Dear Reader, Love Greg Messel

Dear Reader…

I love books that transport you to a place you’ve never been before. 

In my new mystery thriller “San Francisco Nights” I attempt to do that as we travel back in time to San Francisco in the late 1950s. It’s a world where you can fill up your big-finned car for 25 centers a gallon and the average cost of a home in pricey San Francisco was only $30,000. 

Everyone watched lots of Westerns on their televisions but there was also a cool private eye show called “77 Sunset Strip.” People at the beaches in California listened to the music of Frank Sinatra, Paul Anka and the Fleetwoods on their transistor radios. The hit song of the summer was Bobby Darin’s “Mack the Knife.” Moviegoers flocked to the old movie palaces in San Francisco to watch “North by Northwest,” “Some Like It Hot,” and “Pillow Talk.” 

All things seemed possible in post war California and everyone could own a house and with a little luck you might have an orange or lemon tree in your backyard. 

Ike was in the White House and Alaska and Hawaii were about to become the 49th and 50th states. But the Cold War was in full swing and Americans worried the Soviets were watching them using their Sputnik satellite. 

My mystery series is about two private detectives, Sam and Amelia Slater  who have a knack for solving cases but also have a knack to getting themselves into a lot of trouble. I love to use actual historical events and famous people to occasionally interact with my fictional characters. 

In September of 1959, Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev visited the United States. President Eisenhower wanted him to come to Washington D.C. and go to Camp David with him. Krushchev had other ideas. The ruthless Communist dictator wanted to go to Disneyland. 

His security detail put the kibosh on that plan but the Soviet leader still visited Los Angeles, got to visit Hollywood and meet some stars and then took a train trip to San Francisco. 

Along the way, Krushchev did a whistle stop at San Luis Obispo much to the surprise of the local police and the hundreds of people at the small train station. As Krushchev walked among the crowd a woman lost her high heeled shoe and the Soviet leader retrieved it for her and helped her get it back on. 

This strange stop and encounter recorded in the San Luis Obispo newspaper actually happened. 

In “San Francisco Nights” private eyes Sam and Amelia Slater are traveling to a friend’s wedding in San Luis Obispo and I took the literary license to have Amelia be the woman who lost her shoe and had the encounter with Krushchev. 

A key plot point in “San Francisco Nights” involves the limits of 1959 “technology.” We are used to TV shows and movies, like the Bourne series, CSI or Hawaii 5-0 where the cops are in constant contact with one another, with perfect Wi-Fi connections through invisible ear pieces. 

In 1959, Sam and Amelia need to stay in touch as they pursue a blackmailer across the city. The only option they have is walkie talkies, which have a limited range and spotty coverage due to the hills and high rise buildings in San Francisco. 

It makes their task much harder than it needs to be. There’s also a problem with phones. If you call someone and they don’t answer you ca’t leave a message. You don’t know if that person is away for five minutes or five days. 

Sometimes the “good ole days” weren’t so good. 

I hope you enjoy the trip back to the 1950s. 

About the Author

Greg Messel has spent most of his adult life interested in writing, including a career in the newspaper business. He won a Wyoming Press Association Award as a columnist and has contributed articles to various magazines. Greg lives in Edmonds, Washington on Puget Sound with his wife Jean DeFond.

Greg has written ten novels. His latest is "San Francisco Nights" which is the seventh in a series of mysteries set in 1959 San Francisco. "Shadows In The Fog," "Fog City Strangler," "San Francisco Secrets," "Deadly Plunge" are sequels to the first book in the series "Last of the Seals." His other three novels are "Sunbreaks," "Expiation" and "The Illusion of Certainty." For a more detailed summary of Greg's novels go to www.gregmessel.com 

Greg is currently working on his eleventh novel "Dreams That Never Were" which is not part of the mystery series.

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About the Book:

Title: SAN FRANCISCO NIGHTS
Author: Greg Messel
Publisher: Sunbreaks Publishing
Pages: 232
Genre: Mystery / Suspense

The wife of a wealthy San Francisco shipping magnate leads a secret life but someone is threatening to expose her.  Private eye Sam Slater and his wife and partner, Amelia, meet a mysterious woman in a large red hat during a train trip. The woman approaches him pleading for help because she‘s receiving anonymous notes quoting Bible verses which are becoming more and more ominous with each passing day. Her secrets have been discovered but by whom? What really happens behind closed doors in Room 505 in a swanky downtown hotel?

Sam is willing to take the case but Amelia warns that this woman is nothing but trouble. What does the woman really want? She’s been watching Sam for months and has a scheme to pull him into her world. 

Find out in the latest Sam Slater Mystery “San Francisco Nights” set in the fall of 1959. It’s the seventh book in the series but is a heart pounding stand alone whodunit. 

Watch the book trailer at YouTube.

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