The Misses Moffet Mend a Marriage


Book Description

This short story, set in 1879 San Francisco, features two elderly dressmakers, Miss Minnie and Miss Millie Moffet, who face a moral dilemma of no small dimensions. They turn for advice to Annie Fuller, a widowed boardinghouse owner who supplements her income as a clairvoyant, Madam Sibyl. For those who have read any of Locke's Victorian San Francisco mysteries, this story is set after Maids of Misfortune and before Uneasy Spirits and is an amusing glimpse into the lives of Annie Fuller's two most eccentric boarders. For those unfamiliar with Locke's mysteries and the late 19th century world they portray, this is just a taste of things to come.




Scholarly Pursuits


Book Description

“Something is rotten in the state of Berkeley” --1881 Blue and Gold Yearbook, University of California: Berkeley In Scholarly Pursuits, the sixth full-length novel in the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco mystery series, Locke explores life on the University of California: Berkeley campus in 1881, where Laura and her friends face the remarkably modern problems of fraternity hazings, fraught romantic relationships, and fractious faculty politics. While Annie and Nate Dawson and friends and family in the O’Farrell Street boardinghouse await a blessed event, Laura Dawson finds herself investigating why a young Berkeley student dropped out of school in the fall of 1880. No one, including her friend Seth Timmons, thinks this is a good idea, since she is juggling a full course load with a part-time job, but she can’t let the question of what happened to her friend go unanswered. Not when it means that other young women might be in danger. This cozy historical mystery of romantic suspense is set in the period immediately after the fifth book in the series, Pilfered Promises, and two novellas, Kathleen Catches a Killer and Dandy Delivers. However, it can be read as a stand-alone.




Dandy and the Dognappers


Book Description

It is the fall of 1882 and dogs are disappearing from the streets of San Francisco at an alarming rate. Could they be victims of an over-zealous pound keeper or are they being stolen and then returned for a hefty ransom? Once more, the intrepid Boston Terrier Dandy and his young friends are on the case. The events in this novella come immediately after the events in Mrs. Stein Solves a Crime: A Victorian San Francisco Novella.




Dandy Detects


Book Description

In the fall of 1879, San Francisco swelters under a heat wave while Barbara Hewitt, a reserved school-teacher, uncovers a mystery with the help of her son’s dog, the Boston Terrier, Dandy. This short story, which comes chronologically after Maids of Misfortune, is set in the 19th century, gas-lit world of Annie Fuller and her O’Farrell Street boarding house, which Locke writes about in her Victorian San Francisco Mystery series.




Victorian San Francisco Mysteries: Books 1-4 (Maids of Misfortune, Uneasy Spirits, Bloody Lessons, Deadly Proof


Book Description

This USA Today bestselling boxed set brings together the first four books in the romantic and suspenseful Victorian San Francisco Mystery series: Maids of Misfortune, Uneasy Spirits, Bloody Lessons, and Deadly Proof. Maids of Misfortune introduces Annie Fuller, a young widow who runs the O’Farrell Street boardinghouse and supplements her income by giving financial and domestic advice as Madam Sibyl. When one of Madam Sibyl’s clients dies in mysterious circumstances, Annie goes undercover as a domestic servant to find out the truth about his death. Against his better judgment, Nate Dawson, the Voss family lawyer, finds himself drawn into helping in her investigations, alternatively fascinated and frustrated by Annie’s independent nature. Uneasy Spirits finds Annie Fuller and Nate Dawson, assisted by the boardinghouse maid, Kathleen, delving into the world of 19th century Spiritualism in order to expose a fraudulent trance medium. They will soon find there are as many secrets as there are spirits swirling around the séance table and some of those secrets will threaten the foundation of Annie’s career as Madam Sibyl and the future of her relationship with Nate Dawson, and, in time, they will threaten her very life itself. In Bloody Lessons, Annie Fuller has been asked by her beau, Nate Dawson, to find out who has been sending poison pen letters to tarnish the reputations of San Francisco public school teachers. The case becomes personal when they discover that Nate’s sister Laura may be one of the teachers being targeted. In Deadly Proof, first place winner of Chanticleer’s 2018 Mystery and Mayhem historical mystery award, Annie helps her fiancé, Nate Dawson, with a troubling case—defending a female typesetter who is accused of killing her employer. Complicating matters, Nate’s sister Laura decides to take the investigation into her own hands. This collection of four cozy, historical mysteries, set in late nineteenth-century San Francisco, are appropriate for teens to adults, and it is a welcome companion to the fifth book in the series, Pilfered Promises, and Locke’s Victorian San Francisco Stories and Victorian San Francisco Novellas, which feature beloved minor characters.




Mr. Wong Rights a Wrong


Book Description

Annie Fuller, the young boarding house keeper and reluctant clairvoyant, met the kind, older Chinese servant, Mr. Wong, in the midst of her investigations into a mysterious death in Maids of Misfortune, the first book in Locke’s Victorian San Francisco Mystery series. In this short story, Annie Fuller turns to Mr. Wong for help in solving a puzzle that could have life or death consequences. Like Locke’s other short stories in this series, Mr. Wong Rights a Wrong offers a glimpse into what life was like in late 19th century San Francisco.




Madam Sibyl's First Client


Book Description

In this short story, the young widow, Annie Fuller, is meeting her first client as the pretend clairvoyant, Madam Sibyl. If she can’t convince this man that she can make money for him with her financial advice, she doesn’t know how she will be able to hold onto her O’Farrell Street boarding house and her precious independence. Madam Sibyl’s First Client is the prequel to Maids of Misfortune, the first book in Locke’s USA Today bestselling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series.




Entangled Threads


Book Description

“Oh what a tangled web we weave. When first we practice to deceive.” --Sir Walter Scott It is San Francisco in the summer 1882, and Annie and Nate Dawson have finally found a good balance between the demands of family and work. Nate has an interesting legal case defending a young woman who has been left out of her mother’s will. Annie is looking into whether the financial difficulties facing the Potrero Woolen Mills are caused by bad management or bad luck. For her own reasons, Biddy O’Malley is eager to help Annie with her investigation. What none of the three of them could anticipate was how secrets and unexpected entanglements would complicate their search for the truth. Entangled Threads is the eighth full-length novel in the USA Today best-selling author’s Victorian San Francisco Mystery series. However, it can be read as a stand-alone by anyone who enjoys cozy historical mysteries with an amateur female sleuth.




Deadly Proof: A Victorian San Francisco Mystery


Book Description

It’s the summer of 1880, and once again the lovely and inquisitive businesswoman, Annie Fuller, is helping San Francisco lawyer and beau, Nate Dawson, with a troublesome case. Nate’s client, a female typesetter accused of murdering her boss, refuses to help in her own defense. Complicating matters, Nate’s sister Laura insists on getting involved in the potentially dangerous investigation, while Laura’s friend Seth Timmons, troubled Civil War veteran, finds himself a witness for the prosecution. Will Nate be able to win his first big case? Will Laura and Seth find some way of becoming friends? And finally, will Annie and Nate’s upcoming nuptials be derailed by their attempts to track down a killer? Old friends and new readers alike will enjoy Deadly Proof, this fourth installment of the cozy Victorian San Francisco Mystery series that blends light romance, suspense, and a glimpse into the lives of late 19th century women who worked.




Tilly Tracks a Thief


Book Description

December 1881, San Francisco: Tilly, the young O’Farrell Street boardinghouse servant, is determined to discover who’s stealing from houses in the neighborhood before the thefts ruin the holidays for everyone. This short story in the Victorian San Francisco Mystery series comes after the short story Mrs. O’Malley’s Midnight Mystery and right before Lethal Remedies, the seventh novel in the series.