When your family tree is full of Vikings, a tendency to accumulate treasure is only natural. I like to pillage and plunder in the neighborhood bookstores, and when it comes to hunting down stories, you’d be right to call me ruthless in the chase.
But, as the guardian of my family folklore and related memorabilia, I find my writing inspiration in the whispered stories of my ancestors. Eavesdropping on my parents or grandparents or aunts as they gossiped about a distant relative over coffee was enough to tantalize me with the scandals, rumors, and mysterious doings of skeletons hiding in the family closet.
Of course I brought one to life and gave her a story all her own.
Shadows in Chinatown introduces Norse protagonist Karine Kelly in the first book of my new historical mystery series set in 1882 San Francisco. Mrs. Kelly enters San Francisco as a thirty- year-old mail-order bride, with hard-working ethics and her blue eyes scanning the western horizon.
While she is nobody’s fool, she has a dream.
Mrs. Kelly wants to leave her Minnesota dairy farm life behind and become a lady in the big city. But her charming husband-to-be isn’t quite the golden ticket she’d been led to believe.
Or is he?
When Patrick Kelly is murdered on their wedding night, he leaves behind a trail of lies that leads Mrs. Kelly deeper into the teeming and tangled layers of city corruption, vice, and injustice. Writing diverse neighborhoods authentically was one of many challenges involved in this series. The drive for accuracy, from menus and maps to politics and prejudices, fueled my love for all things mysterious and historical with hours of deep-diving research.
1882 San Francisco is a fascinating period that deserves more attention in fiction. Landing
between the Gold Rush era and the great quake of 1906, my series preserves a time that is all but extinct. The earthquake and subsequent fires destroyed not only records and buildings, but changed the very landscape of the city, as debris from the wreckage was shoved directly into the water. Though most of San Francisco’s hills remain, you cannot walk the coastline today with 1880s accuracy.
Shadows in Chinatown coincides with Congress passing the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882,
which dramatically impacted (and originated in) San Francisco and provides rich tension for the plot. Considering today’s political climate, the issues presented in this series will resonate strongly with readers.
In a literary world filled with contemporary whodunits, I invite you to explore a vanished San Francisco through the eyes of a determined newcomer who discovers that not all that glitters is gold.
If you enjoy historical mysteries with compelling characters and authentic period details, Mrs. Kelly’s mysteries in 1880s San Francisco should land at the top of your TBR treasure horde. After all, the past holds just as many secrets as the present—and solving them is twice as satisfying.
About the Author
Award-winning author Jolie Tunnell brings the past to life in suspenseful historical mysteries, bringing the flavor of the turn-of-the-century Wild West to the isolated mountains of Idyllwild and the writhing underbelly of San Francisco.
Her books gallop to the last page.
A Southern California native, she loves on her sprawling family, forces her freeloading tomcat to cuddle, and can drink her weight in Yorkshire Gold tea. Sign up for her extraordinary newsletter and settle in for a visit at JolieTunnell.com.
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