City of Dragons

✍ Scribed by Stanley, Kelli

• Book ID: 108129006
• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 222 KB
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN-13: 9780312603601

✦ Synopsis

February, 1940. In San Francisco's Chinatown, fireworks explode as the city celebrates Chinese New Year with a Rice Bowl Party, a three day-and-night carnival designed to raise money and support for China war relief. Miranda Corbie is a 33-year-old private investigator who stumbles upon the fatally shot body of Eddie Takahashi. The Chamber of Commerce wants it covered up. The cops acquiesce. All Miranda wants is justice--whatever it costs. From Chinatown tenements, to a tattered tailor's shop in Little Osaka, to a high-class bordello draped in Southern Gothic, she shakes down the city--her city--seeking the truth. An outstanding series debut.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Set in San Francisco in 1940, Stanley's stunning first in a new series introduces a gutsy, independent heroine who isn't always likable. As the city celebrates the Chinese New Year with the Rice Bowl Party, a three-day carnival to raise money for China's war relief, PI Miranda Corbie sees Eddie Takahashi, a young Japanese numbers runner, shot dead in front of her on a crowded, fireworks-filled Chinatown street. When the police tell her to forget about Takahashi (Chalk him up to Nanking), the outraged Miranda decides to seek justice on her own. In her quest for Takahashi's killer, she encounters racism and sexism at nearly every turn. A former escort who's reinvented herself as a detective, the 33-year-old Miranda isn't taken seriously by the cops, who enjoy rehashing her past. Stanley (Nox Dormienda) aptly describes San Francisco as a city redolent and glistening with sin and lamplight, forever a girl you didn't take home to Mother. (Feb.)
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From Booklist

Starred Review Kelli Stanley’s impressive new mystery takes readers back to the San Francisco of 1940. It is Chinese New Year, and the three-day Rice Bowl Party is in full swing. Miranda Corbie, a young private investigator, is enjoying the festivities when she stumbles upon the body of Eddie Takahashi. The Chamber of Commerce wants the murder covered up, and the police are happy to forget it, but Miranda wants justice. Her quest takes her through Chinatown’s tenements and herb shops to a tailor in Little Osaka and a high-class bordello. Chain-smoking Chesterfields all the while, Kellie tries to get information from both hoods and cops. Stanley has vividly re-created the atmosphere of the era, using authentic San Francisco landmarks and the Golden Gate International Exposition as background. Her hard-boiled, strong female sleuth stalks Hammett’s San Francisco and does the job with all the panache of Sam Spade. Readers will eagerly await the next installment in this exciting new hard-boiled series. Recommend this one to fans of Denise Hamilton’s The Last Embrace (2008), starring a female sleuth in postwar Los Angeles. --Barbara Bibel