In this compulsively readable mystery, the hero is the historical figure Ambrose Bierce, William Randolph Hearst's star reporter and San Francisco's most celebrated writer at the turn of the twentieth century. Bierce is asked to investigate the disappearance of a Hawaiian princess attached to the entourage of King Kalakaua, who is slowly dying in the Palace Hotel's Royal Suite. As Bierce and his protégé, Tom Redmond, search for the missing princess, San Francisco plays host to a throng of Hawaiian royal courtiers and counselors embroiled in a swirl of political intrigue surrounding the successor to the throne.

Intelligent, gripping, and often very funny, this wonderfully tangled tale of murder and mystery is sure to satisfy.

Author Biography: Oakley Hall is the author of more than twenty works of fiction. Director of the Programs in Writing at the University of California at Irvine for more than twenty years, he is the recipient of a Pen Center USA West Award of Honor for a lifetime of literary achievement.