Chouinard’s subtitle to her tour guide Capril Sanzio series is “A Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco Mystery” and she’s back this time centering on San Fran’s Summer of Love.
Using the true crime stories that hit the Haight-Ashbury area during what was supposed to be a time of love and peace as the basis of this particular tour, Capri highlights the hippy vibe and music of the era. She contrasts that lightness against the darkness of killers like Charles Manson and the Suitcase Killer.
But she’s taken aback when one of her tour guests asks to meet privately and begs for her help. Haley thinks her mother, who came out to San Franciso trying to solve the murder of her sister years ago, has also been murdered.
Capri sees her own young daughter, Morgan, in Haley, and agrees to help her. That sets up an investigation that will have farther reaching secrets than either woman have in mind, which soon turn deadly when old secrets are unveiled. Along the way she adds the search to her podcast series, to bring focus to the case and her exploration of what has really happened to these sisters.
One of the highlights of this series is the way Chouinard gives readers a real sense of of the history she uses in her tours. When she shows Capri in her investigative mode, she does extensive research not unlike that of an investigative journalist. We have subplots of Capri’s family and close friends, and her developing relationship with a San Fran detective that is a warm addition to the series.
With quirky recurring characters and a setting that comes alive, the nicely twisted plot leads to a logical conclusion, at times chilling, at others hearwarming, that add up to a highly readable series any mystery afficonado will gobble up.
