Nancy Herriman

Accused of murdering a child under her care, Irish healer Rachel Dunne flees the ensuing scandal while vowing to never sit at another sickbed. She no longer trusts in her abilities—or God’s mercy. But when a cholera epidemic sweeps through London, she feels compelled to nurse the dying daughter of the enigmatic physician she has come to love. James Edmunds, wearied by the deaths of too many patients, has his own doubts about God’s grace. Can they each face their darkest fears? Or is it too late to learn that trust and love just might heal their hearts?

In 1882 Sarah Whittier dreams of opening an art studio run by immigrant women. She plans to use the house left to her by family friend Josiah Cady as collateral for her studio. But will all be lost when the inheritance is challenged by an angry man claiming to be Josiah’s son and legal heir? Rumor of gold nuggets hidden in the house place Sarah’s life in danger. Her future uncertain and her safety threatened, Sarah has nowhere to turn. That is, unless she can soften a vengeful man’s heart – and they both learn that love is finer than any gold.

When a string of suspicious fires is followed by a grisly murder, Celia and Nick must find the link that connects the crimes and bring a killer to justice . . . When yet another fire destroys a struggling business in the heart of San Francisco, Detective Nick Greaves is fairly certain they’ve got an arsonist on their hands and that lucrative insurance claims are the motive. But before he can act on his suspicions, Celia Davies alerts him that a notorious loan shark has been found murdered—and left on the doorstep of the very insurance agent Nick suspected of fraud. Reluctant to involve Celia in another of his investigations but certain she has information crucial to both cases, Nick agrees to team up with her once again. As they pursue their few murky leads, they discover a shadowy network that counts some of San Francisco’s most prominent businessmen as members—as well as a connection leading to Celia’s estranged and always menacing husband. And when a local policeman at the center of it all is found dead, Celia and Nick must sort through the ashes of a conspiracy to bring down a ruthless killer . . . Praise for the Mysteries of Old San Francisco: “Nancy Herriman has penned a clever, atmospheric mystery with interesting, diverse, and compelling characters that transported me right back to late-19th-century San Francisco! I can’t wait for the next book!” —Colleen Cambridge, Agatha Award-nominated author of Murder at Mallowan Hall “In this latest Mystery of Old San Francisco, justice is served in ways that will leave readers thoroughly satisfied and have them cheering at the end.” —Alyssa Maxwell, author of the Gilded Newport Mysteries “Clever and ever-capable nurse Celia Davies once again finds use for her considerable skills in this compelling series addition. No Refuge from the Grave is a tightly plotted, engrossing mystery that is rich in historical detail and vividly brings to life 1860s San Francisco. I highly recommend this excellent series!” —Ashley Weaver, Edgar Award-nominated author of the Amory Ames Mysteries “Herriman crafts a finely detailed series debut with a sympathetic protagonist and impeccable, colorful depictions of 1860s San Francisco . . . This atmospheric mystery is just the ticket for anyone who misses Dianne Day’s Fremont Jones series as well as readers of Rhys Bowen’s Molly Murphy historicals.” —Library Journal Starred Review of No Comfort for the Lost About the Author: Nancy Herriman left an engineering career to take up the pen and has never looked back. She is the author of the Mysteries of Old San Francisco, the Bess Ellyott Mysteries, and several stand-alone novels. A winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award, when she’s not writing, she enjoys singing, gabbing about writing, and eating dark chocolate. After two decades in Arizona, she now lives in her home state of Ohio with her family.

In this historical mystery series, a courageous nurse and a war-scarred police detective in 1860s San Francisco champion the down-trodden and fight for justice … After serving as a nurse in the Crimea, British-born Celia Davies left her privileged family for an impulsive marriage to a handsome Irishman. Patrick brought her to San Francisco’s bustling shores but then disappeared and is now presumed dead.  Determined to carry on, Celia partnered with her half-Chinese cousin Barbara and her opinionated housekeeper Addie to open a free medical clinic for women who have nowhere else to turn. But Celia’s carefully constructed peace crumbles when one of her Chinese patients is found brutally murdered…and Celia’s hotheaded brother-in-law stands accused of the crime. A veteran of America’s civil war, detective Nicholas Greaves is intent on discovering the killer of the girl, whose ethnicity and gender render her as powerless in death as they did in life. Nicholas’s efforts are complicated by Celia, who has a knack for walking into dangerous situations that may lead to answers…or get them both killed.  For as their inquiries take them from Chinatown’s squalid back alleys to the Barbary Coast’s violent shipping docks to the city’s gilded parlors, Celia and Nicholas begin to suspect that someone very close to them holds the key to a murderous conspiracy…

In a new Mystery of Old San Francisco, when a controversial politician is found dead of natural causes, Celia and Nick must prove that his death came about in a most unnatural way . . . Few in San Francisco were troubled by the news that Ambrose Shaw had been found dead at a local health institute—the prominent banker had recently turned to politics and was reviled by many for his incendiary views. But when Celia Davies learns that his death is considered suspicious by the police and that a damning piece of evidence points to a patient of hers as the culprit, she feels compelled to prove the woman’s innocence. Teaming up with Detective Nick Greaves, Celia soon discovers there’s no shortage of suspects, including the victim’s many political enemies, his disaffected son, who may have been too eager to receive his inheritance, and even the dead man’s fellow patients at the institute, whose founder promises miracle water cures but has been covering up numerous burglaries of his well-to-do clients. As Celia and Nick struggle with their feelings for each other as well as the many murky aspects of the case, they’ll have to navigate an endless trail of false clues and dead ends to reach the cruel truth behind a perplexing murder . . .

In a new Mystery of Old San Francisco, Celia and Nick must look for answers among the dead to stop a killer among the living . . . With the city’s Fourth of July celebrations in full swing, Celia Davies has stolen a moment away from her nursing duties to take in the festive spectacle, but is stunned when she spots the one person she thought she’d never see again—her supposedly dead husband, Patrick. Moments later, the investigator who had confirmed Patrick’s death is killed when he suspiciously falls from a high window, and Celia begins to fear that the roguish man she married has returned to haunt her life once again. Joining forces with Detective Nick Greaves to get to the bottom of the mystery, Celia is soon drawn into a murky séance group, where the voices of the dead suggest that everyone involved in the case is engaged in some sort of fraud or deception. Determined to discover which of them might be a murderer, Celia and Nick will find themselves following a trail of clues that leads them down dark alleys into a shadowy tangle of spiritualism, altered identities, traumatic pasts, and secrets worth killing for . . .