Ambrose Bierce and the Death of Kings FROM THE PUBLISHER
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.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
While King Kalakaua of Hawaii lies dying in a San Francisco hotel room, celebrated author-cum-detective Ambrose Bierce and his young companion, Tom Redmond, get the call to find a missing member of the royal entourage in this entertaining, if choppy, historical set during the winter of 1890-91. As in Hall's first novel in the series, Ambrose Bierce and the Queen of Spades (1998), Redmond plays an engaging Watson to Bierce's Holmes. Redmond falls in love with the "monumental" Haunani Brown, a beautiful Hawaiian who is visiting her uncle, California poet Edward Browne. Simultaneously, millionaire Aaron Underwood hires Bierce to find Princess Leileiha, who's betrothed to potential heir to the throne Alexander Honomoku and is a close friend of Haunani. The two threads of the story romance and mystery are woven inevitably, expertly, together. Since the king has named no successor, the fate of Hawaii as well as that of U.S. imperial aspirations, and the ambitions of Underwood's father, the frightful sugar baron Silas Underwood hangs in the balance. Not surprisingly, murder, mayhem and even magic come into play. The sprinkling of old-fashioned and Hawaiian terms throughout the text, such as "instanter" and the delightful "panipani," adds period flavor. The author, alas, breaks up the narrative with short expository sections that read like nothing so much as afterthoughts. On the whole, though, this book makes for a captivating rollick through Old Frisco. (Oct. 1) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
In San Francisco's Palace Hotel a king lies dying. And what seems like an endless array of counselors, courtiers, and creditors has come over from Hawaii to watch it happen, and to jockey for position after the fact. At the turn of the 19th century the question plaguing most Hawaiians is whether or not US annexation is a good thing. Suddenly, however, another question surfaces, just as vexing and more urgent: Where has the beloved Princess Leileiha gone? Enter mordantly acerbic Ambrose Bierce, who when he lived for real was probably the most influential journalist of his time. In Hall's hands he's all that and much more. He's Sherlock Holmes on the other side of the pond, complete with an Americanized-younger, brasher, sexier-version of Watson, loyal fellow journalist Tom Redmond. Sugar magnate Silas Underwood, who for years has sweetened his pot by mixing deeply in Hawaiian politics, has, as Bierce enjoys announcing, charged the journalist-sleuth with solving the mystery. But there are several who don't want it solved, including large, luscious, occasionally enigmatic Hounani Brown, the half-Hawaiian girl Redmond has begun to romance. Since Bierce has to deal with a kidnapping, a foul murder, aberrant behavior from a couple of spooky animals, a crooked spiritualist, and a hit-man sorcerer, it's quite a while before he gets around to whodunit-rather perfunctorily. A disappointing sequel to Ambrose Bierce and the Queen of Spades (1998). Though some of the parts are certainly entertaining-Hall is a vivid writer-the sum falls short.
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