San Jose Escorts: A strong start to a new mystery series
… City of Dragons” by Kelli Stanley; Minotaur (352 pages, $24.99)Unconventional characters provide the backbone of the mystery genre. And Kelli Stanley’s riveting new series about 1940s San Francisco private investigator Miranda Corbie revels in the character’s uniqueness without resorting to cliches.
Miranda’s former life as an “escort,” a euphemistic attempt to soften that she sometimes was a prostitute, is only part of the back story of this very complex character with a dark past.
The gritty, hard-boiled “City of Dragons” works as an insightful look at racisim and sexism. Stanley never misses a beat as she also shows San Francisco’s hidden corners, seething emotions in the days before WWII.
On this bright February day in 1940, San Francisco is alive with fireworks and crowds as the city celebrates the Chinese New Year with the Rice Bowl Party. This year the three-day carnival is a fund-raiser for China’s war relief. The horrors of The Rape of Nanking – the Japanese capture of the Chinese city – have emotions running high, especially in Chinatown where the news has many personal ramifications for the citizenry.