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    City of Dragons: A Miranda Corbie Mystery
    City of Dragons: A Miranda Corbie Mystery
    City of Dragons: A Miranda Corbie Mystery
    Ebook468 pages7 hours

    City of Dragons: A Miranda Corbie Mystery

    By Kelli Stanley

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    February, 1940. In San Francisco's Chinatown, fireworks explode as the city celebrates Chinese New Year with a Rice Bowl Party, a three day-and-night carnival designed to raise money and support for China war relief. Miranda Corbie is a 33-year-old private investigator who stumbles upon the fatally shot body of Eddie Takahashi. The Chamber of Commerce wants it covered up. The cops acquiesce. All Miranda wants is justice--whatever it costs. From Chinatown tenements, to a tattered tailor's shop in Little Osaka, to a high-class bordello draped in Southern Gothic, she shakes down the city--her city--seeking the truth. An outstanding series debut.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateFeb 2, 2010
    ISBN9781429968386
    City of Dragons: A Miranda Corbie Mystery
    Author

    Kelli Stanley

    Kelli Stanley is an award-winning author of crime fiction (novels and short stories). She makes her home in Dashiell Hammett's San Francisco, a city she loves to write about. She is the author of two crime fiction series, including the Miranda Corbie Mysteries (City of Ghosts, City of Secrets). Kelli earned a Master's Degree in Classics, loves jazz, old movies, battered fedoras, Art Deco and speakeasies. She is walked daily by a Springer Spaniel named Bertie. She credits Raymond Chandler, Ernest Hemingway, Cornell Woolrich, Dashiell Hammett and Thomas Hardy as some of her major influences.

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    Reviews for City of Dragons

    3.5/5

    44 ratings8 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Nothing like a new series to invigorate your reading, and City of Dragons stokes the flames. Kelli Stanley presents an image of San Francisco in 1940, as the threats of Hitler and the Japanese hinder the lingering aura of the Great Depression. Enter Miranda Corbie, a feisty and highly educated private detective. A Japanese youth dies in Miranda's arms and propels Miranda into drugs, sex, smuggling, and a world of unsavory characters. Stanley's language is rich, but Miranda and her love of Chesterfields provides too much smoke. Stanley skillfully omits much of Miranda's history, but provides little quips in passing. The book reminds me of the Shirley Tallman series, but Tallman’s character mingles with the upper crust of the 1890's in San Francisco, fifty years ahead of Miranda. Both Tallman and Stanley lean heavily on the glorious, if not defamatory history of San Francisco, and both create an interesting story.
    • 4/5
      Occasionally goes a shade too far into noir patois, but the momentum of the story is unmistakable.
    • 3/5
      Great idea with an amazing, ball busting heroine. Miranda is a private detective in 1940s San Francisco who takes no crap from anybody, even waves a gun in her father's face. Problem is she is also a former escort and I got the impression it is an occupation she still practices from time to time so Miranda does not have the respect of the local police force. They give her grief at every turn as do the local Chinese and Italian gangsters. If the police are not arresting her, the Italians are trying to run her over with their green oldsmobile.Miranda has three cases going at once that all tie in together somehow. Seems a Chinese lady in a red dress is popping up all over the place. Case one is a dead Japanese man with a cocaine connection. Case two is a missing girl with a cocaine addiction. Case three is a dead friend and former co worker of Miranda's. So Miranda is running all over San Fran doling out one dollar bills in exchange for information to get to the bottom of it all.I have two major complaints about this novel. Despite the fact it really did feel like authentic 1940s and I realize people smoked constantly back then, on paper it gets VERY ANNOYING. Miranda was lighing, handling, or putting out a cigerette on every page. Also, tho I liked Miranda, I never could understand her. I loved how she broke a fellow's nose after he kissed her (my kind of gal!) but why is Miranda so bitter and angry at the world? She is rude to her friends and anyone that tries to help her. There are references to a Johnny in Spain now dead and the death of Bernett, a former boss and something about incubator babies but the full story and the full reason for Miranda's personal problems is never revealed. Dianne says to Miranda on page 190, "You're deader than Betty. Who killed you, Miranda? Who the hell killed you?" I am wondering the same thing myself and I didn't really like this enough to read five more books just like it to found out the answers. It's ok, but nothing to get excited about.
    • 4/5
      Miranda Corbie is a private investigator in San Francisco, 1940. It's Chinese New Year, and in celebration, the city is having a three-night-long "Rice Bowl Party" to raise money for war relief in China. In the midst of the festivities, Miranda watches as a young Japanese numbers runner named Eddie Takahashi is killed in front of her. Certain that it's a murder rather than accidental, she informs the police, who don't believe her. She decides to find Eddie's killer on her own, since she is qualified after all! The next day, she's offered a real, paying case: find a missing young woman for her stepmother. These two cases intersect, and Miranda soon finds herself being followed by sinister men and dark automobiles, one of which runs her down. Stubbornly, and despite being thwarted by the police, the Italian AND Japanese syndicates, and many of those she thought were her friends, she persists in the quest that leads her through much of San Francisco and its Chinatown.Stanley's novel is a love letter to San Francisco, with rich and well-researched historical descriptions. The book is also an ode to classic noir mysteries, and is a pleasure to read. I was almost happy that it was a busy week and I was forced to read in short bursts, so that the book took longer than usual to finish. Miranda will be back in another San Francisco mystery, which I await eagerly.
    • 3/5
      This historical mystery/classic noir P.I. tale is a prime example of one of the hardest books for me to review: a book whose technical brilliance is obvious, but it contains things that I just don't like. The only thing I can do is talk about the good stuff, itemize what I didn't care for, and let you make the ultimate decision on whether or not you want to read the book-- which is something you do anyway.Under author Kelli Stanley's pen, the San Francisco of the 1940s -- in particular the Chinatown and Little Osaka neighborhoods-- comes to life and should be considered one of the primary characters. It is a wonderful evocation of a time and a place that I greatly enjoyed.While reading City of Dragons, you will also feel as though you've stepped right into the pages of a classic noir private investigator tale. In my "mind's ear," I heard Stanley's characters speak in voices that were eerily akin to those of Humphrey Bogart, George Raft, Sidney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre. This book is dark and twisted, make no mistake, and deducing the whys and wherefores led me on quite the chase. For anyone who loves this sort of book, I highly recommend it.With all that's oh-so-right about the book, there were a few things that became very wearing to me as I read. True to the period, everyone and their brother smokes-- and to such an excess that cigarette smoke should rise from the pages each time the book is opened. I'm not the type of person who's vehemently anti-smoking, and characters who smoke-- as a rule-- don't bother me, but this book was an exception.In order to get to know the main character, Miranda Corbie, you'll be forced to wave endless nicotine clouds from your face and prepare yourself to endure quite a bit of negativity and bitterness. True to the noir heart, Miranda is a tragically wounded hero. Her disillusionment escalated when she participated in the Spanish Civil War and continued when she returned to America and worked as an escort. Her first taste of life as a private investigator was working with someone who handled divorce cases-- and that's just the tip of Miranda's iceberg. Miranda has seen too much of the dark side, and it has deeply affected not only her outlook on life, but other aspects such as her speech. As someone tells her, "Watch your mouth. You talk like a sailor, not a professor's daughter." Having grown up among sailors and farmers, I'm accustomed to profanity and scatological references, but too much from anyone and I begin tuning them out. Not a good thing for conversation or for novel reading.As I read City of Dragons, I found myself enjoying its depiction of San Francisco and its evocation of the 1940s and classic noir. But the more I read, the less I liked Miranda until she became a true liability. It's a shame, but I doubt that I'll continue with the series, and I'll admit that my decision is purely due to personal taste. However, if secondhand smoke and an embittered, much too serious main character don't bother you, you should be in for a real treat.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of a boy who bore a face so sad it made others cry. After running away from home and departing to a magical city of dragons, he finds that his sad face can serve a useful purpose. This is a good story with very nice illustrations to support it.
    • 4/5
      Wonderful depiction of San Francisco on brink of WWII, amulti-ethnic whirlwind of sex and crime. Miranda Corbie is a loner private eye, battling both crime and officials who attempt to simultaneously protect and demean her in this story of prostitution and drugs, smuggling and murder. An interesting tale, though the ultimate triumph of love and justice seems a bit of a post script.
    • 4/5
      Feb.1940, in San Francisco’s Chinatown a PI discovers a dead body. She's a former escort turned PI. Miranda Corbie. She's independent-minded on finding out who did the deed. She is also hired by a woman who's daughter is missing and husband has just been killed.Stanley atttempts to write like Hammett but has a slower a pace.

    Book preview

    City of Dragons - Kelli Stanley

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