A portrait of writer Ambrose Bierce and a glimpse of life in 1880s San Francisco mark a mystery in which newspaperman Tom Redmond investigates a series of murders of women, leading him to conspiracies involving the railroads and state politics. Reprint.

World-famous journalist Ambrose Bierce investigates the disappearance of a Hawaiian princess and is plunged headlong into a world of intrigue and mystery surrounding the court of Hawaiian royalty living in San Francisco. By the author of Ambrose Bierce and the Queen of Spades. Reprint.

Ambrose “Bitter” Bierce, San Francisco’s infamous and legendary newspaperman and sometime sleuth is hardly surprised to be hired by William Randolph Hearst when his mistress receives threats. In steamy Sausalito, the playground of the rich and famous across the bay, Hearst’s isn’t the only case on the boil. While Ambrose and his sidekick, Tom Redmond, hunt the killer of a hard-partying yachtsman, Tom becomes entangled with the queen of the Portuguese Pentecostal feast. When Hearst’s house photographer turns up dead Ambrose faces a web of murder and mystery.

Oakley Hall is a modern-day Sir Arthur Conan Doyle whose works have been acclaimed by everybody from Michael Chabon to Diane Johnson. In his latest Ambrose Bierce mystery, three young, beautiful orators known as “The Trey of Pearls” come to San Francisco in 1892 to advocate women’s suffrage, whipping the burly city of pioneers and railroad men into a lather. When the famous women’s advocate Reverend Divine is found murdered, Ambrose and his indomitable sidekick Tom Redmond must navigate the heavy seas of free love, the politics of a minister’s harem, and the secrets of California’s rough and ready frontier past to uncover the truth. Cunningly plotted and rich with period detail, this historical mystery confirms Hall’s reputation as a master of the genre.

“Oakley Hall is a master craftsman... Intrigue will keep you turning the pages.” —Amy Tan From Thomas Pynchon to Richard Ford, Amy Tan to Diane Johnson, the list of devotees of the Ambrose Bierce mystery series continues to grow as the larger-than-life hero tracks down California’s most malevolent criminal minds. In this rough-and-tumble romp through gritty Old San Francisco, Ambrose Bierce and his faithful associate Tom Redmond are on the trail of a celebrity sniper. Amid seduction, revenge, wing shots, ambuscades, knife throwers, free-love colonies, a friendly opium parlor, and a letter from Queen Victoria, Ambrose Bierce and Tom Redmond must turn up the true killer. “Oakley Hall has found the perfect Holmes of the West in Ambrose Bierce, and an ideal Watson in the guise of Tom Redmond. Ace of Shoots is beautifully written and devilishly entertaining—as much fun as a Wild West shoot-’em-up extravaganza.” —Mark Childress