Portia of the Pacific Historical Mysteries

The First Woman Attorney in California Fights the Patriarchy of the Nineteenth Century Clara Shortridge Foltz faces a patriarchal nemesis in 1884 San Francisco. When a white prostitute is murdered and flayed down to a skeleton, Clara is hired by the Six Companies of Chinatown to defend the sixteen males who are swept-up by the Chinatown Squad. This ragtag and corrupt group of sheriffs works for the mayor, Washington Bartlett. The mayor uses the nation's anti-Chinese sentiment in his quest to win the race for Governor of California. Foltz, the first woman admitted to the California Bar, must learn fast to become a detective in order to prove that her client, journalist George Kwong, is not the killer but was set-up by the mayor to take the fall. Along with Ah Toy, her trusted translator and best friend, she is instructed by the head of detectives, Captain Isaiah Lees. Lees becomes enamored with Clara, who is having personal problems with sexual commitment, due to her first marriage with Jeremiah Foltz. He was a Union vet who deserted Clara and their five children for a younger woman. Captain Lees has personal problems of his own, as he has devoted all his time fighting the corrupt politicians and the Chinatown Squad for twenty years and has not even made time for female relations. Theirs is a very special kind of romance.

Women in 1886 San Francisco investigate murders of husbands by their hypnotized wives. In Musgrave's (Chinawoman's Chance, 2018, etc.) first installment of his series, he tells the story of a fictional 1884 murder case involving several historical San Franciscans, including Clara Shortridge Foltz, California's first female lawyer, and Ah Toy, a famous and wealthy Chinatown madam. In this volume, set two years later, Clara, 37, has been living with her brood of children at a Nob Hill mansion with her best friend, Ah Toy, 58, now an affluent art dealer. At a Rosicrucian gathering, Clara meets Adeline Quantrill, a distressed young woman who can hear thoughts from the living and the dead. She's a disciple of Rosicrucian Dr. Paschal Beverly Randolph, another historical figure, who wrote a banned book on sexual magic. A servant in a prosperous household, Adeline was called as a witness in the trial of Rachel Wilson-Rafferty for killing her abusive husband; the defense hoped her testimony would establish that the wife's doctor mesmerized her into doing it. The Nob Hill crew investigates further: questioning witnesses (sometimes through Adeline's clairvoyance), drawing on Ah Toy's uncle Little Pete (a Chinatown criminal), and learning more about Randolph. Additional cases arise of rich, abusive husbands seemingly murdered by their wives, and clues increasingly point toward wealthy widow Sarah Winchester's mysterious mansion and a flamboyant spiritualist residing there. Can his nefarious plot be stopped? In this second outing, Musgrave nicely orchestrates historical elements from this heady era, such as the Winchester house and Randolph's ideas; they're as strange and compelling as fictive paranormal abilities. The link between the occult and the suffrage movement is a captivating example of how politics makes strange bedfellows, since two of the few venues where women's voices could be heard were churches and spiritualist meetings.

Boomtown San Diego, in 1888, erupts in murder. Retired marshal and hero of the O.K. Corral Wyatt Earp is involved. What's really going on? Award-winning, best-selling mystery author James Musgrave takes issues from the present and turns them into ingenious puzzles for listeners to solve. In the 19th century, the same human foibles existed, but the problems happened at a much slower pace. In The Dancing Murders, Musgrave turns four suspects over to the listener to choose a murderer. Wyatt Earp, the hero of the O. K. Corral shoot-out in Tombstone, Arizona, is charged with the first-degree murder. Series attorney and detective Clara Shortridge Foltz takes the case to defend him as she's moved to the San Diego boomtown, and she needs the money. The mystery soon escalates into a deep and increasingly frightening exploration into sex-trafficking, terrorism, mystical kabbalah, tantric sex, sadomasochism, and the rivalry of three Stingaree bordello madams, who each has a secret. With an extremely unique frame, Musgrave allows the listener to first explore the suspects and the issues through five chapters of prologue. Then, in a very Kurosawa-type twist, as in Rashomon, the listener gets to explore the psyches of the four main suspects in chronological progression. However, deep within these characters, in their first-person narratives, lies the underlying truth of this entire mystery and how it will explode into the plot for the sixth mystery in this popular series.

A metaphysical mystery and thriller in boomtown San Diego of 1888. In this unique frame, best-selling author James Musgrave presents the sixth mystery in his Portia of the Pacific series. Not only does the listener get to choose the suspect, but he/she also is able to explore all four suspects to appreciate the overall scope of this diabolical plot, which leads to mystery #7. Wyatt Earp, the hero of the O. K. Corral shoot-out in Tombstone, Arizona, is charged with the First Degree Murder. Series attorney and detective, Clara Shortridge Foltz, takes the case to defend him, as she's moved to San Diego,, and she needs the money. The mystery soon escalates into a deep and increasingly frightening exploration into sex-trafficking, terrorism, mystical Kabbalah, Tantric sex, sado-masochism, and the rivalry of three Stingaree bordello madams, who each has a secret.