San Francisco is home to more than 200 privately owned streets. Most are alleyways, but a select few are lined with mansions and elaborate gardens. When several luxury estate homes are targeted in a series of so-called pranks, Sharon is hired by a coalition of concerned owners to investigate. But as things escalate --- an attempt on Sharon’s life, an explosion at a meth lab and a shocking murder --- Sharon realizes far more is at play than a few misdemeanors gone wrong. The case takes a sudden turn when one of McCone & Ripinsky’s most trusted employees is implicated, and Sharon will have to dig deep to save her agency --- and her life.

When the bodies of two Indigenous women are found in the wilderness of northern California, it is only the latest horrific development in a string of similar crimes in the area. Despite all evidence to the contrary, officials rule the deaths isolated incidents, which soon join the ranks of countless other unsolved cases quickly dismissed by law enforcement. In a town where too many injustices are tolerated or brushed under the rug, only a few people remain who refuse to let a killer walk free. But Private Investigator Sharon McCone is one of those few. She is hired by an organization called Crimes Against Indigenous Sisters to go undercover in Meruk County --- a community rife with secrets, lies and corruption --- to expose the truth.

An anniversary can honor many things: a birth, a wedding and sometimes even a death. In DEADLY ANNIVERSARIES, editors Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini present new stories from some of the best contemporary authors to honor the diamond jubilee of the Mystery Writers of America, an organization founded on the principle that “Crime Doesn’t Pay --- Enough.” Each author puts his or her own unique spin on what it means to recognize a certain day or event each year. These 19 stories travel across a wide range of historical and contemporary settings and remind readers of how broad the mystery writing tradition can be, encompassing detective tales, domestic intrigue, psychological suspense, black humor and thrilling action.

On a foggy summer morning, private investigator Sharon McCone receives a call from her former neighbors, the Curleys. Their usually dependable daughter, Chelle, hasn't been answering their calls for weeks. Would Sharon check on her? Sharon arranges to visit the building Chelle had been living in and rehabbing in southwest San Francisco. Lurking behind a divider screen is a ghastly art gallery: portraits and caricatures of mass murderers, long ago and recent. What, an alarmed Sharon wonders, was Chelle doing in this chamber of horrors? And where is she now?

Sharon McCone's father has been the victim of a vicious, racially motivated attack. A nationally recognized Shoshone artist, Elwood had been visiting Sharon for the holidays, browsing for gifts in San Francisco's exclusive Marina district when he was set upon by a mob of angry young men. Now he lies in a coma, hovering between life and death. With little progress on the investigation from the overworked, short-handed police, Sharon resolves to track down Elwood's attackers herself. But when Sharon begins receiving hate-filled, racist threats from a shadowy group, it becomes clear that her pursuit of justice may be putting her own life in jeopardy.

Finally settled into their new home and fully established in their new shared offices, private investigator Sharon McCone and her business partner husband Hy are starting to feel comfortable. That calm is shattered thanks to the reappearance of Hy's former colleague, Gage Renshaw, a shady troublemaker who they had presumed dead. Meanwhile, Sharon has a new client with a desire to rid a derelict house he has just bought from intruders, drug users and thugs. However, the abandoned house holds its share of secrets, and soon Sharon is searching for the individual who is obsessed with destroying her life.

When a pleasant afternoon’s bicycling through Golden Gate Park with a friend ends with the revelation of threatening letters, followed by a gunshot in a mansion garden, Sabina Carpenter knows this is a case that demands her immediate and undivided attention. The questions her partner John Quincannon has to unravel are not difficult: Wrixton, a wealthy banker, has met his extortionist's first demand, but the order to pay another $5,000 is too much to face. The banker’s real problem is something he doesn't want to reveal. Meanwhile, a courier has been murdered, creating a trail that will take Quincannon through most of San Francisco’s less savory places and end with a riverboat trip that is anything but a relaxing cruise.

John Quincannon has been hired by the owner of the Golden State brewery to investigate the ''accidental'' death of the head brewmaster, who drowned in a vat of beer. John is certain he can catch his quarry, but his partner, Sabina Carpenter, is not sure she even wants to catch hers: Sherlock Holmes or, rather, the madman claiming his identity. A Mr. Roland W. Fairchild of Chicago claims the man is his first cousin, who is due to inherit a $3 million estate --- if Sabina can find him and if he can be proved sane.

For John Quincannon, this is a first: searching a Chinatown opium den for his client's husband, missing in the middle of a brewing tong war set to ignite over the stolen corpse of Bing Ah Kee. Meanwhile, his partner, Sabina Carpenter, searches for the corpse of a millionaire, stolen from a sealed family crypt and currently being held for ransom. Is there a connection between the two body snatchers? Or is simple greed the answer to this one?

When new clients Jay and Camilla Givens come to Sharon McCone with Camilla's stories of devil worshippers performing human sacrifices in San Francisco, the detective is skeptical, to say the least. However, when she discovers that Jay is involved with the treasure hunting group "The Night Searchers," she starts looking into what exactly he and the other participants are up to after dark. As she digs deeper into the Searchers, Sharon joins their ranks in order to find out more --- while someone is searching for her.

While John Quincannon follows a danger-laden trail to unmask the murderous perpetrators of a Wells, Fargo robbery, his partner, Sabina Carpenter, works her wiles on friends and relatives of a vanished debutante until the pieces of her puzzle start falling into place. But it’s an oddly disguised gent appearing out of nowhere who provides the final clue to both cases --- the shrewd “crackbrain” who believes himself to be Sherlock Holmes.

In 1890s San Francisco, former Pinkerton operative Sabina Carpenter and her detective partner, ex-Secret Service agent John Quincannon, undertake what initially appear to be two unrelated investigations. The two cases eventually connect in surprising fashion, but not before two murders and other felonies complicate matters even further. And not before the two sleuths are hindered, assisted and exasperated by the bughouse Sherlock Holmes.

Three years ago, Caro Warrick was acquitted for the murder of her best friend Amelia Bettencourt, but the lingering doubts of everyone around Caro is affecting her life. Sharon McCone is confident that she can succeed where other detectives have failed, but when Caro is brutally beaten right at Sharon's doorstep, the investigation takes on a whole new course.

Private eye Sharon McCone receives an e-mail asking for help from her emotionally disturbed half brother Darcy Blackhawk. Sensing he's in terrible danger, Sharon begins a search for him throughout the city.