The Dangerous Angel Affair

"The time is the Eighteen Seventies; the place is gaudy, lavish San Francisco. Anneke Villard, of haunting grace, comes to the city on the Golden Gate with Hepsibah, her duenna, from Kentucky. There is no love in Anneke's eyes, no desire to turn her beauty to account save for money. Once accepted into society (that being bankers, real estate and mining speculators) Anneke listens to conversation with naive charm. From tidbits dropped here and there she finds ways to fatten her bankroll through stock coups of various kinds. Anneke's aim is loot, not love. In San Francisco, too, she finds Juan Vallejo Parnell, a debonair young mining engineer. With piercing insight, Juan is able to discern that beneath Anneke's acquisitive exterior beats a heart capable of love.... Juan mocks Anneke, and she mocks him right back. True love and appropriate tender sentiments take a back seat as Anneke unwittingly gets mixed up in someone else's diamond field hoax and implicated in their plot to hoodwink gullible bankers and investors [but] the hoaxers actually want Anneke out of the way. ...Slick, swift, entertaining." -The New York Times

Anneke Villard came to San Francisco at the height of its silver rush-and one of the most lavish spending sprees any metropolis had ever seen. She was determined to win a fortune for herself. Unlike most of the other women who were flooding to the city, she was determined to do it with her brains instead of her body.

"Romance-suspense-action set against a historical background that is dramatic in itself. Mr. Kelland is to be congratulated. Exceptional." -Los Angeles Times

For fans of Agatha Christie, Erle Stanley Gardner and Rex Stout.