jjares reviewed on 6/23/2025 + 3559 more book reviews

This story occurs in the Victorian Era in San Francisco. Annie Fuller owns a boarding house and is also an exclusive clairvoyant, helping people with their domestic and business affairs. However, she receives a letter from a former creditor who has discovered that she has recently inherited the house she uses as her business. He tells her he is coming in two weeks to get the deed to the house because she owes him for a loan he made to her husband (who later committed suicide).

One of her customers using her business services has died. The police think it was suicide, but Annie knows it is not. She had been advising him financially, and he was gradually increasing his wealth. He was going to take his wife on a long trip to celebrate. When Nate Dawson, Matthew Voss's lawyer, meets Annie, he tells her that Voss was penniless. Annie knows that isn't true, and she decides to work as a servant in the Voss house to investigate.

Although the story was well-researched and accurate for its time, the plot was slow-moving, and the murderer's identity was evident from the beginning. The idea that a business owner would become a servant to investigate a murder is unrealistic, at best. The story was only mildly interesting. I doubt I will read any more of this series.

Victorian San Francisco Mystery - Several
** 1. Maids of Misfortune (2009)
2. Uneasy Spirits (2011)
3. Bloody Lessons (2013)

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