Bones of the Barbary Coast: A Cree Black Novel [Audio Cassette]

Daniel Hecht (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2006 | Series: Cree Black Thrillers

A friend and homicide inspector, Bert Marchetti, asks Cree to help investigate a human skeleton recently unearthed in the foundation of a fine Victorian home—apparently the bones of a victim of the 1906 earthquake. The bones have intrigued the forensic anthropology team at UC Berkeley—they call the skeleton Wolfman. Who was the wolfman? What caused his anatomical deformities, and how did he end up in that grand hilltop home? Cree’s historical research takes her back to the unholy glory days of the Barbary Coast, old San Francisco’s infamous red-light district. Her narrative is illuminated by entries from the 1889 diary of Lydia Schweitzer, a Victorian woman with her own secrets—and her own compelling interest in the person who would come to be known as the wolfman. As the mystery unravels, both women must face human nature’s darkest aspects with courage and compassion.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Hecht's less than satisfying third novel to feature paranormal investigator Lucretia "Cree" Black (after 2004's Land of Echoes), an old family friend, SFPD homicide detective Bert Marchetti, who's nearing retirement and wishes to leave the force with as few loose ends as possible, enlists Cree's help with an unusual skeletal find"an apparent victim of the 1906 earthquake whose strange physiognomy leads the forensic anthropologists on the case to dub him the Wolfman. The detective's motives become suspect when Cree realizes that his agenda may include settling scores with a deformed radiologist Marchetti believes is an unpunished murderer. The chance discovery of a 19th-century diary enables Cree to piece together some details about the Wolfman, but the two main plot lines never quite mesh, and her risky actions belie her reputation for being levelheaded. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

The third Cree Black novel is a mystery without a murder and a ghost story without ghosts. But the paranormal investigator still delivers a satisfying adventure as she explores what happened to an abnormal creature that died in the basement of a Victorian-era home during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The Wolfman, as he is called by forensics researchers compelled to examine his distended bones, reunites Cree with SFPD homicide detective Bert Marchetti, a childhood family friend who is about to retire with too many skeletons in his own closet. With the help of a scarred radiologist who hates Bert and might have sociopathic tendencies, Cree immerses herself in the city's checkered past. But while her investigation slowly catches fire, the book's most compelling tale by far is told by Lydia Schweitzer, the woman who lived in the house at the end of the nineteenth century and kept a diary of her encounters with the strange and tragic creature. Readers will be forgiven if they wish for a lot more Lydia and a little less Cree. Frank Sennett
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks; Unabridged edition (July 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078614467X
• ISBN-13: 978-0786144679
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 4.3 x 2.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,869,485 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Everybody was a werewolf", January 17, 2007

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Bones of the Barbary Coast: A Cree Black Novel (Cree Black Thrillers) (Hardcover)

Dan Hecht has written two previous books about Cree Black, a psychologist and 'psychic' investigator with a knack for paranormal contact. In these books she and her partners become enmeshed in what are, for the most part mystery stories where past events are a determinant in a present situation. You could describe them as forensic parapsychology and not be wrong.

Bones of the Barbary Coast is a different animal. The story revolves around the discovery of a skeleton of a human being with a weird deformity that makes the victim appear to be part wolf. There is no apparent murder here, the death was caused by the collapse of a house during the San Francisco earthquake. Cree is asked to come to San Francisco to investigate by an old friend of the family. So you are led to expect some psychic event, but one never really materializes. Instead Cree finds herself in a difficult investigation and discovers some remarkable, but not murderous facts.

The other part of the story revolves around Bert Marchetti, who asked her to come to town, and Cameron Raymond, an X-ray specialist who helps with the study of the bones. Marchetti is a cop on the verge of retirement, profoundly unhappy about his accomplishments and desperate for one last, redeeming arrest. Raymond is a man who has remade his life, but who bears a terrible scarred face as the result of a brutal arrest. The brutality in question was from Marchetti, and you can cut the enmity between the two with a knife.

These two men and Cree, who plays this novel solo are all lonely poles in a drama that parallels the slowly emerging story of the wolfman. These are set aside by disease, by loss, and by fear of the isolation each has to deal with in a story where redemption is a rare commodity. Each must face their flaws and either come to terms with them or fail tragically.

As you can see this is far more a novel than a genre mystery or suspense story. If you've followed the series you may experience some initial discomfort as Hecht sets out into uncharted waters. But, as truth would have it, this is a very readable story, with much that is worthwhile if disquieting. For those that have noticed the author's strong writing skills, this will be a worthwhile exercise.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Is that all there is?, August 28, 2006

By 

LBM "Elbyem" (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bones of the Barbary Coast: A Cree Black Novel (Cree Black Thrillers) (Hardcover)

Before I criticize this book, allow me to say that the first in its series (City of Masks) was superb, and the second (Land of Echoes) was also very good. It is precisely the type of atmospheric terror in those books that is, sadly, what is lacking in this one. There are too many subplots, and they mostly pedestrian. Daniel Hecht is a talented writer, and I usually really enjoy his novels: but the "talent" of Cree Black is not utilized at all in this book. You don't get supernatural, and you don't get romance - just big doses of history and science.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No supernatural in supernatural series book, August 4, 2006

By 

Disappointed Reader (Indianapolis) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bones of the Barbary Coast: A Cree Black Novel (Cree Black Thrillers) (Hardcover)

If you want to read this book because it's the latest in the series, do yourself a favor. Check it out of the library. Don't waste the money.

Cree Black is psychic, and her business is investigating cases in which the client believes the problem to be supernatural. I loved the first books in the series because of the paranormal storylines. That's why I bought this book on sight -- and why I feel cheated out of the price.

Nowhere on the jacket, in fact not until you get several pages into the book, do you discover that there is nothing supernatural in this case. If you happen to be a long way away from the bookstore, as I was, you can't take it back. I would never have bought Bones of the Barbary Coast if I had known it was simply an uncomfortable blend of mildly interesting historical oddity and serial-killer thriller.

The historical part is mostly carried in a diary from the period. Yet this diary is simply rung in. Cree doesn't find it while doing research. I kept wondering why the reader should have access to it if the protagonist doesn't. This is especially true since we are dragged along as Cree searches in vain for anything of real relevance to the historical aspect.

As for the modern mystery, I don't care about the tribulations of Cree's late father's former best friend, or their effect on Cree's psychological problems. My one quibble in the other books has been that it's time Cree got over being suddenly widowed. This book only made that feeling worse.