san francisco (calif.)

First biography of the little-known real-life Tom Sawyer (a friend of Mark Twain during his brief tenure as a California newspaper reporter), told through a harrowing account of Sawyer's involvement in the hunt for a serial arsonist who terrorized mid-nineteenth century San Francisco.

San Franciscan goth girl Abby Normal and her brainiac boyfriend, Stephen "Foo Dog" Wong, pursue a vampire cat and his minions, but things become even more complicated with the arrival of three ancient vampires intent on getting some payback.

Rennell Price has just fifty-nine days to live unless attorney Terri Paget can convince the courts that her new evidence points to another man, but the wheels of politics already in motion continue to hinder Paget's attempts to free Price.

In this magical-realist novel, the father of an African-American family in San Francisco's Fillmore district suffers the effects of violence, drug addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder, but a rebirth may be possible through his son Jamal's art.

When the death of the head of San Francisco's largest HMO in his own hospital turns out to be murder the attending physician, Dr. Eric Kensing, turns to lawyer Dismas Hardy to defend him. As Hardy attempts to find the real culprit he uncovers a twisted conspiracy of greed and death.

Draws from research and eyewitness accounts to reexamine the earthquake that struck San Francisco on April 18, 1906, measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale,and to discuss the fires, plagues, crimes, and other horrors that added to the devastation.

Private investigator Catherine Sayler is hired by the head of a genetic research laboratory to look into a case of continuing vandalism, but then two researchers die under mysterious circumstances and Catherine finds herself face-to-face with a killer.

Lt. Lindsay Boxer and the members of the Women's Murder Club face a defensive hospital administration and a wily killer when they set out to learn why a rash of recuperating patients at a San Francisco hospital, on the verge of being released, have suddenly taken a fatal turn for the worse.

Fourth-grade superhero Jo Schmo and her sidekick Raymond face Dr. Dastardly and Numbskull, who break out of jail and join forces with Pinkbeard's band of time-traveling pirates in an evil revenge plot.