A rash of murders seems to be linked to a peace promoting woman. Delia and Isadora get caught up in it along with Delia's new husband Gabe Ryan. The story is told alternating between the supernatural world of Delia and Gabe's mundane police investigation, the two are intertwined as usual and when one of the victims is a member of the Chinese community things get complicated with the involvement of a Chinese leader of the community with illicit ties and supernatural connections.

The kitten stole every scene she was in.

It seemed to run out of steam near the end and the mystery is tied up neatly but unsatisfactorily for me. Still I'd read more by this author.

Delia Martin is from early twentieth-century San Francisco and she has come back to help care for the woman who took her in when her parents died in the San Francisco fire.  She has always had ghosts as companions and originally she ran away to New York to escape their ever-presence, which disconcerted her.  Now she's back and there are more around and they seem to be related to the case her foster-sister's fiance is involved with. A serial killer who left for a while and seems to be back to prey on the extra people from the Exhibition that's in San Francisco this year.

It's that pre-war era that is quite interesting for a lot of writers and I liked it.  This is a cop drama with some supernatural elements that really appeals to me and keeps me reading.  There were moments where the pacing seemed uneven but overall it was an interesting read with people who cared for and about each other throughout.  I'm looking forward to more in this series.

A Barricade in Hell is the second book in a series set in a haunting 1917 San Francisco infested with spirits, conmen and danger. Delia, wife of a police officer, can see the spirits of the dead and in some ways try to help or drive them out. But when a little girl ghost shows up and starts tormenting her husband, she finds herself drawn farther and farther into a complicated scheme.

First things first, starting with the second book here isn't a huge problem. You learn everything you need to know about the first through the narration. There is a slight problem with the number of character names that get bandied about - I occasionally had a bit of difficulty keeping some of the cast straight. But it's not a huge, omnipresent problem. It just rears up occasionally in more social scenes.

The writing in this book is lovely. It really brings out one of the best parts of the story itself which is the way the setting is rendered, diverse and mysterious, with its bright and shadowed places.

I also have to admit, it is SO nice to see a story where the leads are a married couple and strife between them isn't a major thing. They're comfortable with one another, they respect and support one another, and the story gets to focus on other things.

Dora, Delia's mentor in the ways of ghost-handling, is a fascinating creation, and I deeply wish we got even more of her. She's so VITL in a world that sometimes feels a little safe and washed-out.

I wish I could rate it higher, but somehow, while this was a good read, it wasn't a gripping one. The direction the plot was going to take felt a little... okay, a lot obvious. The actions of various characters felt really obvious, and sometimes it felt like everyone's reactions to things just felt a little... light? ... for what was going on. I didn't have trouble getting through it, but I never once considered NOT doing something else to make time to read this. It would wait for when I had free time.

I'm not sure I'll return to this series, since in a lot of ways it's just not my sort of story. But if you're into period work, and if the early 1900s US cities intrigue you especially, I'd give this one a shot.