In this atmospheric historical mystery series debut, a courageous nurse and a war-scarred police detective in 1860s San Francisco champion the down-trodden and fight for justice
After serving as a nurse in the Crimea, British-born Celia Davies left her privileged family for an impulsive marriage to a handsome Irishman. Patrick brought her to San Francisco s bustling shores but then disappeared and is now presumed dead. Determined to carry on, Celia partnered with her half-Chinese cousin Barbara and her opinionated housekeeper Addie to open a free medical clinic for women who have nowhere else to turn. But Celia s carefully constructed peace crumbles when one of her Chinese patients is found brutally murdered and Celia s hotheaded brother-in-law stands accused of the crime.
A veteran of America s civil war, detective Nicholas Greaves is intent on discovering the killer of the girl, whose ethnicity and gender render her as powerless in death as they did in life. Nicholas s efforts are complicated by Celia, who has a knack for walking into dangerous situations that may lead to answers or get them both killed. For as their inquiries take them from Chinatown s squalid back alleys to the Barbary Coast s violent shipping docks to the city s gilded parlors, Celia and Nicholas begin to suspect that someone very close to them holds the key to a murderous conspiracy "