City of Secrets

July 4, 2011
PI Miranda Corbie searches for the killer of two young women, both stabbed to death with an ice pick, both with an ethnic slur written in blood on their bodies, in Stanley's bleak, noirish sequel to City of Dragons (2010). Working for the lawyer of the accused murderer, a corrupt cop who's apparently been set up, Miranda follows clues through the San Francisco of 1940, a city that seethes with racial hatred, is riddled by police corruption, and vigorously hosts an unsavory night life. Headlines from the war in Europe sound a recurrent note of impending doom. The deeply cynical Miranda, scarred by early abuse and a lover's death, is in danger of spinning out of control as she fights her own neuroses and addictions. In best pulp fiction style, suspects lounge about with slick hair and cheap suits, blondes are chain-smoking broads, and the nightclubs are smoky and languid.

September 15, 2011
Frisco is rocked by a brutal serial killer with a raw streak of anti-Semitism.

After weeks of preparation, the San Francisco World's Fair is set to open on May 25, 1940. Early that morning, the named corpse of beautiful Pandora Blake is found sprawled across a platform at the Artists and Models exhibition, the word "kike" carved into her body. Before contacting the police, the Exposition owner calls in hard-boiled Miranda Corbie (City of Dragons, 2010). Miranda feels an affinity for a young victim who, like herself, was once a small-town girl from Omaha. The private eye's relationship with Captain O'Meara is strained at the best of times; the fair's importance and a heat wave do nothing to ameliorate their conflict. Under police pressure, she gets fired from the gig. But, lacking another case at the moment, she can't help trying to do right by Pandora, whose friends freely offer opinions about her killer. Both hard-bitten Sheila and much-younger Loretta finger Henry, a violent animal trainer. When Miranda questions him, his pent-up rage is so palpable that she reaches for her .22. The Chesterfield-smoking gumshoe has a haunted past, revealed in snippets of flashback. Developments in the case come rapid-fire, beginning with the similar murder of Annie Learner, who also worked at Artists and Models. When ex-cop Gerry Duggan is arrested for both crimes, Miranda takes on the unsavory job of proving his innocence.

Stanley's brittle prose and period touches effectively capture the feeling of '40s noir, even if the somber tone seems forced at times.

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Starred review from August 1, 2011

Welcome back captivating and tough-talking PI Miranda Corbie (City of Dragons), who's determined to find out who killed stage performer Pandora Blake and defiled her body with an anti-Semitic epithet. With her well-known compassion for the underdog, Miranda isn't about to let this slide. Discovering that Pandora isn't this killer's first victim, Miranda follows her instincts and unearths a conspiracy with horrifying implications. By the time she recognizes that the personal hate crimes are escalating into public violence, she's on deck to be the next victim. VERDICT Flashbacks to Miranda's involvement in the Spanish civil war and the death of her lover Johnny help flesh out her character in this engrossing sequel. Most notably, Stanley brings 1940s San Francisco to life with her meticulously detailed, hard-boiled novel. She transports us to a world on the eve of massive change. It's neonoir in a classical five-act structure, starring one of crime's most arresting heroines: angry, big-hearted, and fearless Miranda Corbie.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2011
Kelli Stanley's Miranda Corbie is back. Pandora Blake, a performer at the 1940 World's Fair on San Francisco's Treasure Island, has been murdered. An anti-Semitic slur marks her body. Miranda, working security at the fair, is fired to prevent her from investigating the crime. Of course, that doesn't stop her. Between cigarettes and shots of bourbon, Miranda and a reporter friend uncover a layer of anti-Semitism and Fascist sympathy in local society that links to some shocking events at the Calistoga spas. Miranda continues to fight the good fight in Hammett's San Francisco, making Sam Spade proud and giving readers a treat.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)