Death on Telegraph Hill

Starred review from August 13, 2012
At the start of Tallman’s excellent fifth Victorian historical featuring lawyer Sarah Woolson (after 2010’s Scandal on Rincon Hill), Sarah attends a reception in 1882 for a touring Irish poet, Oscar Wilde, held at the home of a newspaper publisher who’s a friend of her crime journalist brother, Samuel, on San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill. Shortly after Sarah and Samuel leave the party, a gunman seriously wounds Samuel, though it’s unclear whether Samuel or Sarah herself was the intended target. Despite her family’s fears for her safety, Sarah decides to track down the shooter. Meanwhile, her struggling law practice receives a boost after a couple representing the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals hires her to stop a wealthy Mexican from building a bull-fighting ring, a proposal that already has the backing of City Hall. Tallman convincingly makes her lead a dogged and fearless sleuth. Agent: Miriam Kriss, the Irene Goodman Agency.