Cover of Bones of the Barbary Coast

Bones of the Barbary Coast

Cree Black seriesbook 3 of 3

In this thrilling novel set in two periods of San Francisco history, Cree Black confronts the mystery of one of the strangest victims of the Great Quake.

Read more

Bert Marchetti, an old family friend of Cree's and an SFPD homicide inspector, has asked Cree to help investigate a human skeleton recently unearthed in the foundation of a fine Victorian home—apparently the bones of a victim of the 1906 earthquake. The bones have been sent to UC Berkeley for analysis, where their peculiar characteristics have intrigued the forensic anthropology team. They call the skeleton Wolfman.

Who was the wolfman? What caused his anatomical deformities, and how did he end up in that grand hilltop home? Cree's historical research takes her back to the unholy glory days of the Barbary Coast, old San Francisco's infamous red-light district. As she assists at the forensics lab, she also begins to realize that Bert Marchetti's involvement with the case is more complex than he has let on. Her narrative is illuminated by entries from the 1889 diary of Lydia Schweitzer, a Victorian woman with her own secrets—and her own compelling interest in the person who would come to be known as the wolfman.

A vivid and elegantly plotted thriller that reveals San Francisco's hidden face across two centuries, Bones of the Barbary Coasttells the story of two women determined to face human nature s darkest aspects with courage and compassion.

Themes
feminism
Setting
San Francisco
Audience
adult
Length
long · 400 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked Bones of the Barbary Coast? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Bones of the Barbary Coast. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Dragon Fire Shares fiction, thriller
  2. Cat in the Flock Shares mystery, paranormal, mystery thriller
  3. Dogs Don't Lie Shares mystery, paranormal, mystery thriller
  4. The Paper Doll Museum Shares mystery, fantasy, mystery thriller

“People who read Bones of the Barbary Coast tend to reach for these next.”

  1. The Quick Adios
  2. The Panama Laugh
  3. The Gnostic Mystery
  4. Fangs Out

“If you want more of the same (mystery about feminism), start with these.”

  1. The Barbary Dogs
  2. Swing: A Mystery
  3. Skulduggery
  4. Hungry Ghosts

“If it was the mystery thriller that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Wine of Angels
  2. All in One Piece
  3. Thirty-Four and a Half Predicaments Bonus Chapters
  4. All Saints' Secrets

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Buried Alive
  2. Silence of the Grave
  3. Trail of Bones: More Cases from the Files of a Forensic Anthropologist
  4. The Bone Lady: Life as a Forensic Anthropologist