City of Dragons

Even better the second time

I had the privilege of reading this book in manuscript, and loved it then. With the actual book in hand, I read it again and this time enjoyed it even more. Stanley writes with a potent grasp of time and place, and with a deep understanding of the legacy of her chosen genre. Stanley's San Francisco Chinatown of 1940 is as alive and vibrant, and starkly dangerous, as our world today. Miranda is tough and brittle, bitter yet idealistic, a product of her time who also finds ways to transcend it.

The best books not only give to us, but ask something of us in return. Stanley challenges us to look past our own preconceptions to see into a world very different from our own, and to learn something important about what its darkness can reveal of our own. Miranda is not some enlightened 21st century anachronism plopped down out of time and place, she's a woman of her time, when the Depression still lingered for too many, when the world was inching toward turning upside down forever. She is both fascinating and at times difficult to love, but profoundly genuine. This beautiful, painful book is a must-read.

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Lovely Cover Art

The cover is delightful to look at, but once you turn the page you enter into a world where the author does not speak in her natural voice. She is trying, instead, to create a hard-boiled Dashiel Hammett type of story that just doesn't work. It's too bad because her concept of a female detective in early San Francisco could have been a good one.

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

I WAS SOOO DISAPPOINTED

The premise sounded good but the writing is bad film noir. The main character, Miranda Corbie, survived the war in Spain fighting the Facists, became an escort and is now a PI but when she gets hurt, instead of picking herself up and carrying on she calls a male friend to fix her up and stay with her. There is nothing likeable about this character and I certainly have no desire to read any future books about her.

2 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is a dark gritty historical female Noir

In 1940 San Francisco, the Chinese are very much aware of what the Japanese are doing to their homeland. In a relief effort, leaders are putting on a Rice Bowl party to send aid to the beleaguered Chinese back home. Thirty-three year old private investigator Miranda Corbie is in Chinatown enjoying the gala when she sees a man lying in the street; she goes to help him, but is too late as he was shot to death.

She learns the name of the victim is Eddie Takahashi and she intends to identify his killer. Although Miranda works hard on the case on spite of the police wanting it closed due to international implications, she makes little progress. Meanwhile the private investigator takes on another case; that of Helen Winters who wants to know whether her recently deceased husband allegedly died from a heart attack as the cops insist or murder as she believes. Corbie soon finds the last thing she expected, a link between her two inquiries through drug trafficking, but though obstinate and intrepid, she knows she will uncover the identity of the killer, but could do so as the third victim.

This is a dark gritty historical female Noir starring a woman who is trying to make a life for herself following the death of her beloved in the Spanish Civil War (described in flashbacks by Corbie who was there too). Whereas the two crimes mirror what is happening in China with the Japanese invasion, readers will thoroughly enjoy this fabulous historical mystery especially those who appreciate a strong sense of the era even if at times Corbie's Noir voice feels too Chandlerish.

Harriet Klausner

2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Good premise but tried too hard; still a good read

Stanley is trying for a female Noir detective, but she doesn't quite hit the mark. There are too many coincidences, not enough real detective work, and a LOT of corrupt cops and gangsters. And in an effort to emphasize the 40's, there is a lot of booze and cigarettes. If you want real Noir, read The Maltese Falcon. If you want romance noir, this is the place. The mystery was good but expectable, and the 40's details were overly obvious. Maybe the next one will get better. I am willing to give another one a try, but only by borrowing it from the library.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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