Fifth in a series of noir mysteries featuring newspaper reporter Samuel Hamilton, The Halls of Power ($14.95) explores corruption at the top of the money chain in San Francisco in the early 1960s. The work teems with eccentric characters: hardboiled cops and immigrant workmen, prosperous businessmen, but especially the albino sage, Mr. Song, who brings a form of vigilante justice when the system stops working for the people of Chinatown.
William C. Gordon, a former San Francisco trial lawyer, has written a series of noir mysteries about San Francisco in the 1960's, including Fractured Lives and The Chinese Jars, which have been well received. Gordon is a world traveler and a photographer and incorporates the diversity of his life experiences into his fiction.