Guest Post: From Greg Messel, Author of “Fog City Strangler”

February 6, 2014 at 10:47 am | Posted in Books | Leave a comment

Title: “Fog City Strangler”

Author: Greg Messel

Format: Paperback, ebook

Length: 405 pages

Guest Post From Greg Messel, Author of “Fog City Strangler“

THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO

Since I was a small child, I’ve been in love with San Francisco. I grew up in the East Bay town of Concord, California, which is about 30 miles east of San Francisco.  

I’ve spent a good share of my life, going to San Francisco to have fun. Even though I live farther away from this magical city now, I still return and it is a place I dearly love. 

One reviewer said of my Sam Slater Mystery books that one of the main characters in the books is the city of San Francisco.   I’m excited to have “Fog City Strangler” published and available to readers.  I plan at least two more in the series.   

While I’m promoting “Fog City Strangler, I’m busy writing my next book in the series– “Shadows In The Fog”–which should be out by the end of this year.

Last summer when I returned to the Bay Area I spent a day in San Francisco, drinking in the sites but also imaging different locations for my books. I wanted to refresh my memory in some cases and make sure things are as I remember.   I research the locations as best I can, to imagine what they were like in the 1950s compared to now. 

In some cases I do remember what it was like in the 1950s.  For instance, one of my favorite locations in San Francisco is called the Cannery.  My wife and I loved to go there and when we were dating in high school we would go to the Cannery, which is a collection of restaurants, shops and nearby is the old Ghirardelli Chocolate factory. 

When Sam Slater walked the streets of San Francisco, the Cannery was still a cannery, for Dole Pineapple.

Last summer I visited Coit Tower and drove down the steep hills of Telegraph HIll. Coit Tower and the steep streets which surround it, figure prominently in the plot of “San Francisco Secrets.”   

I also walked up and down Filbert Street where Sam and Amelia have a harrowing ride after the brakes on their car are tampered with in “San Francisco Secrets.”  

I drove out to historic Fort Point at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge which is a key location in the second book in the series “Deadly Plunge.”   One of my favorite places in San Francisco is the Palace of Fine Arts.  I walked around the pond on the path where a Russian diplomat is murdered in “Deadly Plunge.”   

On my recent trips to San Francisco I’ve even driven through Sam and Amelia’s old neighborhood in the Mission District. It has changed a lot since the 1950s. For one thing, sadly there is a Safeway store on the hallowed ground once occupied by Seals Stadium.  I will always think of Sam Slater and Amelia Ryan when I drive by the corner of 16th and Valencia. It’s the fictional location of Sam’s apartment building. 

I love to use the photos from the San Francisco Historical Society in my books. I think they add a lot and hope readers agree. I have to get permission to use them and they have been wonderful to work with.  They have copies of my books in their archives. 

I’ve always been very fond of Stinson Beach, a beach town north of San Francisco, which is the location of key events in “Fog City Strangler.” I liked to go to Stinson Beach in the summer when I was a teenager. There were also a few occasions when I cut school with my friends and went to Stinson Beach. I always wondered how we got away with it. Me and my friends would return from our “sick day” with sunburned cheeks after our day at Stinson Beach. 

Napa Valley is a beautiful place and world famous for it’s vineyards and wineries. In 1958 the California wine industry was on the cusp of making a name for itself. 

I’ve always loved the movies of Alfred Hitchcock as you can probably tell from my books. I discovered a book called “Footsteps in the Fog.” Hitchcock shot several movies in San Francisco in the 1950s and 1960s.  “Footsteps in the Fog” talks about the locations he used and showed photos of him scouting locations in the City-By-The-Bay.

I hope I’m following his footsteps in the fog.

I had one reader ask if all of the detail in “Last of the Seals,” “Deadly Plunge,”  “San Francisco Secrets” and “Fog City Strangler” is real?   My answer is as real as I can possibly make it.  The 1950s world of San Francisco, where Sam and Amelia live, in very alive in my memory. 

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