The Cliff House Strangler

May 7, 2007
P
lucky lawyer Sarah Woolson arrives at rugged Land's End on a predictably dark and stormy night in Tallman's third entertaining and atmospheric 1880s San Francisco whodunit (after 2005's The Russian Hill Murders
). Socialites have gathered at Cliff House for a séance with Madame Karpova, self-proclaimed Russian psychic. She puts on a good show until tell-all columnist Darien Moss decides to spoil the party. Then comes a crash of lightning, the lights go out, and when they come back on, Darien is found garroted with a balalaika string. Sarah, trying to establish herself as San Francisco's first female attorney, turns sleuth with the help of her devoted brother, a crime novelist. Mounting corpses distract Sarah from the miseries of her first client, a single mother whose flight from a drunken husband (legally represented by Sarah's love interest, Robert Campbell) provides a poignant subplot. Tallman throws in some unexpected twists, keeping the reader guessing to the end.