James Dalessandro. 1906 (2004) 361 pp.
In April 1906, San Francisco Evening Bulletin theater and opera critic Annalisa Passarelli is looking forward to meeting the great tenor Enrico Caruso on his first visit to the city. She is also assisting Byron Fallon, Chief of Detectives of the San Francisco Police Department, gather evidence of the graft and corruption of the city’s mayor, police chief, and political boss Adam Rolf. While crossing the Bay to deliver the evidence to the Graft Hunters, Byron is murdered, leaving it up to his sons Christian, a tough, brash police officer, and Hunter, a recent Stanford graduate who has new ideas about police work, along with a small group of honest cops known as the Brotherhood, to finish the job. As Annalisa and Hunter are trying to keep one step ahead of Rolf’s goons, led by Shanghai Kelly, they fall in love with each other and plan to marry as soon as the arrests are made on April 18th. The earthquake hits just as the Brotherhood is about to enter Rolf’s Nob Hill mansion. Rolf and his thugs use the ensuing chaos to turn the tables on their enemies and Annalisa and Hunter have to battle both the killers and the fire in order to save themselves and their city.