Customer Reviews

Murder on Nob Hill (Sarah Woolson Mysteries)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Murder on Nob Hill (Sarah Woolson Mysteries)
Shirley Tallman did a great job of introducing Sarah Woolson. Sarah is a new attorney, and immediately gets invoved in a mystery. You better believe that the fact that Sarah is a FEMALE attorney in early 20th century San Francisco causes astonishment, consternation, and many outcries.

I do love reading historical mysteries and I have not had as much fun reading about San Francisco since Dianne Day's Fremont Jones series. I like Miss Woolson, and her family and friends, more with each paragraph. I have the first three books of the series and can hardly wait for the fourth book to be published.

(Also, Shirley Tallman has an interesting website.)

I found Murder on Nob Hill to be a delightful blend of a good who-done-it and accurate historical reporting. Since I devour historical non-fiction, I was pleased to see that Shirley Tallman has done an excellent job of research of the City of San Francisco during the 1880's. All of her historical facts are true. So it's a book that's enjoyable and informative all at the same time.

Sarah Woolson is very fiesty and sometimes overly ideal. She does stretch the envelope of what was socially and politically acceptable at that time. However, the bottom line is, she wants to solve the mysteries she finds herself entangled in and do good for others. I found myself rooting her on and enjoying the small advances she made in furthering her causes.

All in all, a very good start to a new Historical Mystery Series by Shirley Tallman. Those of you who love a good who-done-it will enjoy Murder on Nob Hill immensely.

I'm glad I happened upon this book in the library, as it ended up being an enjoyable read and a good mystery. The heroine, Sarah Woolson, is a real spitfire and very opinionated; while sometimes annoying, she is for the most part a great lead character - and at times very funny. Her family is very interesting and they are a great addition to the cast of characters. I also loved Robert Campbell, a fellow associate attorney at their firm, a big and loud Scot alway objecting to Sarah's ideas and plans, but then getting involved despite himself. Their bickering and squabbling is often amusing and I'm personally hoping that their relationship develops into a more, umm ... harmonious one, shall we say ;-).

Tallman's writing is very simple and her storytelling straightforward, not that either of these things are bad. One criticism I do have is that sometimes it seemed like she needed a better editor, as you have the same word that would appear twice in one sentence or in two consecutive sentences. May seem like a picky objection, but for me it was noticeable and bothersome.

The mystery itself was very well-done and definitely keeps the reader engaged. You start to develop a theory, which gains shape as additional things are revealed. It is a mystery, though - not blatantly obvious - and has some great twists and turns. Another great aspect of this book is that the historical setting feels very authentic. I look forward to reading the other books in the series!

THE SARAH WOOLSON MYSTERY SERIES:
Book 1 - MURDER ON NOB HILL (4 stars)
Book 2 - The Russian Hill Murders (4 stars)
Book 3 - The Cliff House Strangler
Book 4 - Scandal on Rincon Hill

Although some of the politics and feminism of the book are both natural for the book and reasonably well handled, the overall amount of politics seems a little much at times. How much of it is on purpose and how much is the author's Bay-Area liberalism subconsciously creeping into the story? Murder on Nob Hill is a prize example of the San Francisco School of mystery writing. Consider the parallels between Sarah and a liberal San Francisco baby boomer:
* born to privilege
* indulged by her parents
* has savior of victims complex
* depends on societal conventions to protect her while flouting those same conventions to pursue her 'just cause'
* all of her lies, deceits, etc., are fine because they are for the greater good but the same things from other people are reprehensible
* is not just a feminist but also worries about minority rights, open spaces, and so on and so on

The book has other predilections consistent with current San Francisco liberal values
* conservative politicians are portrayed as stupid and/or corrupt (there's even a cheap shot at 'family values' politicians that is particularly jarring) while crusading journalists and lawyers are the good guys
* its a stretch but arguably the root of all the bad things that happen is lack of universal health care
* there's lots of hand wringing about how the killer was driven to his crimes by rich white guys