In 1944 Detective Al Sullivan of the Berkeley Police Department is called to the hotel where presidential candidate, Walter Wilkinson, is murdered twice. The first time he is shot at, the bullet misses. Moved from his room for protection he recklessly returns to his original room and is shot in the head from two feet away and his mouth is stuffed with various objects including a jade cube.
Because of Wilkinson’s status it is the biggest murder case in the Bay area.
Back in 1930 Isabelle “Issy” Stafford, the 6 year old sister of Iris, is deeply traumatized by her sister’s death. She has conversations with Iris. She slips away from reality. Her mother, Sadie, drinks constantly and has mental health problems. Her architect father, Roger, withdraws into himself. No one is left to parent Issy.
In 1940 Wilkinson had turned from being a progressive Democrat to being a flamboyant Republican. Unwisely toning down his campaign he loses the presidential election to Franklin Roosevelt.
Moving to 1944 Miriam is the daughter of Sullivan’s half-sister. The precocious 11 year old niece works part-time to support herself and her wayward mother. She calls him Al. She has aspirations to “be way better than my current self”.
Iris is known as the Claremont’s “ghost child”.
Isabelle has two cousins, Nicole and Cassie Bainbridge. The trio form the surviving granddaughters of the redoubtable Genevieve Bainbridge. As the family matriarch she dominates the Bainbridge family. Reputation is all important.
She is unhappy with Detective Sullivan investigating her granddaughters and prying into family history.
Sullivan refuses to back down and methodically follows up information.
The plot involves Madame Chiang Kai-Shek (Mei-Ling Soon) who spent the second half of WW II in the Berkeley Hills.
Isabella is working part-time as a reporter.
American politics and international intrigues add further complexity.
Following up on a report of a monk going to the hotel on the night of the murder Sullivan goes to the Benedictine Abbey near the hotel. Sullivan is left ill at ease as Brother Gratian, the abbey beekeeper who delivers honey to the Claremont, has taken a vow of silence. He refuses to answer or physically respond to Sullivan’s questions. Sullivan is unaccustomed to losing the initiative.
Interspersed in the book are excerpts from a deposition and a statement given by Mrs. Bainbridge as she seeks to protect her granddaughters. I did not like the excerpts. They were a distraction from the brilliant investigation of Sullivan.
Isabella, as a child, had states when “she’d suddenly take on her sister’s voice and mannerisms”. As a teenager she has vivid dreams of Iris calling out to her to find Iris’s necklace.
Mrs. Bainbridge sets out the curse of beauty in her sisters and her daughter Sadie and her granddaughters. It is a curse many would envy.
Isabella is a heartbreaker enticing men to love her and then discarding them.
The investigation takes Sullivan into Chinatown. The Chinatown Squad of the SFPD “arranges” an interview for Sullivan with Eddie Gong, “the head boss of the Hip Sing Tong”.
District Attorney Diarmuid Doogan, an aggressive resentful middle class Catholic, aggressively pursues an indictment seeking the fame that will accrue to the man who solves the Wilkinson murder. Doogan is the worst sort of prosecutor. He forms an opinion on guilt and seeks facts to prove his opinion. Tunnel vision is evil.
Sullivan refuses to accept a convenient murderer.
In a raucous hearing on a Saturday Doogan is left frustrated.
Sullivan patiently eliminates suspects closing in on the killer.
Chua has created plausible complex characters from the wealthy and powerful of California. The Depression had no effect on how they lived their lives and World War II made them richer. At the same time she demonstrates the vast chasm between their lives and the way of life for the working folk of Berkeley which was even greater for Black and Asian people.
There was a touch of too much history though I recognize all the real life historic characters needed some explanation.
Chua is skilled in creating multiple credible suspects. Few writers of crime fiction can develop multiple believable scenarios for a murder.
Chua brilliantly weaves all the strands and twists of the plot together.
The Golden Gate is an impressive crime fiction debut. It is a book ready to be filmed. Hollywood loves the rich and the famous and the beautiful caught up in murder.
****
Here is a link to my post on Detective Al Sullivan
What an interesting premise for a novel, Bill! It sounds as though the strands of the plot are all woven together, too, and that takes skill. The hotel itself interests me, too, as does the rest of the setting. This does, indeed, sound like an impressive debut.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Margot. Chua is quite a storyteller weaving fiction and fact together.
Delete