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This is the third in Dianne Day's series that follows an early 20th century, single, and very independent-minded female through her life's adventures. Fremont Jones, whose story begins in THE STRANGE FILES OF FREMONT JONES, and continues in FIRE AND FOG, a story of the San Francisco earthquake of l906, has to leave the city, as so many did in the aftermath as fire and crime ravaged the peninsula. Jones follows her on again, off again suitor, Michael Archer to an interesting bohemian. community on the Monterey peninsula south of San Francisco on the edge of the continent, called Carmel. Jones' business, which she had established in San Francisco in the infant years of this century, is contract typewriting. It is instructive to note that this feisty, unmarried, young woman, from a well-to-do Beacon Hill family, was not born Fremont Jones but created her name. Struggling mightily to keep her tiny business going in Carmel, she takes a part-time job as a lighthouse keeper. Following Archer to Carmel may be a mistake. First she spots a murdered woman floating in the bay before her lighthouse. Then Michael Archer, called Misha, draws her into the life of the free-thinking bohemians and hangers-on of the area. These richly-drawn characters are people you'd like to meet and perhaps party with, but you might not want to welcome them into the bosom of your family. On the other hand, some of the characters are authors who are in need of having manuscripts typed. First is painter Artemisia with her novella, Merchant of Dreams. Shortly thereafter appears an acquaintance of Artemisia's, a medium brown man named Arthur Hayer. He has a novel titled Ghostly Tales of the Central Coast, which requires typing. Suddenly, Fremont has more work than she can comfortably handle, and it interferes with her attempts to poke into the death of the woman in the bay. What of the dead woman found floating in Monterey Bay? Who is she? How did she come to be in the ocean? Why do the local people as well as the odd gaggle of bohemians appear less than interested in this death? All is not as it seems. Readers are advised to pay more than passing attention to the characters' names. As independent minded Fremont struggles with her feelings for Archer, and his on and off interest in her, she wends her way through a mystery that evokes the times. Day's careful prose and pacing fit the period with a judicious blend of modern and early 20th century language to a not entirely surprising conclusion, but a well-done novel, nevertheless. Note: This review is based on the hard cover edition, published in 1997, which is now out of print
Reviewed by Carl Brookins, May 2003
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