Uneasy Spirits

In this sequel to Maids of Misfortune, it is the fall of 1879, and when the young San Francisco widow, Annie Fuller, is asked to investigate a fraudulent trance medium, she comes to a troubling realization. Despite Annie’s growing financial success as the clairvoyant Madam Sibyl, she feels increasingly guilty about the fact she doesn’t believe in the astrology and palmistry her clients think are the basis for her advice.

Kathleen Hennessey, Annie’s young maid, has a plan. Just like the Pinkerton detectives she has read about in the dime novels, she is determined to assist her mistress in her investigations.

Nate Dawson, up-and-coming San Francisco lawyer, faces a dilemma. He wants to marry the unconventional Annie Fuller, but he doesn’t feel he can reveal his true feelings until he has a way to make enough money to support her.

With Kathleen and Nate Dawson’s help, Annie delves into the intriguing world of 19th century spiritualism, encountering true believers and naïve dupes, clever frauds and unexplained supernatural phenomena, and she soon finds there are as many secrets as there are spirits swirling around the séance table. Some of those secrets will threaten the foundation of her career as Madam Sibyl and the future of her relationship with Nate Dawson, and, in time, they will threaten her very life itself.

Deadly Proof

It’s the summer of 1880, and once again the lovely and inquisitive businesswoman, Annie Fuller, is helping San Francisco lawyer and fiancé, Nate Dawson, with a troublesome case. Nate’s client, a female typesetter accused of murdering her boss, refuses to help in her own defense. Complicating matters, Nate’s sister Laura insists on getting involved in the potentially dangerous investigation, while Laura’s friend Seth Timmons, troubled Civil War veteran, finds himself a witness for the prosecution.

Will Nate be able to win his first big case? Will Laura and Seth find some way of remaining friends? And finally, will Annie and Nate’s upcoming nuptials be derailed by their attempts to track down a killer?

Deadly Proof was a first place winner in the 2017 Chanticleer Mystery and Mayhem Awards

Scholarly Pursuits

“Something is rotten in the state of Berkeley”–1881 Blue and Gold Yearbook, University of California: Berkeley

In Scholarly Pursuits, the sixth full-length novel in the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco mystery series, Locke explores life on the University of California: Berkeley campus in 1881, where Laura and her friends face the remarkably modern problems of fraternity hazings, fraught romantic relationships, and fractious faculty politics.

While Annie and Nate Dawson and friends and family in the O’Farrell Street boardinghouse await a blessed event, Laura Dawson finds herself investigating why a young Berkeley student dropped out of school in the fall of 1880.

No one, including her friend Seth Timmons, thinks this is a good idea, since she is juggling a full course load with a part-time job, but she can’t let the question of what happened to her friend go unanswered. Not when it means that other young women might be in danger.

Entangled Threads

A Victorian San Francisco Mystery

“Oh what a tangled web we weave. When first we practice to deceive.” –Sir Walter Scott

It is San Francisco in the summer of 1882, and Annie and Nate Dawson have finally found a good balance between the demands of family and work. Nate has an interesting legal case defending a young woman who has been left out of her mother’s will. Annie is looking into whether the financial difficulties facing the Potrero Woolen Mills are caused by bad management or bad luck. For her own reasons, Biddy O’Malley is eager to help Annie with her investigation. What none of the three of them could anticipate was how secrets and unexpected entanglements would complicate their search for the truth.

Entangled Threads is the eighth full-length novel in the USA Today best-selling author’s Victorian San Francisco Mystery series. However, it can be read as a stand-alone by anyone who enjoys cozy historical mysteries with an amateur female sleuth.

Victorian San Francisco Mysteries: Books 5-7

Pilfered Promises, Scholarly Pursuits, Lethal Remedies

Annie and Nate Dawson, joined by family and friends from the O’Farrell Street boardinghouse, investigate crimes in books 5-7 of the romantic and suspenseful Victorian San Francisco Mystery series. This boxed set includes Pilfered Promises, Scholarly Pursuits, and Lethal Remedies.

This boxed set of three cozy, historical mysteries, set in late nineteenth-century San Francisco, is appropriate for teens to adults, and it is a welcome companion to Locke’s Victorian San Francisco Mysteries: Books 1-4, and her Victorian San Francisco Stories: Volume 1 and 2 and Victorian San Francisco Novellas, which feature beloved minor characters.

Kathleen Catches a Killer

As 1880 comes to a close, the O’Farrell Street boardinghouse servant, Kathleen Hennessey, expects to spend a quiet week while her employers, amateur sleuths Annie and Nate Dawson, are off spending the Christmas holidays with Nate’s family. However, when she agrees to help out one of her friends, Kathleen discovers that a simple case of a servant being dismissed without notice has turned into a complicated and dangerous puzzle that she is determined to solve.

Kathleen Catches a Killer contains all the light romance, humor, and suspense of the longer works and chronologically, this novella comes right after the events in Pilfered Promises.

Mrs. Stein Solves a Crime

A Victorian San Francisco Novella

Esther and Herman Stein were the first people to move into Annie Dawson’s San Francisco O’Farrell Street boardinghouse and are two of Annie biggest supporters. Yet, Esther has always disapproved of how Annie’s work, first as Madam Sibyl and now as a financial advisor, has led her into criminal investigations. All this will change when Esther is confronted with a crime of her own to solve.

Chronologically, this novella comes in the summer of 1882, soon after the events in Entangled Threads, the eighth novel in the Victorian San Francisco Mystery series. However, it doesn’t need to be read in that order. As with the other shorter works in this series, Mrs. Stein Solves a Crime gives a minor character the chance to play a starring role.

Victorian San Francisco Stories: Volume 1

This is a collection of four short stories by USA Today bestselling author, M. Louisa Locke, set in the gas-lit world of Victorian San Francisco. Madam Sibyl’s First Client was written specifically for this collection and it finds Annie Fuller, the young widowed boardinghouse keeper, just starting her career as a pretend clairvoyant. In Dandy Detects, the Boston Terrier that lives in Annie Fuller’s boardinghouse helps uncover a crime, and in The Misses Moffet Mend a Marriage, Annie’s two elderly boarders use their dressmaking skills to avert a domestic tragedy. Finally, in Mr. Wong Rights a Wrong, a Chinese manservant introduced in Maids of Misfortune, the first book in Locke’s historical mystery series, makes another appearance and helps Annie Fuller solve a serious problem. As a bonus, there is an essay, Historical Tidbits, which provides insight into the historical research that went into these stories.

Dandy Detects

In the fall of 1879, San Francisco swelters under a heat wave while Barbara Hewitt, a reserved school-teacher, uncovers a mystery with the help of her son’s dog, the Boston Terrier, Dandy.

This short story, which comes chronologically after Maids of Misfortune, is set in the 19th century, gas-lit world of Annie Fuller and her O’Farrell Street boarding house, which Locke writes about in her Victorian San Francisco Mystery series.

Mr. Wong Rights a Wrong

Annie Fuller, the young boarding house keeper and reluctant clairvoyant, met the kind, older Chinese servant, Mr. Wong, in the midst of her investigations into a mysterious death in Maids of Misfortune, the first book in Locke’s Victorian San Francisco Mystery series. In this short story, Annie Fuller turns to Mr. Wong for help in solving a puzzle that could have life or death consequences.

Beatrice Bests the Burglars

Beatrice O’Rourke, the O’Farrell Street boardinghouse cook, has the afternoon off.  What could possibly go wrong?

This short story in the USA Today bestselling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series features one of the most beloved characters in the series, as well as giving the reader a tour of the boardinghouse itself. Chronologically, this story comes soon after the events in Scholarly Pursuits, so if you don’t like spoilers, you might want to wait to read it until you have finished that book.

Mrs. O’Malley’s Midnight Mystery

Life in 1881 San Francisco is difficult if you are a poor widow like Mrs. O’Malley, especially when you have seven children and are forced to live in one of the crowded neighborhoods South of Market. Late one night, as she sat at the window of her crowded flat, sewing and worrying, she noticed something strange going on across the street. Her decision to investigate will have unexpected consequences. Mrs. O’Malley’s Midnight Mystery is a short story in the Victorian San Francisco Mystery series, and it comes right after the short story, Dandy’s Discovery, and before Lethal Remedies, the seventh novel in the series.

Dandy’s Daring Deeds

Dandy’s Daring Deeds is a collection of already published stories featuring the Boston Terrier, Dandy, a recurring character in the Victorian San Francisco Mystery series. This collection consists of the short story, Dandy Detects, an excerpt from the novel, Uneasy Spirits, the novella, Dandy Delivers, and the short story, Dandy’s Discovery.

Dandy Detects: In the fall of 1879, San Francisco swelters under a heat wave. Meanwhile, Barbara Hewitt, a reserved school-teacher who lives with her son Jamie in Annie Fuller’s O’Farrell Street boardinghouse, uncovers a mystery with the help of her son’s dog, the Boston Terrier, Dandy.

Uneasy Spirits Excerpt: Annie Fuller takes a break from investigating a fraudulent trance medium in order to take a walk with two of her two boarders, Barbara and Jamie Hewitt, and their Boston Terrier, Dandy. Halloween is fast approaching and they have stopped to get some pumpkins when disaster strikes––an accident that, without Dandy’s intervention, could have been deadly.

Dandy Delivers: It’s January 1881, and while the grown-ups in the O’Farrell Street boardinghouse are busy with their own affairs, two boys and a dog find their own adventure. Ian Hennessey, a poor boy from South of Market, who is trying to shoulder a man’s responsibilities, gets in trouble, and his best friend, Jamie Hewitt, does what he can to help. But it is Jamie’s young Boston Terrier, Dandy, who saves the day.

Dandy’s Discovery: Something odd is happening at the O’Farrell Street boardinghouse, and Annie is worried that her new baby might be in danger. But never fear, Dandy, the Boston Terrier, will discover the culprit and all will be well.