June 2, 1997
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake is over, but independent-minded Fremont Jones, still feeling its effects (detailed in Fire and Fog), has vacated the city to become the temporary lighthouse keeper at Point Pinos, near Carmel. Her former neighbor, Michael Archer, to whom she remains attracted, has taken a cottage in Carmel where he calls himself Misha and pursues a bohemian life. The no-nonsense Fremont is dismayed by this change. But, practical woman that she is, she's glad when some of his coterie of artistic friends hire her to type their manuscripts. From the lighthouse she observes a red object floating in the treacherous coastal waters and calls the Coast Guard when she sees it is a body washing up on the shore. When no one can identify the young woman in the beautiful red dress, Fremont vows to establish her identity and give her a proper burial. Fremont questions the locals, learns that a land developer is wining and dining the wealthy residents and later discovers that the dead woman was one of the actresses hired for the developer's lavish parties. An artist who drew a portrait of the dead woman disappears, and Fremont's investigation turns mortally dangerous. Mysteries of the heart feature large in the latest adventure of an outspoken heroine whose assured demeanor sometimes masks a pleasantly vulnerable interior.