The Golden Gate Murders

Jack London

by Peter King

When the owner of the San Francisco's Silver Dollar Saloon is found dead, just after requesting Jack London's assistance to look into a threat against his business, the author and adventurer joins forces with the legendary Wyatt Earp as they follow a trail of violence and murder through the dark underbelly of the infamous Barbary Coast. Original.

Genres: Mystery

272 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 5, 2002

About the author

Peter King is an English born author of mystery fiction, a Cordon Bleu trained chef and a retired metallurgist and aerospace scientist. Before writing full time, he operated a tungsten mine, prospected worldwide and worked on rocket engines for NASA Apollo missions. After retiring in 1991, he began writing fiction and is best known for the Gourmet Detective series and the Jack London historical mysteries. His work blends culinary detail, historical research and classic whodunit storytelling.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's see. The mystery itself is interesting. Jack London makes an interesting detective. The background historical characters are well drawn and serve the plot well, while still being true to reality. All of that is enough for me to put it as a solid three. So what gave it the bump to 4? In this case, the portrayal of some of the most infamous days and locations in San Francisco. I've a weakness for any work of fiction where setting ends up being a character as much as any of the people populating the work. This book does a good job at that. So that gave it the four. Recommended.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have had this book on my bookshelf for awhile and I finally got around to it and I am glad I did. This was a good book! You can really tell the author did a lot of research as this book is really well grounded in the Barbary Coast during the tail end of San Francisco's gold rush. The mystery was a good one. I am always a little worried when a historical person is the protagonist of book it can get weird because they were a real person so the author has to strike a careful balance. I did love all of the historical people and places Jack encountered as he tried to solve multiple murders. This is the third book in the series so I will probably go back and read the other two!

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Jack said he was good at describing places and things but wasn't confident in coming up with plots, it felt like Jack himself wrote this book instead of Peter.
Every time i opened this book i fell asleep twenty minutes in that's why it took me so long to finish it. The premise of the book is interesting but i wasn't that much interested in it or even the characters and perhaps that's because I'm not familiar with the historical characters depicted in book. That being i was still hooked, i had to finish it and reading the other books in Jack London Mystery doesn't seem like a bad idea.

[Kara Haberichter · Rating 2 out of 5]

jack london mystery! counterfeit coins, bar murders, gold miners, and a story to be written. i had a hard time keeping up with this book. it took me a long time to finish. all the action seemed to happen in the last 20 pages.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a pretty good book. Not at the top of my list but I liked it