Created by Claire M. Johnson
“I’ve discovered in the detective game that there are lies and there are lies.”
— Maggie in City Lights.
I find the covers pretty dreary (AI? The author herself?), but like Bo Diddley says, “You can’t judge a book by its cover.”
And Bo knows…
NICK MOORE is the head honcho at the struggling one-man Moore Detective Agency in Prohibition-era San Francisco, but not apparently struggling enough for Nick to stop boozing. So, while the boss is off on yet another lost weekend, young but true-blue secretary (and wannabe investigator) MAGGIE LAURENT is left to pick up the slack, in the Shamus-nominated debut, Fog City (2024), the first in the so-called Fog City Trilogy.
By the second book in the series, City Lights (2025), the Depression’s closing in, and Nick’s wandered off (again), and Maggie’s rumors around town suggest he may be leaving the City for good, dumping the task of running the agency on her.
Not that Maggie’s the typical two-dimensional scatterbrain secretary so beloved of 1930s films — she’s got some pretty decent investigation chops of her own. A good Catholic girl, she goes to church every Sunday, and has a life of her own, one that includes a brother and a mother, who she initially lives with, and her good buddy Dickie Vance, the colorful (ie: “queer as a three dollar bill”) writer of The Examiner‘s society pages, who can be counted on every now and then for a hot lead or some hotter gossip. And Maggie’s no pushover — she’s brave and tough, has her own apartment now, is taking weekly boxing lessons, and is slowly learning the tricks of the trade. She also handles the first person narration chores with wit and grit, and seems to have a good nose for bullshit.
There’s one more promised in this series, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for it.
UNDER OATH
- “Claire Johnson has stepped right into the footwear of the Thirties, with her smart-mouthed secretary-turned-gumshoe taking over her boss’s investigations and poking a well-powdered nose into all kinds of San Francisco chicanery. Fog City is a delight! I hope we see much more of Mags Laurent-oh, and that trouble-making boss of hers, Nick Moore.”
— Laurie R. King
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Former pastry chef Claire M. Johnson‘s first novel, Beat Until Stiff, was set in the restaurant world and was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel. She has also written a couple of well-received Jane Austen pastiches, a YA novel, and For Thee (an historical novel of the marriage of Pauline Pfeiffer to Ernest Hemingway). She has also served as president of Mystery Writers of America‘s Northern California chapter. She lives in Lafayette, California.
NOVELS
- Fog City (2024) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- City Lights (2025) | Kindle it!
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- They Left Their Hearts…
Some San Francisco Treats
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
