City of Dragons

Starred review from December 21, 2009
Set in San Francisco in 1940, Stanley's stunning first in a new series introduces a gutsy, independent heroine who isn't always likable. As the city celebrates the Chinese New Year with the Rice Bowl Party, a three-day carnival to raise money for China's war relief, PI Miranda Corbie sees Eddie Takahashi, a young Japanese numbers runner, shot dead in front of her on a crowded, fireworks-filled Chinatown street. When the police tell her to forget about Takahashi (“Chalk him up to Nanking”), the outraged Miranda decides to seek justice on her own. In her quest for Takahashi's killer, she encounters racism and sexism at nearly every turn. A former escort who's reinvented herself as a detective, the 33-year-old Miranda isn't taken seriously by the cops, who enjoy rehashing her past. Stanley (Nox Dormienda
) aptly describes San Francisco as a city “redolent and glistening with sin and lamplight, forever a girl you didn't take home to Mother.”

December 15, 2009
A hard-boiled Frisco detective stands alone in seeking the truth.

In Chinatown, the festive Rice Bowl Party for the Chinese New Year drowns out the shot that kills Eddie Takahashi. Though Miranda Corbie is the first to discover the body amid the chaos, her urgent cries for a doctor are swallowed in the celebration's din. She does no better with the police; it's 1940, and the first cop she talks to at the precinct house, whose denizens tag the murder as a low priority, tells her she's no better than a streetwalker. But private eye Miranda, recently back from Franco's Spanish Civil War, is battle-tough, passionate for justice and willing to wear out a lot of shoe leather. She'll need both her street smarts and her .22 to maneuver the gritty San Francisco underworld and to sort out the truth from the lies that thwart her probe. Was teenage Eddie a good boy, as his immigrant parents claim, or a drug mule for shady Chinese herbalist Mike Chen? Did Eddie's Japanese heritage factor into his murder? And how do the landmark Pickwick Hotel and the shady Clube Moderne fit into the puzzle? Intermittent flashbacks thrust Miranda back to war-torn Spain.

The proposed series kickoff, awash in period flavor, showcases a large and colorful supporting cast. Sometimes Stanley (Nox Dormienda, 2008, etc.) seems too enamored of her settings and her neo-noir voice, but for fans of Hammett and Chandler, she'll hit the sweet spot.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from January 15, 2010
While navigating the crowds celebrating the Chinese New Year in San Francisco's Chinatown, PI Miranda Corbie finds the body of Eddie Takahashi. It is 1940, and relations between the Chinese and Japanese communities are tense, owing to Japan's invasion of China. City officials want this case to go away, but Miranda wants justice for an innocent young man. Her past as a highly paid call girl gives her entry into establishments that no one admits are flourishing. VERDICT Miranda Corbie has the potential to be a great series character. Think Barbara Stanwick meets Myrna Loy, then toss in a hard-boiled crime story worthy of Raymond Chandler. This atmospheric series debut by the author of "Nox Dormienda", winner of the Bruce Alexander Award for best historical mystery, will appeal to fans of noir historicals. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 10/1/09; Minotaur First Edition selection; library marketing.]

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2010
Kelli Stanleys impressive new mystery takes readers back to the San Francisco of 1940. It is Chinese New Year, and the three-day Rice Bowl Party is in full swing. Miranda Corbie, a young private investigator, is enjoying the festivities when she stumbles upon the body of Eddie Takahashi. The Chamber of Commerce wants the murder covered up, and the police are happy to forget it, but Miranda wants justice. Her quest takes her through Chinatowns tenements and herb shops to a tailor in Little Osaka and a high-class bordello. Chain-smoking Chesterfields all the while, Kellie tries to get information from both hoods and cops. Stanley has vividly re-created the atmosphere of the era, using authentic San Francisco landmarks and the Golden Gate International Exposition as background. Her hard-boiled, strong female sleuth stalks Hammetts San Francisco and does the job with all the panache of Sam Spade. Readers will eagerly await the next installment in this exciting new hard-boiled series. Recommend this one to fans of Denise Hamiltons The Last Embrace (2008), starring a female sleuth in postwar Los Angeles.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)