Book Recommendation Day: No Pity for the Dead

Guess who forgot to write a blog yesterday? That’s why this one is almost five hours late.

I didn’t have to look far to come up with a topic for this week’s post: today is Nancy Herriman’s book birthday! I received an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) of No Pity for the Dead, her newest Mystery of Old San Francisco and the sequel to Nancy’s well-reviewed No Comfort for the Lost, and I want to tell everyone about it.

For the sake of getting this blog out as quickly as possible this morning, I’m going to post my Goodreads review of No Pity for the Dead.

“Celia Davies’ adventures continue in this second Mystery of Old San Francisco as she sets herself the task of proving her friend’s husband innocent of the murder of Virgil Nash, a citizen of San Francisco who seems to have made a lot of enemies during his life. In doing so, she takes it upon herself to attempt to find the real killer, much to the consternation of Nick Greaves, the handsome and troubled detective whom readers met in No Comfort for the Lost, Ms. Herriman’s first Mystery of Old San Francisco.

Celia’s young friend Owen finds the body of Mr. Nash in the basement of a building where Owen has been working- a building owned by certain men who have had heated arguments with Mr. Nash over the development of parts of San Francisco.

When Celia accompanies Owen to view the body, the two of them interrupt a mysterious person attempting to inter the body. The person runs off, leaving Celia with more questions than answers. In her efforts to find the killer, Celia puts herself and her young charge, Barbara, in mortal danger by someone who will go to any lengths to remain hidden in the shadows.

No Pity for the Dead isn’t just about murder- it also touches on the prejudice faced by certain minority groups in old San Francisco and especially the Chinese, a group in which Barbara is included.

I loved this book because Ms. Herriman kept me guessing until the end. I imagined the killer to be almost every character she introduced, and she kept any number of plates spinning while she wove her tale. When an author can surprise me, as Ms. Herriman did in both this book and in No Comfort for the Lost, I am an avid fan.

I am struck by the amount of research that obviously went into the writing of this book. Ms. Herriman is able to transport the reader to the streets of old San Francisco- to smell the smells, to feel the dust rising from the streets, to hear the sounds of the city- with aplomb. I heartily recommend this book to anyone interested in historical fiction and mystery!”

You can find No Pity for the Dead by clicking here.

You can find Nancy online by clicking here.

Congratulations, Nancy!

Until next week,

Amy