Brave, resourceful, adventurous Fremont (née Caroline) Jones is a woman ahead of her time. Hungry for independence, she's traded in her conventional life in Boston for a career as a "type-writer" in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. But Fremont soon discovers that her clients aren't always what they appear to be, and that in doing her job she's transcribing her way into a wealth of mystery--and mortal danger....

Dashing lawyer Justin Cameron well-nigh sweeps Fremont Jones off her feet--and into a situation ripe with perilous intrigue. A client meets an untimely death that Fremant suspects is linked to the paper she typed for him, of which she can recall but one small fragment. And her attempts to disentangle reality and imagination in the gothic tales penned by Edgar Allan Partridge--whose demeanor is one of terror under the barest restraint--send her up the rocky California coast on a mission of discovery from which she may not return....

A riveting, atmospheric mix of intrigue and humor introduces a new investigator as cultivated as Sherlock Holmes and as spunky as Kinsey Millhone.

From Publishers Weekly

Romantic suspense writer Day (The Stone House) turns to mystery with laudable results. The year is 1905. Fleeing the confines of her staid Boston upbringing and a potential marriage to a loathsome suitor, the modern-thinking Caroline Fremont Jones opens a typewriting business in San Francisco using the name Fremont. Her business brings her in contact with the normally mild young attorney Justin Cameron, who reacts with hostility when Fremont takes dictation from "ancient gentleman" Li Wong. A week later, Li Wong is dead, and Fremont's office is ransacked. Another client, Edgar Allan Partridge, brings three manuscript stories to Freemont for typing but never returns to pick them up. His brooding tales are full of evil and very like those of his namesake. Fremont's investigations into the mysteries of her dead and missing clients lead her to suspect her rooming-house neighbor, whom she believes is a spy. While the plot plays out credibly, Day shines brightest at horror writing: the excerpts from Partridge's stories are truly frightening, their gothic element adding powerful punch to Fremont's first case.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Mix together a foggy San Francisco of 1905, a female Sherlock Holmes, Chinese tongs, a hint of Norman Bates, and Caroline Fremont Jones, late of Boston, and you have this enchanting book. Fremont leaves Boston to escape from an arranged marriage, sets herself up in a "type-writing" (i.e., secretarial) business, and becomes independent. Her first client, Justin Cameron, is a young lawyer who becomes her beau. Another client is the strange and very weird Edgar Partridge. Her landlady, Mrs. O'Leary, and another roomer, Michael Archer, complete the cast. Day, author of several pseudonymous romance novels, has beautifully captured the rhythm and speech of a Victorian novel. She leads Fremont on an extraordinary adventure and the reader on a delightful read. The characters are all a bit mysterious, which adds to the pleasure. Recommended for popular collections.?Barbara Maslekoff, Ohioana Lib., Columbus
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Strange Files of Fremont Jones

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