Interesting descriptions of San Francisco after Pearl Harbor. The mystery concept holds through the book, but it presupposed some knowledge of the series characters. ( )

This one is set in early Spring. Grace Latham now says she was born, married, and produced two children in Georgetown. She traded her house with a distant cousin in San Francisco because her older son, Bill, has enlisted as a Naval Air Cadet and he's being stationed near that city.
(We learn that Bill lied about his age to enlist, so he's defintely under 20.)

The exclusive neighborhood may be lovely, but the same can't be said for all of the cousin's neighbors. The best-known neighbor is the wealthy Loring Kimball. He's quite eccentric. His mansion survived the earthquake and fire of 1906, although his first wife didn't. Kimball had the house moved to the terrace. A light burns all night, every night, in the room that belonged to his first wife -- even though San Francisco is supposed to be blacked out in case of bombers. How do his daughter by that wife, his second wife, and his stepdaughter feel about that? Whatever their feelings, you may be sure that Kimball doesn't care.

Thorne Kimball, the lovely stepdaughter, didn't get to marry Nat Donahue, the man she loves. Guess who was responsible for that?

Nat does have a wife and she's as rotten as she is beautiful. Ilya brings in the kind of reporter who loves to write up scandals -- and make them sound far worse than they actually are. It's too much to hope that he'll be one of the murder victims, but don't worry. Colonel Primrose will take care of him.

Colonel Primrose and Sergeant Buck show up in San Francisco. No surprise there, although the excuse he used to see Grace made me smile.

There are plenty of other colorful characters living on the terrace, especially the Butts family. Mrs. Butts is their most colorful member. In chapter 11, the look in her eye reminds Grace of her childhood horse, Ginger. Ginger had an unpleasant habit. Will Mrs. Butts do the same?

There's also a cute little boy who's the grandson of Grace's cousin. He thinks he saw a ghost. What did he see?

What about that strange remark another neighbor, Dr. Norton, made about the first Mrs. Kimball? How much does he know about the mystery of that light Kimball keeps burning in her bedroom?

Naturally, Grace is going to have her favorites and will do what she can to help them. Just as naturally, that means she'll try to keep information from Colonel Primrose if she thinks it will hurt them.

For my money, Siren in the Night is one of the most memorable books in this series. I hadn't reread the book in almost 11 years, but I had no trouble recalling the Big Dark Secret. What a psycho!

Notes:

Because this book was written and published during World War II, the Japanese are called 'Japs'. The appalling decision to send Japanese Americans to internment camps gets a brief mention near the end of chapter one. Grace herself says nothing for or against it except to note that her cousin's Chinese [-American?] servant laughed about it. Given what the Japanese did when they invaded China during WWII, John's laughter is not surprising.

Sadly, African-American Lilac's letter to Grace is full of spelling mistakes, one of the stereotypes of the time.

San Joaquin Terrace appears to be fictional. That's Spanish for 'Saint Joachim,' who was Jesus' maternal grandfather in the Infancy Gospel of James, but I have no idea if that choice of name was supposed to have any significance for the mystery.

This is a classic cozy mystery. Racist touches aside, it's well worth reading. ( )