Maids of Misfortune


Book Description

First book in the USA Today bestselling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series. It’s the summer of 1879, and Annie Fuller, a young San Francisco widow, is in trouble. Annie’s husband squandered her fortune before committing suicide five years earlier, and one of his creditors is now threatening to take the boardinghouse she owns to pay off a debt. Annie Fuller also possesses a secret. She supplements her income by giving domestic and business advice as Madam Sibyl, one of San Francisco’s most exclusive clairvoyants, and one of Madam Sibyl’s clients, Matthew Voss, has died. The police believe his death was suicide brought upon by bankruptcy, but Annie believes Voss has been murdered and that his assets have been stolen. Nate Dawson wrestles with a difficult decision. As the Voss family lawyer, he would love to prove that Matthew Voss didn't leave his grieving family destitute. But that would mean working with Annie Fuller, a woman who alternatively attracts and infuriates him as she shatters every notion he ever had of proper ladylike behavior. Sparks fly as Anne and Nate pursue the truth about the murder of Matthew Voss in this light-hearted, cozy historical mystery set in the foggy, gas-lit world of Victorian San Francisco. Maids of Misfortune is the first book in M. Louisa Locke’s USA Today bestselling Victorian San Francisco mystery series, followed by Uneasy Spirits, Bloody Lessons, Deadly Proof, Pilfered Promises, Scholarly Pursuits, and Lethal Remedies. Locke’s shorter works, collected in Victorian San Francisco Stories: Vols 1 and 2, and Victorian San Francisco Novellas, feature beloved minor characters from the series. There are also two boxed sets of the novels, Victorian San Francisco Mysteries: Books 1-4 and Victorian San Francisco Mysteries: Books 5-7.




Uneasy Spirits: A Victorian San Francisco Mystery


Book Description

In this sequel to Maids of Misfortune, it is the fall of 1879 and Annie Fuller, a young San Francisco widow, has a problem. Despite her growing financial success as the clairvoyant Madam Sibyl, Annie doesn’t believe in the astrology and palmistry her clients think are the basis for her advice. Kathleen Hennessey, Annie Fuller’s young Irish maid, has a plan. When her mistress is asked to expose a fraudulent trance medium, Arabella Frampton, Kathleen is determined to assist in the investigation, just like the Pinkerton detectives she has read about in the dime novels. Nate Dawson, up-and-coming San Francisco lawyer, has a dilemma. He wants to marry the unconventional Annie Fuller, but he doesn’t feel he can reveal his true feelings until he has a way to make enough money to support her. In this cozy historical mystery of romantic suspense, Annie delves into the intriguing world of 19th century spiritualism, encountering true believers and naïve dupes, clever frauds and unexplained supernatural phenomena. She will soon find there are as many secrets as there are spirits swirling around the Frampton séance table. Some of those secrets will threaten the foundation of her career as Madam Sibyl and the future of her relationship with Nate Dawson, and, in time, they will threaten her very life itself.




Death on Telegraph Hill


Book Description

"Tallman offers an entertaining mystery . . . will appeal to fans of Anne Perry and Rhys Bowen"--"Library Journal." San Francisco, 1882. When her brother is hit by a bullet, a crusading young lawyer discovers more murder and mayhem on Telegraph Hill.




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.




The Motive


Book Description

With their park view and old-fashioned detail, the Victorian houses on San Francisco's Steiner Street were highly valuable. But with their wooden construction, they were also highly vulnerable. So when Paul Hanover's multimillion-dollar home went up in flames, it was all over very quickly. And when the bodies of Hanover and his girlfriend were found in the charred debris, it appeared that the end came even more quickly for them-judging from the bullet holes in their heads. But this isn't just any double homicide. Hanover was a friend-and donor-to the mayor, who wants answers. And in trying to provide them, Abe Glitsky and Dismas Hardy will face an old lover and an old enemy-and follow a trail of evidence that stretches far beyond their usual jurisdiction.




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.




Victorian Villainy


Book Description

Among the world’s great fictional villains Professor James Moriarty stands alone. Doctor Fu Manchu, Hannibal Lecter, Count Dracula, Iago, Voldemort, Darth Vader, Bill Sikes, Inspector Javert, and the Wicked Witch of the West all have their fans, all have their place in popular fiction. But for every one who can tell you whose life Iago made miserable, fifty honor that Professor James Moriarty was the particular nemesis of Sherlock Holmes. But just how evil was he? These stories by Michael Kurland explore an alternate possibility: that Moriarty wasn’t evil at all, that his villainy was less along the lines of Fu Manchu and more like Robin Hood or Simon Templar. And the reason for Sherlock Holmes’ characterization of him as “the Napoleon of crime” was that the professor was one of the few men he’d ever met who was smarter than he—and he couldn’t stand it!




The House of Closed Doors


Book Description

Heedless. Stubborn. Disgraced. Small town Illinois, 1870: "My stepfather was not particularly fond of me to begin with, and now that he'd found out about the baby, he was foaming at the mouth" Desperate to avoid marriage, Nell Lillington refuses to divulge the name of her child's father and accepts her stepfather's decision that the baby be born at a Poor Farm and discreetly adopted. Until an unused padded cell is opened and two small bodies fall out. Nell is the only resident of the Poor Farm who is convinced the unwed mother and her baby were murdered, and rethinks her decision to abandon her own child to fate. But even if she manages to escape the Poor Farm with her baby she may have no safe place to run to.




Between Mountain and Sea


Book Description

Mei Lin Yu should have been looking forward to the next stage in her life. As a descendant of one of the Founding Families who led the exodus from a dying Earth and now rule New Eden, Mei's choices are endless. But she has never felt part of the Yu Family or the world of technological marvels and genetic perfection the Founders created. All that will change the summer she spends at Mynyddamore, the home her ancestor Mabel Yu built in western Caelestis. Here, living among the Ddaerans, the original inhabitants of New Eden, Mei will discover secrets about Mabel Yu that her family want to keep buried and a truth about herself that will forever change her own destiny. Between Mountain and Sea is a coming of age novel, the first book in USA Today bestselling author Louisa Locke's Caelestis series in the Paradisi Chronicles (an open source, science fiction world created by multiple authors).




Victorian San Francisco Stories


Book Description

This is a collection of four short stories by USA Today bestselling author, M. Louisa Locke, set in the gas-lit world of Victorian San Francisco. Madam Sibyl’s First Client was written specifically for this collection and it finds Annie Fuller, the young widowed boardinghouse keeper, just starting her career as a pretend clairvoyant. In Dandy Detects, the Boston Terrier that lives in Annie Fuller’s boardinghouse helps uncover a crime, and in The Misses Moffet Mend a Marriage, Annie’s two elderly boarders use their dressmaking skills to avert a domestic tragedy. Finally, in Mr. Wong Rights a Wrong, a Chinese manservant introduced in Maids of Misfortune, the first book in Locke’s historical mystery series, makes another appearance and helps Annie Fuller solve a serious problem. As a bonus, there is an essay, Historical Tidbits, which provides insight into the historical research that went into these stories. This collection can be read as an introduction or a companion to the full-length novel in the cozy Victorian San Francisco Mystery series, permitting some of the most beloved minor characters of that series to have some fun by taking center stage.