Note: Thank you to BookSirens, Tule Publishing, and author Jolie Tunnell for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on BookSirens. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

Back in the late 1800s, there were few options for women. It was a time when women were beginning to assert their desire for independence and some degree of self-sufficiency, but the laws, as they were written at the time, really bound a woman to her father and then her husband.

Karine Langland is considered nearly a spinster at the ripe age of not-quite-thirty, and yearns for more in her life than being the wife of a farmer. When she spots an ad for a mail-order bride in her local newspaper, she answers the ad. Patrick Kelly paints a rosy picture of his life in San Francisco, which entices Karine enough to agree to be his bride, sight unseen. She packs everything she owns and leaves Minnesota for San Francisco, traveling by train. When she arrives, Patrick greets her and rushes her off to City Hall to be married.

The picture Patrick painted for Karine in their letters is much different than his reality. He currently works for his brother Fergus’s butcher business, making deliveries. He lives in the basement of the building where his brother and a sister, Brigid, also reside. He drops his new wife off at the home, then goes out to a local boxing match on their wedding night. The next morning, Karine finds his body in the barn. He apparently was murdered.

Rejected by Patrick’s family, Karine feels very isolated in a City that she hasn’t even been in for 24 hours. Patrick promised her that they were going to leave the City together for greener pastures, once he completed a few things and bought two tickets on a ferry to Vancouver. However, Karine can’t find any trace of the funds he allegedly has, and with no money, there’s no place for her to go.

The police have little interest in looking into the murder or the alleged missing money. They write off Patrick’s murder as two Irishmen who fought and one was killed, not an unusual occurrence on the night after a prize fight. The one gift Patrick gave to Karine — a jade pendant — seems to be a magnet for trouble. Karine soon finds herself between rival factions in San Francisco, which include the Irish, the Chinese, and the police.

This is the first book in what author Jolie Turner sees as a series of books centered around a widow turned amateur sleuth, Mrs. Kelly. She’s setting up a lot with this book as Karine evolves from a naive country girl to a more worldly woman. At the same time, Karine stays true to her sense of right and wrong. She doesn’t want to return home with her tail between her legs, for as intimidating as San Francisco is, she likes the atmosphere of the city as well as the possibilities it offers.

The mystery confused me a bit. Karine is trying to figure out who killed Patrick and also follow the trail of what she believes are riches he’s hidden. By the end of the book, she’s facing the fact that she was deceived by him. Her desire to leave Minnesota overrode her common sense. In the long run, though, she’s going to get what she wanted, which is a life in San Francisco where she can attend concerts and plays. Getting to that point from the beginning of the book was somewhat involved, and I’m still not sure that I understood everything that happened. I think a less convoluted mystery for the first story would have worked better, especially as it’s setting the stage for some characters who will be seen throughout the series.

Still, I enjoyed it. This is a setting for a historical fiction mystery series I haven’t come across before. Most of them seem to take place in Regency England. Shadows in Chinatown is a bit of fresh air in a crowded field. I am interested enough in the characters of Karine, Pearl, and Detective Fisherto check out the next book in the series at the very least. I liked how they were developed, and the situation is not a conventional one in this time and place. Jolie Turner seems to be able to grow her characters quite well in a short time, and that shows a lot of promise.