The Spook Lights Affair

October 7, 2013
An intriguing mystery and a threat to San Francisco PI Sabina Carpenter’s career drive Muller and Pronzini’s engaging second late-19th-century historical starring her and partner John Quincannon (after The Bughouse Affair). The wealthy parents of 18-year-old Virginia St. Ives, fearing she’ll fall prey to an unsuitable fortune-hunter, have hired Sabina to keep an eye on their daughter. When Virginia gives her the slip at a debutante ball, Sabina tracks the heiress through the fog, only to see her leap from an overlook to certain death hundreds of feet below. Oddly, searches of the area where she was seen to fall fail to turn up a corpse. Virginia’s father threatens to sue Sabina for negligence if his daughter is proven to have committed suicide. Quincannon, meanwhile, is hoping to land a lucrative reward by tracking down a bank thief. While the solution to the St. Ives mystery isn’t the cleverest MWA grand masters Muller and Pronzini have ever devised, it will leave readers satisfied. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency.

December 15, 2013
The year 1895 finds the partners of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services (The Bughouse Affair, 2013) working another pair of cases that turn out to be closely connected. Gold and real estate mogul Joseph St. Ives and his wife, Margaret, are pretty straight-laced as members of San Francisco's nouveaux riches go. But their son David is already quite the rake, and their daughter Virginia insists on keeping company with Lucas Whiffing, who's nothing more than a clerk at a sporting-goods store. Alarmed at his daughter's intransigence, St. Ives hires Sabina Carpenter to keep an eye on her. That's why Sabina's on hand at mayor Adolph Sutro's party, where Virginia tells her she hates her, runs out of the building and throws herself over a cliff. Or does she? Although she leaves a suicide note behind, her body is nowhere to be found. As St. Ives threatens Sabina with a lawsuit and worse, her partner, John Quincannon, is doing his best to follow the trail from a tipster to the bandit who relieved the Wells, Fargo Express of $35,000. The stakes are high for Quincannon, who stands to earn a 10 percent commission, but the risks are equally high, since the information he gets from Bob Cantwell leads to nothing but coshings and corpses and dark whispers about "the Kid." Meanwhile, a sharp-eyed lunatic calling himself Sherlock Holmes continues to bedevil the sleuthing couple. The big mystery is transparent in its outline, and the details aren't interesting enough to keep one reading. Veterans Muller and Pronzini have done better work, both alone and in collaboration.

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December 1, 2013

Detectives Carpenter and Quincannon and their mysterious colleague (Holmes, anyone?) pursue two cases: a missing debutante and a Wells Fargo robbery. Sign up for number two (after The Bughouse Affair) in this dynamic duo's historical series set in San Francisco, circa 1895.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2013
Mystery Writers of America Grand Masters Muller and Pronzini return to San Francisco in 1865 with new cases for John Concannon and Sabina Carpenter. Sabina is reluctantly serving as a chaperone for spoiled debutante Virginia St. Ives. Sabina is at a ball at the home of Mayor Adolph Sutro, keeping an eye on Virginia, when the young woman suddenly goes out to a Cliffside garden overlooking the ocean and leaps over the edge of a parapet. Her parents are not pleased, but Sabina has doubts about what really happened. Meanwhile, John is trying to find the bandit who stole $35,000 from the local Wells Fargo office. A generous reward awaits the person who can locate the missing funds. John's search takes him to the raunchy Barbary Coast and the more upscale bordellos of the Tenderloin. Along the way, the Sherlock Holmes impersonator seen in The Bughouse Affair (2013) shows up to offer assistance, annoying the detectives but providing an important clue. Historical mystery readers will enjoy this well-researched story from a pair of always reliable genre veterans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)