This is a collection of four short stories from the Victorian San Francisco Mystery series. Madam Sibyl’s First Client was written specifically for this collection and it finds Annie Fuller, the young widowed boarding house keeper, just starting her career as a pretend clairvoyant. In Dandy Detects, the Boston terrier that lives in Annie Fuller’s boarding house helps uncover a crime, and in The Misses Moffet Mend a Marriage, two elderly boarders use their dressmaking skills to avert a domestic tragedy. Finally, in Mr. Wong Rights a Wrong, a Chinese manservant from the first mystery in the series, Maids of Misfortune, makes another appearance and helps Annie Fuller solve a serious problem. As a bonus, there is an essay, Historical Tidbits, which provides insight into the historical research that went into these stories.
This collection can be read as an introduction or a companion to the first three books in the series, Maids of Misfortune, Uneasy Spirits, and Bloody Lessons, as it permits some of the most beloved minor characters to have some fun by taking center stage.