"Bringing Victorian San Francisco to colorful life, Tallman offers an entertaining mystery…that will appeal to fans of Anne Perry and Rhys Bowen." ―Library Journal San Francisco, 1882. After enjoying an evening listening to the young Oscar Wilde, crusading young lawyer Sarah Woolson and her brother, Samuel, are making their way home when a gunshot sounds and a bullet pierces the fog, striking Samuel. Who could want to hurt Samuel? Was he even the intended target? Determined to find answers, Sarah discovers more murder and mayhem on Telegraph Hill. With Death on Telegraph Hill , Shirley Tallman delivers an exciting whodunit with a trailblazing heroine in a time and place when a nice young woman was supposed to be found in the drawing room instead of the courtroom. Tallman’s fifth Victorian mystery featuring San Francisco attorney Sarah Woolson has the feisty young woman worrying about the solvency of her law practice. When a snooty couple representing the SPCA hires her to prevent a wealthy Mexican from building a bullring in the city, she goes to work on the case, despite threats from a man who has strong connections to City Hall. Meanwhile, she accompanies her brother, Samuel, to a reception for Oscar Wilde held on Telegraph Hill. On the way home, there are gunshots and Samuel is severely wounded. Who would want to kill Samuel? Was Sarah really the target? Despite her family’s objections, Sarah is determined to find the shooter. The police do not seem interested. She discovers plenty of mayhem on Telegraph Hill. Tallman continues to provide an excellent historical series featuring a strong female who wants a career in law rather than life as a society matron. --Barbara Bibel “Excellent...Tallman convincingly makes her lead a dogged and fearless sleuth.” ― Publishers Weekly (starred) on Death on Telegraph Hill SHIRLEY TALLMAN, the author of four previous Sarah Woolson mysteries, moved to San Francisco at an early age. She and her husband, Bob, live in Eugene, Oregon, where she works as a novelist and screenwriter. Visit her on the Web at ShirleyTallman.com. Death on Telegraph Hill A Sarah Woolson Mystery By Shirley Tallman Minotaur Books Copyright © 2012 Shirley Tallman All right reserved. ISBN: 9781250010438 CHAPTER ONE     A sudden gust of wind hit me full in the face, nearly causing me to lose my footing on the wooden steps leading up the east slope of San Francisco’s Telegraph Hill. Burrowing my head farther inside my hood, I hastened to catch up with my brother Samuel, who was several stairs ahead of me. He was obviously as eager as was I to be done with this precipitous climb. It was a cold, clear evening late in March 1882. In addition to the gusting wind, the approaching dusk was making our hike up the Filbert Street Steps more arduous than if undertaken during daylight hours. Had I known what lay in store for us that night, the efforts of this ascent would have seemed very trivial indeed. But I am getting ahead of my story. Our destination was the home of Mortimer Remy, a friend of my brother’s and publisher of the San Francisco Weekly, a popular newspaper that often bought Samuel’s crime articles. Mr. Remy had invited a group of local authors to meet the young Irish poet Oscar Wilde, who was touring the United States to publicize a book of poetry he had published the previous year. At least that was the ostensive reason given for his visit. It was hardly a secret that the actual purpose of the trip was to tout the so-called Aesthetic Movement, which comprised artists, poets, and writers who argued that art need not be practical or useful, but should exist solely for its own sake. Mr. Wilde, the self-proclaimed champion of this philosophy, announced that it was his mission “to make this artistic movement the basis for a new civilization.” Curious to meet the colorful personality, I had readily accepted Samuel’s invitation to accompany him to the reading. Tonight’s clear view demonstrated how Telegraph Hill had received its name some thirty-two years earlier: it possessed an excellent vantage point for sighting ships entering the bay. In order to alert the town to these much-anticipated arrivals—bearing mail and necessary goods—a windmill-like structure called a semaphore had been erected atop the Hill. The contraption had long since disappeared, but its brief existence had permanently established the hill’s identity. Mortimer Remy’s home was located on a narrow dirt-and-gravel street, perhaps more correctly labeled a “byway.” It was a modest, gabled-roof cottage, probably dating from the late 1850s or early 1860s. Houses along this lane were all but impossible to reach by one-horse, sometimes even two-horse, carriages. A real estate man by the name of Frederick O. Layman had recently applied for a city franchise to run a cable car line up Telegraph Hill. Reportedly, Mr. Layman’s ultimate plan was to construct an observatory atop the hill and required the cable car line to