Historical Fiction California

A marijuana mystery, the story of Rolland Greene. Rolland Greene, a local writer, and his friends find themselves wrapped up in a complex paper chase. Rolland Greene takes you to the heartland of Northern California and reveals the mind and heart of a Mendonesian caught up in high strangeness. Rolland spends his time writing his political treatise, but suddenly finds himself trying to survive the tumult surrounding his lifestyle and friends. Rolland and his buds all find themselves tormented by bad luck when criminals begin pursuit of a treasure unique to Mendocino, the guidebook to crime. ...

I really loved this one! The characters have so much depth to them, and I found myself thinking about them even when I wasn't reading! So much going on too! Never boring! — Jackie Logue, Owner JML Copyediting Services. Reading your words, I was stunned at your personal rendition of the setting and situation, as if you had lived it in detail. — D. Hartley A character-driven story of redemption --- An episodic, historical novel filled with adventure, forbidden love, second chances, and the value of having a best friend. A Confederate soldier's journals are found hidden away, and they ...

The Mexican American War has ended, but in a California divided between two nations, Anglo squatters continue to antagonize citizens of Mexican descent by making claims on their land. Against this charged backdrop, the lives of the Alamar family - the rightful owners of a San Diego ranch - become politically, economically, and romantically entwined with a family of New England settlers, the Darrells. Inspired by experiences in her own life, Ruiz de Burton insightfully captured a troubling time in American history - a period of intense corruption, greed, racism, and classism.

Bound for Gold continues New York Times bestselling author William Martin’s epic of American history with the further adventures of Boston rare-book dealer Peter Fallon and his girlfriend, Evangeline Carrington. They are headed to California, where their search for a lost journal takes them into the history of Gold Rush. The journal follows young James Spencer, of the Sagamore Mining Company, on a spectacular journey from staid Boston, up the Sacramento River to the Mother Lode.

Kai Ting is the only American-born son of a Shanghai family that fled China during Mao’s revolution. Growing up in a San Francisco multicultural, low-income neighborhood, Kai is caught between two worlds - embracing neither the Chinese nor the American way of life. After his mother’s death, Kai is suddenly plunged into American culture by his stepmother, who tries to erase every vestige of China from the household.

Murder at the Expo is a BBNYA 2023 Indie Book Award semi-finalist. Sadie Brown is a strong female character, but she’s not your usual sleuth. Sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong, she’ll take the reader on a fun romp to discover clues to the killer’s identity. Sadie’s no dummy, but she’ll be as surprised as you when she comes face to face with the killer. When the body of Dr. Asa Wolf is found impeccably laid out in the Botanical Building at San Diego's 1915 Panama-California Exposition, the curious death scene arouses questions of murder. Sure, Wolf was a well-respected ...

Martina Swan's business and marriage is falling apart. She grabs up her child and seeks to find her husband as armed outlaws chase her looking for their stolen treasure. She's determined to bring her man home as she faces one shock after another. Can she forgive and love again? A full and satisfying read from a woman's point of view in the old west.

The 1989 quake in Santa Cruz, California destroyed the picturesque downtown of the small coastal city. Lives were lost and lives were forever changed. For private investigator, Jeff Burke life would never be the same. Among the never-ending aftershocks, two murders would cause Burke to go on the run as the prime suspect. Amid the complex web of drug dealing, money laundering, and real estate fraud help would come from the most unexpected sources. But how high was the price to get out of this mess? And who was the killer who now had his sights set on Burke? Drawn from the rich and unique ...

The first book in a new series by the author of the Heroines of the Golden West series. Alena is a confident entrepreneur in a man's world who meets a rancher with a tragic secret in his past. They're both about to find their inner peace, their calling, and romance in Old California.

Before the rails bound a nation, before love defied all barriers, there was a foundation laid in quiet longing and impossible dreams. Xiulan, the daughter of Chinese immigrants serving the Hastings family, has grown up in the shadow of wealth and privilege, her every day intertwined with the grandeur of the estate. But within her heart lies a secret: an unspoken affection for Robert Hastings, the heir who left for the Civil War when she was just a girl. Now, as the household eagerly anticipates his return, Xiulan’s quiet admiration blossoms into something deeper—something dangerous. ...

Dorothy Fiske, eighty-three, adores movie stars, jewelry, murder mysteries, and men. At twenty-five, inspired by Judy Garland and Angela Lansbury, she moved to Los Angeles from a religiously strict Midwestern home. Despite the glamour, Dorothy, heartbroken, was childless. She blamed her sweet, unambitious husband, Eugene, claiming his sperm was weak, but Dorothy knows the truth. Ruth, a sixty-six-year-old home health aide, fears eviction from her LA apartment due to her unusual, antisocial behavior. Previously fired from a nursing facility for residents dying under her care, Ruth targets ...

On her 10th birthday, Leah receives a surprise gift from glamorous Aunt Olivia, Mama's only sister, who lives in Los Angeles. It is a red rose box. Not many people in 1958 Louisiana have seen such a beautiful traveling case, covered with red roses, filled with jewelry, silk bedclothes, expensive soaps...and train tickets to California.

Her sister gone, her roommates soon to follow, Leora Mitchell must now face the fact that she, along with the others, are mail-order brides. For years, her life revolved around Brown’s Textile Mill, her sister Lottie, and their friends. Now, as mail-order brides, they’d be scattered across the country, ready to start a new life. The only problem was Leora had no idea what that life looked like, nor did she have any idea who she was without the familiar faces she loved so much.

Christina Swan, the local schoolteacher, is fired when two overzealous suitors brawl at her school. Angry at the unfair treatment, she seizes the opportunity to manage a fledgling ranch for her uncle and runs into the obstinate Kern Yager, a neighboring landholder. As tempers flare between them, the two discover a common enemy in a land development plan that will swallow their ranches. They also discover the faith to meet their problems with God's support.

For three-years, Jeb Benjamin and Zach Daughtry dreamed of traveling to California to gain their fortune, once released from Camp Douglas, an infamous Union POW hellhole. When the Confederate veterans reach Jeb’s sisters ranch in the Rio Grande valley, they find it in flames, his sister’s family dead and the ranch’s cattle stolen. Death and destruction haunt the veterans. A border war flares with General Juan Cortiña’s irregulars. Jeb learns Juan’s younger brother, Miguel, has raided their ranch, kidnapping his 14-year-old niece.

She is all blond, beautiful motion; tanned and lithe, she represents freedom, youth, and a playful sexuality that is at once seductive and dangerous to a man's soul. The California girl became a national fantasy in the Sixties, a myth that embodied every daydream, set to the rhythm of a Beach Boys anthem. The story is told in the first person by David Levine, a Jewish New Yorker. In 1965, at the beginning of his senior year in high school, he moves with his family to the San Fernando Valley in Southern California.

Calafia is a historical fiction about California’s colonization filled with mystery, suspense, and political saga. Listen to this untold story of the Spanish expedition to settle and civilize the frontier known as Alta California. This fascinating account chronicles the suspenseful clashes of the political architects who planned the expedition. The explorers' grueling journey to the unsettled land and the Indians' resistance to their arrival challenging their culture on the early American western frontier.

In the heart of 1920s London, Charlotte finds herself in a seemingly perfect but lonely marriage. When her mother’s best friend invites her boisterous family to the sun-soaked shores of Madison Creek, California, Charlotte jumps at the chance for a change of scenery—despite her husband’s absence back home. As she settles into the dreamy beach house, her lively sisters and the family dog try to fill the void, but nothing can prepare her for the magnetic pull of Jonathan Hollister, the handsome son of their hosts. With every stolen glance and shared laugh, Charlotte begins to awaken ...

Rancho Santa Elena in 1987 seems like the ideal Southern California paradise—that is, until a series of strange crimes threatens to unravel the town’s social fabric: workers attacked with mysterious weapons; a wealthy real estate developer found dead in the pool of his beach house. The only clues are poison and red threads found at both crime scenes. As Detective Benjamin Wade and forensic expert Natasha Betencourt struggle to connect the incidents, they begin to wonder: Why Santa Elena? And why now?

It's 92 AD. The imperial city of Rome rules Western civilization. A young man named Marco from Corinth joins a small team of brilliant engineers to work on classified projects. Titus, the Roman Prefect of Egypt, knew Marco's father and he sponsors the young man, who then promptly falls in love with Titus' daughter, Paula. Titus orders Marco's team to find a new weapon to help defeat the rebels. They create a shockingly powerful device, but before they can deliver it to Titus, the rebels obtain it and begin murdering.