Review: Another delightful story in Victorian San Francisco
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 5, 2014
If you are already a fan of Locke's Victorian San Francisco Mystery Series, this short story will pull you back into Annie Fuller's world. For others, this is chance to get a brief taste of a series from a masterful storyteller who happens to be an excellent historian.The star of this vignette is Mr. Wong, Annie's ally from Maids of Misfortune. Wong is one of my favorite characters from the series and I always suspected there was more to his story. So, I enjoyed learning a little bit of his backstory and seeing him in action again.As always, the city itself plays a key supporting role and Locke's expertise lends an air of credibility and depth to the story. The effects of social upheaval across the ocean in southern China ripple into Annie's life and she reaches out to Mr. Wong for help he is uniquely positioned to provide. In the end, a wrong is righted against the backdrop of the much larger wrongs that afflicted San Francisco and its Chinese immigrant community during this era. One of the great strengths of Locke's stories is that the characters are complex and interesting people who are both of their time and  dealing with the timeless issues of the human condition.