Oakley Hall’s Ambrose Bierce mystery series has gained an impressive list of devotees, from Richard Ford to Diane Johnson and Amy Tan to Thomas Keneally. The sights, sounds, and smells of 1890s San Francisco surround readers as larger-than-life Ambrose “Bitter” Bierce tracks California’s notorious criminal minds.
The fifth volume in the series, Ambrose Bierce and the Ace of Shoots follows the outspoken newspaperman as he and his associate Tom Redmond hunt down a celebrity shooter. When Colonel Studely brings his world-famous Wild West Show to town, he gets more than just a warm welcome. As the parade makes its way down Market Street, the colonel is shot dead. With clues and sinister motives—a trail of seduction, a vengeful train robber, a haze of opium— emerging from every direction, Bierce is stymied, but pierces the fog to reveal the true culprit. Ambrose Bierce and the Ace of Shoots is a rough-and-tumble romp through gritty old San Francisco.
