San Francisco Thrillers: True Crime and Dark Mysteries from the City by the Bay

by John Miller (Editor), Tim Smith (Editor)

San Francisco is the ideal place for murder, mystery, and malevolence. Far beneath the swinging coils of the Golden Gate Bridge, in a dank set of abandoned prison cells, a strange caretaker with evil intentions plots his nefarious deeds. Atop the hills of Pacific Heights, an innocent young woman rides an evening cable car, stalked by her handsome fiance. In a seedy bar on Fifth Street, a stone-faced man awaits his next victim. These and other eerie and exciting stories can be found in San Francisco Thrillers, the first anthology of mysteries and thrillers set in the City by the Bay, and illustrated with the haunting vintage photographs of Francis Bruguiere.

252 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1995

About the author

John Miller has edited a number of intriguing anthologies for Chronicle Books, including Lust and White Rabbit. He runs Big Fish Books, a packaging company in San Francisco.

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good anthology of some short mystery stories and a couple pieces about some old (late 1800s) SF crimes. Very atmospheric, but not overly thrilling. Enjoyable.

[Samuel Moyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of repetitive, and the crimes felt so thin and thrown together to make a book. It just felt like the book was made in a month and wasn’t well thought out.

[Carla]

There are two pieces written by journalists about older murder cases — one in particular involving a doctor killing off his young wives — that give a sense of older San Francisco. The fictional pieces, by contrast, could have taken place anywhere.