Ambrose Bierce and the One-Eyed Jacks: An Ambrose Bierce Mystery (Ambrose Bierce Mystery Novels) [Hardcover]

Oakley Hall (Author)

Book Description

Series: Ambrose Bierce Mystery Novels | Publication Date: January 27, 2003

Ambrose G. ("Almighty God") Bierce, San Francisco's legendary newspaperman and sometime-sleuth, is hardly surprised to be consulted by William Randolph Hearst when the latter's mistress finds herself photographically compromised.

But in the rough 1890s Bay Area streets, Hearst's isn't the only case on the boil. Bierce and his sidekick Tom Redmond follow a trail of murder that leads from a sinister British yachtsman to a photographer of female flesh, via the beauty queen of the Portuguese Pentecostal festival; white slavers; a slave ship and the Chinese girls who have been imported on it; tong hit men; Dionysian revels; and a shocking photography ring. Bierce's unraveling of it all sheds a blinding light on parental guilt and fin-de-siécle morality. The third in Hall's Ambrose Bierce series, this is a must-have for fans of Caleb Carr's The Alienist, E. L. Doctorow's The Waterworks, and all historical adventures.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After their Hawaiian escapades in Ambrose Bierce and the Death of Kings (2001), the irascible author of The Devil's Dictionary (fitting definitions from which head each chapter) and his Boswell, Tom Redmond, find murder and hanky-panky aplenty back home in California. At the behest of millionaire publisher Willie Hearst, the pair investigates two murders-that of a photographer in Hearst's employ and that of a randy British yachtsman (known as a "one-eyed jack")-as well as the theft of some intimate photos of Hearst's gorgeous mistress. Redmond's attentions are divided between the chase and his latest love, Eliza Lindley, directress of the Stockton Street Mission and savior of Chinese girls from evil slavers. Unsurprisingly, a connection between the murders and the slavers soon emerges. Like Bierce, Hall is fond of coincidences, some of which strain credulity, but few readers will mind amid all the driving action, including midnight revels in Sausalito and white-water chases across San Francisco Bay. Also like Bierce, who delivers a gem of a lecture on good writing in chapter two, Hall has become a master of succinct description ("Miss Lindley... smelled of soap"; "Stone rearranged his graceful slouch"). The fate of Willie Hearst, women's honor and Tom Redmond's fragile heart hang in the balance, and Hall keeps all pots boiling and in concert right to the end.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Oakley Hall has one of the finest prose styles around; tough, agile, but tinged with a sepia hint of gentlemanly elegance.” (Michael Chabon) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; First Edition edition (January 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670031801
• ISBN-13: 978-0670031801
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,990,670 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Historical Detective Mystery & Good Entertainment, January 15, 2010

By 

Douglas S. Wood "Vicarious Life" (Monona, WI) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Ambrose Bierce and the One-Eyed Jacks (Paperback)

Oakley Hall is better known for more literary works like Warlock (New York Review Books Classics), but his series of historical mysteries featuring Ambrose Bierce should not be missed.

If you do not know about Ambrose Bierce, then stop reading this and get a copy of The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary and then get a copy of Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (Classic Reprint). To say that he had a "sardonic view of human nature" as Wikipedia does is probably a bit too sunny. Think Mark Twain in his later days, but with the humor still intact.

Anyway, it's 1891 and Bierce and our narrator Tom Redmond are working for Willie Hearst's San Francisco Examiner. When some naughty photographic plates of Hearst's girl go missing, they are dispatched to find and retrieve them. Two murders in Sausalito seem connected with the missing photo plates and the general debauchery rampant in town across the bay from the City.

Hall also takes a poke at one of the darkest dark sides in American history. Redmond is covering Chinatown and its child slavery and prostitution and falling in love with the religious activist Eliza Lindley. The tong, of course, hate Lindley and take steps to stop her - when they aren't too busy fighting one another. Lindley's ally and successful lawyer "falls" down a staircase and breaks his neck. Redmond is on the spot when "highbinders" from the Feng yups tong assassinate the leader of the Sam yups in a scene that rings true.

I disagree with other reviewers here, in particular that the plot is predictable - if anything, I would give demerits for the improbability of the way the story lines are tied together. And while Redmond is the main protagonist, Bierce is certainly more than a "very minor" character.

Ambrose Bierce and the One-Eyed Jacks is an entertainment worthy of attention even if it does not rise above the level of its genre.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Hardy Boys for adults., August 16, 2007

By 

W. Wedenoja (Springfield, MO) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ambrose Bierce and the One-Eyed Jacks (Paperback)

Ambrose Bierce is a cynical writer for the San Francisco Examiner who likes to investigate mysteries. In this story, set in 1891, he delves into the murder of a notorious British yachtsman who is luring young ladies to his boat. The story is told from the perspective of his fellow reporter and side-kick, Tom Redmond, who falls in love with the mysterious Eliza Lindley, which is half the story. Bierce is also smitten by another reporter. The book is mildly amusing and a quick, easy read, but not memorable and therefore hard to recommend.

5 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars false advertising, March 18, 2003

By 

lawrence mencotti (meadville, pa USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ambrose Bierce and the One-Eyed Jacks: An Ambrose Bierce Mystery (Ambrose Bierce Mystery Novels) (Hardcover)

The plot is predictable; the setting ill-developed; and the characters are shallow. The novel could have been as easily set in the LA of the 1930s as SF of the 1890s. Each chapter is preceded by an entry from the Devil's Dictionary the relevance of which for any given chapter is often problematic. What really rankles me is that although Ambrose Bierce is featured in the title he is a VERY minor character in the novel coming across as a somewhat cynical middle aged de facto bachelor smitten by a rather supercilious newspaperwoman. On the positive side the novel is short and not demanding--a perfect soporific.