Being at home has provided time to work on the new Dawes novel. I've just passed 25K on the story and have designed the cover.
San Francisco in 1879 was both a dangerous and a safe place, depending on where you were geographically. And it also depended on how much money you had at your disposal. The anti-Chinese sentiment was still very strong, although Chinatown was pretty much left on its own unless as pointed out in my novel "Celestial Moon" vicious murders occurred within the confines of that enclave.
The new murders depicted in the latest Dawes novel are the kind that newspapers love for their macabre details. But the merchants and other high rollers in the city were aghast at the language used by the reporters and editors and wanted the newspaper owner of The San Francisco Chronicle to clamp down on such effusive and disturbing words to describe the goings-on.
So, the next 35K words should provide enough clues to Dawes and his loyal friend Sean O'Flynn to resolve the murders.
