It was a pleasure to return to Miranda Corbie's noir San Francisco, as World War 2 looms on the horizon and a secretary at a nearby publishing firm comes looking for help. What Miranda discovers as she investigates is a larger conspiracy revolving around a missing manuscript. Great, atmospheric writing and a killer plot make this a fantastic read.

Thanks St. Martin's Press and netgalley for this ARC.

Loved getting back into this series again. Nobody does San Francisco like Kelli Stanley. Loved it.

A wonderful historical mystery set in 1940's San Francisco captured this reader from page one !
I am new to this author so I did not know her work. I was thrilled when I began to read and was instantly transported to 1940's San Francisco into the world of Herb Caan, the vibrant city, the jazz clubs and Alcatraz and the unique time in history that made San Francisco so special at that time. The author has a talent for historical writing and this was a fantastic read.
I loved Miranda as a independent women of that time,, a PI who lived by her own rules. As this book progresses into a mysterious set of circumstances that turn into her next case, many suspects come forth and clues are stacking up. She is a master of solving crimes and proves herself time and time again. She is fiercely independent, very smart and a great protagonist.
I loved this authors writing and have ordered her first books in the series.
Thank you for the ARC which did not influence my review. I look forward to the next in series.

CITY OF SHARKS: A Miranda Corbie Mystery
Kelli Stanley
Minotaur Books
ISBN 978-1-250-00675-2
Hardcover
Mystery

You have got to make the acquaintance of Miranda Corbie. Kelli Stanley’s fully realized private investigator will remain stuck in your mind and memory from the first moment of your initial encounter. Corbie, a private eye in 1940 San Francisco, is a pocketful of contradictions, exhibiting personality traits which are alternately tough and tender as she smokes Chesterfields by the handful while she takes notes in pencil on a Big Chief writing tablet (which, I was delighted to learn, are both still available). Stanley’s research of her adopted city as it was in the mid-twentieth century is so thorough and all-encompassing that the present seems an illusion. To put it another way, the Corbie series, of which the newly published CITY OF SHARKS is the fourth and latest, is a palimpsest of sorts, expect that the past overwrites the present. That’s a poor description of the magic which Stanley creates here, but create it she does.

CITY OF SHARKS is arguably Stanley’s most accessible book in the Corbie canon and her best to date. It runs on a classic p.i. noir plot that opens in media res with Corbie interviewing a new client. Corbie is a week away from leaving San Francisco for war-torn England, in search of her long-lost mother. She really doesn’t need or want another case but she finds it difficult to turn this client down. Louise Crowley is a secretary employed by Alexander Publishing, a literary house which has its offices in the same building where Corbie hangs her own shingle, as it were. Crowley, who has only been in San Francisco for a few months, is convinced that someone is trying to kill her. The sources of her discontent include some anonymous but vile and threatening letters and some near brushes with death. Two --- almost being run down by a car and being shoved into the path of an oncoming bus --- may be an accident or happenstance, but the third, involving some poisoned chocolates, is obviously deliberate. Crowley is rattled but unbowed. Corbie for her part senses that Crowley is lying to her, even as the woman insists that she is telling Corbie the whole truth. She isn’t, of course, as Corbie discovers with some good, old-fashioned shoe leather detective work with a bit of clever disguising and observation thrown in for good measure. Corbie is just getting up to speed about what her client hasn’t told her when murder does indeed rear its head. The victim is not Crowley but her employer. Niles Alexander is a bit of a rake but his extra-marital behavior does not quite explain why he is found in his office with his head caved in. Corbie doesn’t have to conduct an investigation into his death on her own, but she believes that Alexander’s death may be tied to the efforts to unite Crowley with the choir invisible. Corbie follows a trail that leads to nearby Alcatraz --- known as the “City of Sharks” --- and back again, uncovering Crowley’s tenuous but very real ties to that institution as well as some nefarious goings-on occurring within and without its formidable walls. Meanwhile, Corbie’s imminent departure from San Francisco looms in her immediate future, and every street she walks down reminds her of what she will be leaving, even as she faces her own dangers occasioned by what may well be her last case. We can only hope otherwise as CITY OF SHARKS steadfastly moves towards its haunting conclusion.

Stanley in her Acknowledgements at the beginning of CITY OF SHARKS asks if the reader would be interested in seeing more of Miranda in the future and if so, to let her know and to spread the word. Consider it done. And done. Strongly recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2018, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

Well-written historical mystery that is fourth in a series. I am going to read the rest of the series now b/c this book was so good!

Just not for me, I couldn't get passed the first few chapters. I just didn't like the writing style and therefore I have not review it

I read this as a standalone- and was I sorry I had missed the earlier books, not because I was unable to follow the story but because I wish I had met Miranda Corbie earlier. This is a well done historical mystery which uses its 1940 San Francisco setting to good effect. Stanley has captured noir, without going over board, in writing a tale which mixes a murder and the looming WWII. Who killed Niles and took a manuscript from his office? Miranda is sure it isn't Louise, his secretary, and she sets out to prove it. Being a female private investigator in 1940 isn't easy but Miranda is a unique woman with a strong background and integrity. Some real people appear naturally, given that this involves a publisher. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I was intrigued by Miranda's personal growth and look forward to the next book!

Miranda Corbie is thirty something, attempting to make it as a private detective after a heart breaking stint in the Spanish Civil War. She has a minor support system but for the most part finds her strength internally. And City of Sharks plays her down to bare bones. Who would have thought the publishing business would be so dangerous?

This is the fourth Miranda Corbie mystery. I will be looking for the first three, and hope there will be even more. She is a protagonist I would enjoy following.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Kelli Stanley, and Minotaur Books in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

This was sure an easy on the eyes mystery set in the 1930's/1940's San Francisco.

The author did her research and was not afraid to throw in a lot of historical facts to make the story and the setting a very interesting read.

Many thanks to Netgalley and St Martin's Press for this advanced readers copy.

This is the fourth in the Miranda Corbie detective series. Miranda had been living on the dark side of San Francisco in the late 1930s when she was able to get her private investigator license. Now it is 1940 and the US still remained neutral in the war in Europe. However Miranda, with the help of a friend in the State Department in Washington, was planning to board a ship to go to London to find her estranged mother.

As the day of the planned departure from San Francisco approached, a secretary from another office in her building hired Miranda to help with threatening letters she had received as well as some close accidents. The secretary, Louisa Crowley, worked for a small publishing house and had no known enemies. Miranda suspected that there was some secret Louisa was withholding. Then the one morning Miranda discovered her boss, the publisher Niles Alexander, dead in his office. A potentially explosive manuscript was also missing from the office safe. Louise was the prime suspect in the murder and Miranda now had to prove her client’s innocence.

The author embellishes the story with many historical facts about San Francisco and the US in 1940. She also introduces famous people from the era as minor characters. The story is a well crafted mystery in an authentic historical setting.