By a stroke of luck, eighteen-year-old Louise Tanquist has fallen into a new job as a photographer’s assistant. But it’s 1917 and the United States is in the verge of entering World War 1. Suddenly, Tacoma, Washington where she lives is being overrun with army recruits headed for nearby Camp Lewis. The Red Cross is asking for socks, socks, and more socks; the Foundation Boat Building Company needs volunteers to paint camouflage on their shops, and spies are skulking around the waterfront. ...

When the Northern Pacific Railroad laid its final tracks within the fledgling hamlet of Tacoma, it brought opportunity and wild characters by the car full. Seemingly overnight, the quiet Puget Sound village transformed into a booming metropolis and eccentric playground with its fair share of growing pains. On one unlucky evening, residents awoke to the cries of a man who fell into the sewers after a road collapsed. Tacoma's first school avoided demolition for a time thanks to a band of ent...

Tacoma, the city where the rails meet the sails, has always been a place of innovation and rule-breakers. When the railroad came in the nineteenth century, business boomed, along with smuggling, bootlegging and prostitution. Men such as Peter Sandberg walked the line between criminal and respectable. Police in the growing town had their hands full not just with human criminals, but with stray cows, ducks and the occasional bear. Rumor has it that in the 1920s, gangsters Lucky Luciano and F...

Neither Ada nor Minna Simms Lester actually liked men, particularly after marrying brothers and suffering from spousal abuse. But the women weren't opposed to making money off of men, and after several years in a traveling road company, they were good actresses and you don't become the most famous madams in the world without knowing how to fake it.The sisters faked a lot of things. They claimed to have been born to a wealthy lawyer in Louisville, Kentucky, to have gone to finishing...

The City of Destiny took shape where rails met sails on the shores of Commencement Bay. When Tacoma was chosen as the Northern Pacific Railroad�s terminus, the city rose from the mudflats and took the lead as the Northwest�s destination for opportunity. In this collection, discover the city�s early notables and uncover the stories behind the historic landmarks. Why did city planners abandon Olmsted�s vision? How many war bonds did Lana Turner�s kisses buy? Why were vegetarians warned, �Don...

When Mercedes Mackaill has a month off work in which to house and dog sit at a waterfront home, she soon finds that too much of her own company palls. Then the body of an old woman is pulled from the water in front of where she's staying and Mercedes discovers she'd talked to the woman just days before the drowning. An unexpected meeting with Dorsey Finch, the victim's tenant, leads to discovering the woman's strange past—a story reaching back to 1940s Hollywood and a well-known house on N...

In the 19th century, a twenty-two year old, unmarried woman was on the shelf—already an old maid, destined to live on the charity of a family member. For Jane Heath, this is not an option. Disappointed in love and determined to make a life for herself, she takes a job at Wynters Way, the remains of a burned manor house deep in the country near the little town of Yearsley. The Wynters family is returning from India and Jane is hired to make their home habitable.From the day she leav...

Until she discovers the mutilated body of her best friend, widow Mercedes Mackaill thinks her life is dull and lonely. But somebody murdered Isca Haines, a secretary and part-time phone sex worker. Mercedes suspects it has more to do with the evening job than their boring nine-to-five at Jackson, Johnston and Associates, a Tacoma brokerage house.In an effort to track down the killer, she teams up with Isca's former husband, handsome Andrew Clay. Clues have them visiting the Psychic...