there's gold in them thar book

Capri Sanzio has a tour guide company in San Francisco. As the granddaughter of the infamous serial killer Overkill Bill, she grew up steeped in true crime, as it directly affected her family. Her father refused to speak about it, but she persisted anyway, learning all she could about her grandfather. When a copycat killer went after her former mother-in-law, Capri had to dive into the investigation to make sure she and her daughter were safe from prosecution, and from the killer.

Now she’s back to giving her tours, and it’s on her Barbary Coast tour, all about the gold rush and the unsavory characters that the gold attracted, that she once again became part of a crime. As she’s telling stories about the sailors who showed up to search for gold and the shenanigans they got up to, a woman on the tour yelled out. She pointed to a nearby window and said, “Someone’s attacking that woman!”

Capri stays with her and calls the police to check on the woman. The tourist, Lorraine, had seen a woman with someone’s hands around her neck. The police did a welfare check but found nothing out of order. Capri was still feeling like something was off about the situation later, so she checked in with Homicide Detective Dan Petitio.

Petitio had been the man to investigate the murder of Capri’s ex-mother-in-law, and he had since asked her out. Capri trusted him, so she asked him to look into the situation also, just to ease her mind. But then the woman who lived in the apartment, the one Lorraine had seen getting attacked, is found murdered. And then Lorraine goes missing. All of Capri’s inner alarm bells are going off, but she can’t make sense of what happened. Had Lorraine been in on it somehow? Or had she been an innocent bystander witnessing a murder?

Then Capri noticed something in one of the photos she had taken in the apartment of the woman who had died. She had been an artist, using found pieces to create her art, and there was clearly something missing from her shelf. When Capri figures out what’s missing, she realizes it’s an important piece of San Francisco history, from the Gold Rush era. Is that why the woman had been killed? Could Lorraine have taken the piece and killed her, using the tour as a way to create an alibi for herself, or did she have an accomplice kill the woman while Lorraine was out in public with others?

As Capri tries to put the pieces of the puzzle together and make sense of all the clues, she is also putting together a podcast about the crime, to try to draw out the killer. But will that put her in danger again, or will she be able to crack the code that will put a killer behind bars?

A Tour to Die For is the second book in the series that started with A Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco. Author Michelle Chouinard layers the city’s history with the crime Capri is investigating, and the effect is a mystery with depth. Using the background of the gold rush, both the history of it as well as the how those past events still linger in the city today adds a lot of interest and power to the story of the killer Capri is trying to catch.

I really liked this mystery. Like the first book in the series, this novel is packed with information and action. Capri is a strong woman, sometimes smart but always tenacious, and I have enjoyed reading about her running all over town trying to make these crimes make sense. I love the history, and the ending was chilling. I look forward to more tours of San Francisco in the future.

I listened to A Tour to Die For on audio, narrated beautifully by Stephanie Nemeth-Parker. I think she captures Capri’s voice perfectly and does a lovely job of bringing San Francisco and this story to life.

Egalleys for A Tour to Die For were provided by Minotaur Books, and a copy of the audio book was provided by Macmillan Audio, both through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.