From the New York Times bestselling author of the Quinn Colson series comes a noir crime classic about one of the most notorious trials in American history. San Francisco, September 1921 : Silent-screen comedy star Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle is throwing a wild party in his suite at the St. Francis Hotel-girls, jazz, bootleg hooch...and a dead actress named Virginia Rappe. The D.A. says it was Arbuckle who killed her—crushed her under his weight—and brings him up on manslaughter charges. William Randolph Hearst's newspapers stir up the public and demand a guilty verdict. In desperation, Arbuckle's defense team hires an operative from the famed Pinkerton detective agency to investigate and, they hope, discover the truth. The agent's name is Dashiell Hammett... and what he discovers will change American legal history—and his own life—forever Praise for Devil's Garden “A remarkable book that succeeds on every level. As a riveting detective story, it is great entertainment. As a historical novel, it transports the reader. Atkins' prose, at once muscular and lyrical, is good from the first sentence to the last. He has solidified his place alongside Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos as one of our most important literary crime novelists.”— San Francisco Chronicle “With enviable ease, Atkins brings to life Hammett, Arbuckle, William Randolph Hearst and other real figures of the period. Those familiar with the historical case will be impressed by how well the book meshes fact and fiction. Genre fans who enjoy the grim realism of James Ellroy's post-WWII Los Angeles will find a lot to like in Atkins's Prohibition-era San Francisco.”— Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Atkins artfully recreates California in the 1920s....An utterly engrossing mystery in which the getting there is as satisfying, if not more so, than the reveal.”—Historical Novel Society “Atkins doesn’t just throw real-life facts into his novel; he skillfully weaves them into a suspense-laden story that serves as a look at the early film industry, an homage to Hammett and his  Maltese Falcon,  and a valentine to San Francisco of the 1920s. Even if  Devil’s Garden  has the reader racing to the Web to learn about the real case, Atkins’ gritty take on the era is riveting.”— The Baltimore Sun Ace Atkins  is the  New York Times  bestselling author of the Quinn Colson novels, the first two of which— The Ranger  and  The Lost Ones —were nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel (he also has a third Edgar nomination for his short story, “Last Fair Deal Gone Down”). In addition, he is the author of several  New York Times  bestselling novels in the continuation of Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series. Before turning to fiction, he was a correspondent for the  St. Petersburg Times , a crime reporter for the  Tampa Tribune , and, in college, played defensive end for the undefeated Auburn University football team (for which he was featured on the cover of  Sports Illustrated ). He lives in Oxford, Mississippi. Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Epigraph   Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34   Acknowledgements ALSO BY ACE ATKINS Wicked City White Shadow Dirty South Dark End of the Street Leavin’ Trunk Blues Crossroad Blues G . P. PUTNAM’S SONS Publishers Since 1838 Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa   Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England   Copyright © 2009 by Ace Atkins   Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Atkins, Ace. Devil’s garden / Ace Atkins. p. cm. eISBN : 978-1-101-02239-9 1. Arbuckle, Roscoe, 1887-1933—Fiction. 2. Rappe, Virginia, 1895-1921—Fiction. 3. Hammett, Dashiell, 1894-1961—Fiction. 4. Motion picture actors and actresses—Fiction. 5. Private investigators—Fiction. 6. Trials (Murder)—California—Fiction. I. Title. PS3551.T49D’.54—dc22       While the autho