincannon). The whole thing felt a little throwaway with no deep characterization or intricate plot. There was no rich world building - merely adequate. Perhaps I was overly turned off by the cover art depicting Carpenter, a widow aged 31, in this 1880's period with her long hair tumbling about her shoulders. A respectable older woman, especially a married/widow woman would not appear in public without having her hair pinned up. I know the authors have little say in cover art but it still tends to prejudice me a bit toward the book. Doubt I will follow up on this series.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Bughouse Affair is the first title in a new historical mystery series by award winning authors Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini. Set in San Francisco in the 1890s, the novel features two private investigators, Sabina Carpenter, a former Pinkerton detective or “Pink Lady” as the female operatives were called, and John Quincannon, an ex-Secret Service agent. Rich in historical detail, The Bughouse Affair is a lighthearted mystery filled with humorous dialog and banter between the two detectives. Great characters and wonderful sense of place.

[Vickie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a don't-judge-a-book-by-its-cover situation. If I'd seen the book I never would have picked it up because of the insipid cover art. But, it's by a favorite crime novelist, so I thought I'd give it a try. Set in 1890s San Francisco, it's the story of a pair of private investigators that's likely to become a series. A certain fictional character (unnamed to avoid a spoiler) figures in the plot.

[Arlene Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the series has a lot of potential to grow into a solid addition to historical mystery fare. The only thing I didn't like was all of the slang, which made all of the characters sound cheap rather than authentic. I love the descriptions of old San Francisco, and I rather like Sabina. Of Quincannon I have no comment! I will certainly look forward to the next book in the series.

[RICHARD DELIBERTY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini and each among my favorite authors. When they work together, something really exciting comes out.

The Bughouse Affair is entertaining. A strong, thoughtful, female in turn of the century San Francisco, a male partner that's strong and action oriented, and an appearance by Sherlock Holmes. Another character is gaslight era San Francisco.