Sarah Woolson

Sarah Woolson has always dreamed of becoming a lawyer. The trouble is that, in 1880, everyone believes a woman belongs in the home, married and taking care of babies. Using her brains and a little bit of subterfuge, Sarah somehow manages to finagle her way into one of the city's most prestigious law firms, becoming an associate attorney and acquiring her very first client, a lovely young society matron accused of brutally stabbing to death her wealthy but abusive husband.

Though her own law firm barely tolerates her and her mother begs her to settle down, plucky young attorney Sarah Woolson flouts notions of proper feminine behavior in this nineteenth-century answer to Legally Blonde. When a woman whose husband has died in a sweatshop fire asks for Sarah's help in finding the culprit, she insists on taking the case against her boss's wishes.

San Francisco attorney Sarah Woolson attends a seance, which turns out to be much more than "silly parlor tricks". After a dramatic display, the clairvoyant and her guests discover that one of the people seated at the table has been brutally strangled, and Sarah is pressed into defending the accused murderer.

A body is found just blocks from attorney Sarah Woolson’s peaceful Rincon Hill home. Sarah is soon on the case, but nineteenth-century San Francisco is rapidly thrown into a state of panic as a gruesome crime spree begins to take hold of the city. Engaged in a life or death struggle to find the murderer, Sarah becomes embroiled in the erotic escapades of the town’s infamous high-end brothels, a proper Anglican church, Darwin’s shocking theory of evolution, and a vicious killer who will stop at nothing to achieve a scandalous objective.

San Francisco, 1882: After enjoying an evening listening to the young Oscar Wilde, crusading young lawyer Sarah Woolson and her brother, Samuel, are making their way home when a gunshot sounds and a bullet pierces the fog, striking Samuel. Who could want to hurt Samuel? Was he even the intended target? Determined to find answers, Sarah discovers more murder and mayhem on Telegraph Hill.