Bones of the Barbary Coast: A Cree Black Novel

A friend and homicide inspector, Bert Marchetti, asks Cree to help investigate a human skeleton recently unearthed in the foundation of a fine Victorian home—apparently the bones of a victim of the 1906 earthquake. The bones have intrigued the forensic anthropology team at UC Berkeley—they call the skeleton Wolfman. Who was the wolfman? What caused his anatomical deformities, and how did he end up in that grand hilltop home? Cree’s historical research takes her back to the unholy glory days of the Barbary Coast, old San Francisco’s infamous red-light district. Her narrative is illuminated by entries from the 1889 diary of Lydia Schweitzer, a Victorian woman with her own secrets—and her own compelling interest in the person who would come to be known as the wolfman. As the mystery unravels, both women must face human nature’s darkest aspects with courage and compassion.