Ambrose Bierce and the Trey of Pearls

Ambrose Bierce #4

by Oakley Hall

Oakley Hall is a modern-day Sir Arthur Conan Doyle whose works have been acclaimed by everybody from Michael Chabon to Diane Johnson. In his latest Ambrose Bierce mystery, three young, beautiful orators known as “The Trey of Pearls” come to San Francisco in 1892 to advocate women’s suffrage, whipping the burly city of pioneers and railroad men into a lather. When the famous women’s advocate Reverend Divine is found murdered, Ambrose and his indomitable sidekick Tom Redmond must navigate the heavy seas of free love, the politics of a minister’s harem, and the secrets of California’s rough and ready frontier past to uncover the truth. Cunningly plotted and rich with period detail, this historical mystery confirms Hall’s reputation as a master of the genre.

Genres: Mystery

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 26, 2004

About the author

Oakley Hall also wrote under the nom de plume of O.M. Hall and Jason Manor.

Oakley Maxwell Hall was an American novelist. He was born in San Diego, California, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and served in the Marines during World War II. Some of his mysteries were published under the pen names "O.M. Hall" and "Jason Manor." Hall received his Master of Fine Arts in English from the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.

Reviews

[Alison C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ambrose Bierce and his colleague/sidekick Tom Redmond are called on by their boss, publisher “Willie” Hearst, to look into the murder of a very popular San Francisco preacher. Said preacher was better known for his many, many female conquests than for his piety, which means there’s a long list of suspects, but Bierce hones in on one of the preacher’s other passions, that of the suffragettes, who happen to be planning a march in The City which many men oppose. Things only get more complicated when three young female orators known as “the Trey of Pearls,” come to town and Tom Redmond falls madly in love…. I think there are four or five books in this series, although I’ve only read two before this one; at any rate, the series order doesn’t seem to matter very much in this case. Many readers will be quite upset with the misogynistic and racist stereotyping in the series, but if you can keep in mind the fact that these attitudes were the norm in the period in which the series is set (this book is set in 1892), there’s a lot to enjoy here, not least the fact that each chapter is headed with a definition from Bierce’s real book, “The Devil’s Dictionary,” which are hilarious. I didn’t really buy into the solution to the crime, but the period setting and characters were well done; so, with the caveat about race and gender noted above, a mild recommendation from me.

[Christian Schwoerke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This ends up a mixed review, a “yes, but” affair… What else can you say about a well-wrought pot-boiler?

I read a couple of these Bierce novels in 2014, shortly after reading Hall’s magnum opus, Warlock, and I was more tickled by the premise than the reality. The idea of the tart-tongued Bierce being a sort of Sherlock Holmes whose exploits and words are recounted by a Watson-like newspaper colleague is brilliant, but that brilliant idea is only sketched out, not fully, sumptuously developed. The writing is competent and there are accurate historic touches that place everything squarely in San Francisco and its culture circa 1870, but at the same time it all feels schematic, merely outlined.

This installment in the series has Bierce and Redmond each dealing with affairs of the heart when—while trying to solve the murder of a flamboyant pastor whose twisted past reveals the ease with which people were able to re-make/re-invent themselves in the wild west—they get entangled with a leading advocate of the Suffragist movement and her court of attractive women, the three pearls.

[Sharon Falduto]

I had no idea that the famed journalist and short story writer (and the reason I remember how to spell "occurrence") solved mysteries in his spare time, but apparently there's a whole series about him doing so. This one is narrated by his Man Friday Tom, and involves some suffragettes, the Clampers who marched against them, and a free love minister who loved a little too freely.

[Kevin Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing flows naturally and carries the reader along. The solution to the mystery is apparent relatively early.

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

A library find.
I Could not enjoy.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I zoomed through this one this week as I was home doctoring a sinus infection on top of my allergies. An enjoyable historical mystery, but I never really felt that the author used Bierce as much as he could have.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

A poor entry in a usually-entertaining series.