From Publishers Weekly
Romantic suspense writer Day (The Stone House) turns to mystery with laudable results. The year is 1905. Fleeing the confines of her staid Boston upbringing and a potential marriage to a loathsome suitor, the modern-thinking Caroline Fremont Jones opens a typewriting business in San Francisco using the name Fremont. Her business brings her in contact with the normally mild young attorney Justin Cameron, who reacts with hostility when Fremont takes dictation from "ancient gentleman" Li Wong. A week later, Li Wong is dead, and Fremont's office is ransacked. Another client, Edgar Allan Partridge, brings three manuscript stories to Freemont for typing but never returns to pick them up. His brooding tales are full of evil and very like those of his namesake. Fremont's investigations into the mysteries of her dead and missing clients lead her to suspect her rooming-house neighbor, whom she believes is a spy. While the plot plays out credibly, Day shines brightest at horror writing: the excerpts from Partridge's stories are truly frightening, their gothic element adding powerful punch to Fremont's first case.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Mix together a foggy San Francisco of 1905, a female Sherlock Holmes, Chinese tongs, a hint of Norman Bates, and Caroline Fremont Jones, late of Boston, and you have this enchanting book. Fremont leaves Boston to escape from an arranged marriage, sets herself up in a "type-writing" (i.e., secretarial) business, and becomes independent. Her first client, Justin Cameron, is a young lawyer who becomes her beau. Another client is the strange and very weird Edgar Partridge. Her landlady, Mrs. O'Leary, and another roomer, Michael Archer, complete the cast. Day, author of several pseudonymous romance novels, has beautifully captured the rhythm and speech of a Victorian novel. She leads Fremont on an extraordinary adventure and the reader on a delightful read. The characters are all a bit mysterious, which adds to the pleasure. Recommended for popular collections.?Barbara Maslekoff, Ohioana Lib., Columbus
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
