This is the second volume of short stories by USA Today bestselling author, M. Louisa Locke, set in the gas-lit world of Victorian San Francisco. The first story, Beatrice Bests the Burglars, finds Mrs. O’Rourke, the O’Farrell Street boarding house cook, home alone and in danger. In Dandy’s Discovery, something odd is happening at the boardinghouse, but Dandy, the Boston Terrier, discovers the culprit and all is well. In Mrs. O’Malley’s Midnight Mystery, a poor widow’s determination to investigate the strange behavior of her neighbors has unexpected consequences. In the fourth short story, Tilly Tracks a Thief, it’s Christmas, and the young Irish boarding house servant decides to find out who’s stealing from houses in the neighborhood before the thefts ruin the holidays for everyone. This collection of short stories can be read as an introduction or a companion to the full-length novels in the cozy Victorian San Francisco Mystery series, and chronologically it comes between the events of the sixth full-length mystery, Scholarly Pursuits, and the seventh full-length mystery, Lethal Remedies.
After being a professor of history for over 30 years, I am now retired and writing full time. The books in my Victorian San Francisco Mystery series are based in part on my dissertation research on women who worked in the Far West at the end of the Nineteenth Century, and they feature Annie Fuller, a young widow who gives domestic and business advice as the clairvoyant, Madam Sibyl. She is aided in her investigations into crime by Nate Dawson, a local lawyer, and the residents in the boarding house she owns.
Maids of Misfortune, the first in the series, finds Annie investigating a murder by going undercover as a domestics servant. In Uneasy Spirits, she is asked to investigate a fraudulent trance medium, and in Bloody Lessons, she is asked to find out who is attacking local public school teachers. The fourth book, Deadly Proof is set in the printing industry in San Francisco, and in the fifth book, Pilfered Promises, Annie and Nate investigate theft and murder in a modern department store.
Book six in this collection, Scholarly Pursuits, takes Laura Dawson and her friends (introduced in Bloody Lessons) across the Bay to Berkeley to attend the university where unexpected skulduggery is afoot. In Lethal Remedies, Annie is tasked with uncovering who is trying to ruin a clinic run by and for women, and in Entangled Threads it is a woolen factory that is the site of her investigations.
Volume One of my collection of short stories about minor characters, Victorian San Francisco Stories, are free to anyone who signs up to my newsletter. (see my website for sign up at http://mlouisalocke.com)
Not content with just writing about the past, under the pen name Louisa Locke, I have now turned to the future with a new science fiction series set in the collaborative world of the Paradisi Chronicles.
As an indie author I absolutely depend on the readers who have read and liked my cozy historical mysteries and spread the word. This second career has turned out to be more fun and rewarding than i ever thought possible. So thanks to all of you!
I love this author's writing. Ms. Locke is so well versed in her subject and, therefore, her settings and characters I feel like I know San Francisco so much better each time I read one of her books. I so look forward to the next book or novella or short story in thus series...it is hard to wait for the next installment! I hope she lives forever. The stories are heartfelt and give one a feeling of being in the room...or whoever the inhabitants of the Boarding House go...a you are there feeling. The books are easy to read and are appropriate for any age reader who is interested in lives in the past. I was born 67 years ago at Kaiser Hospital in Poland ,California and spent my early childhood in and around San Francisco and the Bay area.. So these trips back in history feel truly nostalgic to me and always remind me of the happy and not so happy events of that time...I really loved the Bay area as a kid; the weather, the sites, the people, the hills!, the Bay itself...MS Locke reminds me of places I remember going...not in the 19th. Century but in the Mid-twentieth...but all the same so much is familiar and feels like yesterday to me! I thank her for her intensive research and as a true feminist love that she focuses most of her attention on the lives of women in a rough and humble era. Just received this book and book 7 in the series and cannot wait to read book 7 starting today. A true appreciation of the lives of women will give all her readers a true sense of home, relatives you love, and friends that make life worth living. What a joy to read these lovely books...and mysteries and situations of note...as a true bonus! Highly recommended. Cozy books for long winter days and slow hot summer days! Fast and easy, yet intricate and challenging plots. I love all the regulars and many...not the bad guys!...of the sundry characters as well. Love the novellas and short stories that fill in all the blanks. San Francisco is a truly rendered character in all the books and etc. I love that! Thank you M. Louisa Locke for all of it. Please keep writing!
I love the companion stories in this book that tell stories of the lives of the minor characters in the San Francisco Series. It enhances the series and they can also be read separately. This is one of the best historical history series I have ever read.
Truly enjoyed reading these short stories that give each character more warmth. It gave me more insight into all the other Victorian San Francisco novels I have read, making it feel more like a real family.
I enjoyed the getting to know these characters better. I also read what Louis writes about her research and why she writes the books. The historical perspective is great.