Ambrose Bierce and the Queen of Spades: A Mystery Novel

The Morton Street Slasher has been leaving the corpses of his victims around San Francisco's Union Square. On the women's naked bodies are spade playing cards. The city's infamous newspaperman, Ambrose Bierce, blames the rash of murders on his old enemy, the Southern Pacific Railroad. A naive reporter at Bierce's Hornet pursues the case, uncovering conspiracy at every turn.

In a fast-paced novel that is a combination of murder mystery, historical fiction, and quirky biography, Oakley Hall dr...