Novels set in San Francisco | The Modern Novel

Novels set in San Francisco and the Bay Area

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Alice Adams: Almost Perfect
Alice Adams: Caroline’s Daughters
Alice Adams: Listening to Billie
Chris Adrian: The Great Night
Daniel Alef: Pale Truth: The California Chronicles Book 1
Isabel Allende: Hija de fortuna (Daughter of Fortune)
Don Asher: Don’t the Moon Look Lonesome
Don Asher: The Electric Cotillion
Don Asher: The Piano Sport
Gina Berriault: The Lights of Earth
Alvah Bessie: One for My Baby
Gwen Bristow: Calico Palace
Kenneth R. Brown: A Tiger in Haight-Ashbury
Dorothy Bryant: Confessions of Madame Psyche
Dorothy Bryant: A Day in San Francisco
Dorothy Bryant: Miss Giardino
Dorothy Bryant: Test
Ivan Bunin: Господин из Сан-Франциско
Gelett Burgess: The Heart Line
Gelett Burgess and Will Irwin: The Reign of Queen Isyl
Gelett Burgess and Will Irwin: The Picarroons
Bruno Buti: Rumbling Wine Barrels
John Butler: The Tenderloin
Simon Caley: William’s Way
Don Carpenter: Hard Rain Falling
Lenore Carroll: One Hundred Girls’ Mother
John Cech: A Rush of Dreamers
Karen Cobb: Theatre Of The Absurd
Evan S Connell: Diary of a Rapist
John Byrne Cooke: The Committee of Vigilance
Tom De Haven: Dugan Under Ground
Eric Jerome Dickey: Between Lovers
Assia Djebar: Blanc de l’Algérie (Algerian White)
Harriet Doerr: Stones for Ibarra
John Dos Passos: USA
Jennifer Egan: The Invisible Circus
Stephen Englehart: The Point Man
James Fadiman: The Other Side of Haight
Tim Farrington: The California Book of the Dead
Howard Fast: The Immigrants
Howard Fast: An Independent Woman
Howard Fast: Second Generation
M F K Fisher: Not Now But Now
Kathryn Forbes: Mama’s Bank Account
Marjorie Leet Ford: People In The Park
Lynn Freed: Friends of the Family (originally: Heart Change)
Ernest K Gann: Fiddler’s Green
Herbert Gold: Daughter Mine
Herbert Gold: Dreaming
Herbert Gold: Fathers
Herbert Gold: She Took My Arm As If She Loved me
Herbert Gold: The Great American Jackpot
Herbert Gold: Waiting for Cordelia
Emmett Grogan: Ringolevio
Daniel Handler: The Basic Eight
Brett Harte: Under the Redwoods
Kief Hillsbery: War Boy
Cecelia Holland: Pacific Street
David Hunt: The Magician’s Tale
T.C. Huo: A Thousand Wings
Arturo Islas: LA Mollie and the King of Tears
Arturo Islas: The Rain God
M. W. Jacobs: San Fran ‘60s Stories of the Hippies, the Summer of Love, and San Francisco in the ‘60s, Volumes 1 & 2
Stephan Jaramillo: Going Postal
Stephan Jaramillo: The Scoundrel
Diane Johnson: Health and Happiness
Proctor Jones: Ransom of the Golden Bridge
Jerry Kamstra: The Frisco Kid
Jack Kerouac: On the Road
Jan Kerouac: Baby Driver
Nanci Kincaid: Eat, Drink, And Be From Mississippi
Bharti Kirchner: Shiva Dancing
Gus Lee: China Boy
Fred Leebrob: Out West
JoAnn Levy: Daughter of Joy A Novel of Gold Rush San Francisco
Marc Levy: Et si c’était vrai (It Only It were True)
Oscar Lewis: I Remember Christine
David Lodge: Changing Places
Jack London: The Assassination Bureau Ltd.
Jack London: Martin Eden
Jack London: Tales of the Fish Patrol
Mary London: Look Fatter in Jeans: An Adventure in Growing Older & Wiser
Erika Lopez: Hoochie Mama: The Other White Meat
Anne Marino: The Collapsible World
Al Martinez: The Last City Room
Ken McGoogan: Kerouac’s Ghost
Ken McGoogan: Visions of Kerouac
Marcos McPeek Villatoro: The Holy Spirit of My Uncle’s Cojones
N Scott Momaday: Ancient Child
Christopher Moore: Bloodsucking Fiends: a Love Story
Seth Morgan: Homeboy
Eddie Muller: The Distance
John Mulligan: Shopping Cart Soldiers
Fayenne Mae Ng: Bone
Frank Norris: Blix
Frank Norris: McTeague
Frank Norris: Moran of the Lady Letty
Sam North: Diamonds
Alvin Orloff: I Married An Earthling
Julie Otsuka: The Buddha in the Attic
Whitney Otto: A Collection of Beauties at the Height of Their Popularity
C D Payne: Frisco Pigeon Mambo
Michael Perkins: Dark Matter
C. E. Poverman: On the Edge
Thomas Pynchon: The Crying of Lot 49
Michelle Richmond: The Year Of Fog
Marjorie Roberts: Webs in the Sky
Louie Garcia Robinson: The Devil, Delfina Varela and the Used Chevy
Lois Ruby: This Old Man: Lao Jen
Floyd Salas: Lay My Body on the Line
Stephen Schneck: The Nightclerk
Bart Schneider: Blue Bossa
Leslie Schwartz: Jumping The Green
Vikram Seth: Golden Gate
Matthew Stadler: Landscape: Memory
John S Simon: The Sign Of The Fool
Elizabeth Stark: Shy Girl
Kevin Starr: Land’s End
Darcy Steinke: Suicide Blonde
Robert Louis (with Lloyd Osbourne) Stevenson: The Wrecker
Bram Stoker: The Shoulder of Shasta
Robert Stone: Dog Soldiers
Lawrence Swaim: Waiting for the Earthquake
John Franklin Swift: Robert Greathouse
Amy Tan: The Bonesetter’s Daughter
Amy Tan: The Joy Luck Club
Amy Tan: The Kitchen God’s Wife
Mark Twain: Roughing It
Alfredo Vea: The Silver Cloud Café
Alfredo Vea: Gods Go Begging
Jules Verne: Le tour du monde en 80 jours (Around the World in Eighty Days)
William T. Vollmann: The Royal Family
Jess Wells: Aftershocks
Geling Yan: The Lost Daughter of Happiness
Yellow Bird (John Rollin Ridge): Joaquin Murieta
Marina Zolotarevskaia: Кто её зовёт?

Science Fiction

Jerry Jay Carroll: Inhuman Beings
Alfred Coppel: Dark December
Hank Deadwood: Dynamo
Stephen Dedman: Foreign Bodies
Philip K Dick: The Man in the High Castle
Karen Joy Fowler: Sister Noon
William Gibson All Tomorrow’s Parties
William Gibson: Virtual Light
Austin Hall and Homer Eon Flint: The Blind Spot
Mercedes Lackey: The Fire Rose
R. A. MacAvoy: Tea with the Black Dragon
David Mason: Devil’s Food
Lisa Mason: Summer of Love
Walter Mosley: Blue Light
Pat Murphy: The City Not Long After
Alvin Orloff: I Married an Earthling
Frank M. Robinson: Waiting
Michaela Roessner: Vanishing Point
George R Stewart: Earth Abides!

Horror and occult

Clive Barker: Sacrament
Marion Zimmer Bradley: The Inheritor
Cadnum,Michael: The Horses of the Night
Fritz Leiber: Our Lady of Darkness
Pat Montandon: The Intruders
Graham Masterton: Master of Lies

Gay and lesbian novels

Red Jordan Arobateau: Street Fighter
Elaine Beale: Murder in the Castro
Jim Brogan: A Time to Live
N.A. Diaman: Castro Street Memories
Nisa Donnelly: The Love Songs of Phoenix Bay
Linnea Due: Life Savings
Karin Kallmaker: Making Up for Lost Time
Willyce Kim: Dancer Dawkins and the California Kid
Jay B Laws: The Unfinished
Jaye Maiman: I Left My Heart
Armistead Maupin: 28 Barbary Lane
Armistead Maupin: Babycakes
Armistead Maupin: Back to Barbary Lane
Armistead Maupin: Michael Tolliver Lives
Armistead Maupin: Sure of You
Marian Michener: Dreaming under a Ton of Lizards
Orland Outland: Doan McChandler and Binky Van de Kamp series
Orland Outland: Every Man for Himself
Carol Queen: The Leather Daddy and the Femme
Paul Reed: Vertical Intercourse
Paul Reidinger: City Kid
Paul Reidinger: Good Boy
Bart Schneider: Secret Love
Jack Spicer: The Tower of Babel
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore: So Many Ways To Sleep Badly
Michelle Tea: Valencia
Ronald Tierney: Eclipse of the Heart
Karen X. Tulchinsky: Love Ruins Everything
Chea Villanueva: The Chinagirls
Richard Zimler: The Angelic Darkness

Mysteries and thrillers

J L Abramo: Catching Water in a Net
Cleve F. Adams: Up Jumped the Devil
Elizabeth Adler: The Secret of the Villa Mimosa
Charles Alverson: Joe Goodey series
Poul Anderson: Trygve Yamamura trilogy (Perish by the Sword; Murder in Black Letter; Murder Bound)
Brian Andrews: Knife Under Fire
Betty Antoncich: The Mystery of the Chinatown Pearls
Campbell Armstrong: A Concert of Ghosts
Gertrude Atherton: The Avalanche
Elizabeth Atwood Taylor: The Cable Car Murder
William Babula: St. John series
Wade Barker: Black Magician
Wade Barker: Borderland of Hell
Wade Barker: Death’s Door
Elaine Beale: Murder in the Castro
Dorothy Bennett: Come and Be Killed
Dorothy Bennett: Murder Unleashed
David Berlinski: Aaron Asherfeld series
Earl Derr Biggers: Behind That Curtain
Anthony Boucher (William Anthony Parker White): The Case of the Seven of Calvary
Robert J Bowman: The House of Blue Lights
Robert J Bowman: The Screaming Buddha
Anthony Bruno: Hot Fudge
Robert A Burton: Cellmates
Niven Busch: California Street
Robert Byrne: Thrill
Bernice Carey: The Body on the Sidewalk
Tim Champlin: King of the Highbinders
Leonard Chang: Over the Shoulder
Frank Chin: Donald Duk
Verne Chute: Flight of an Angel
Mark Coggins: The Immortal Game
James Colbert: Profit and Sheen
Mary Collins: Dead Center
Mary Collins: Dog Eat Dog
Mary Collins: The Sister of Cain
Cahroul Cramer: Twisted
Frances Crane: Pat and Jean Abbott series
James Crumley: The Last Good Kiss
James Dalessandro: Bohemian Heart
Newton Dal Poggetto: Vintage of a Murder
Dorothy Daniels: Circle of Guilt
Kenn Davis: The Forza Trap
Dianne Day: Fremont Jones series
Gordon De Marco: Riley Kovachs series
Frank Devlin: Love In All The Wrong Places
Dean W. Dickensheet (ed.): Great Crimes of San Francisco
Dean W. Dickensheet (ed.): Men and Malice; an Anthology of Mystery and Suspense by West Coast Authors
H Vernor Dixon: The Killer in Silk
David Dodge: Whit Whitney series, including Death and Taxes, It Ain’t Hay
Gaylord Dold: Schedule Two
John E Douglas and Mark Olshaker: Broken Wings
Joan M Drury: Closed in Silence
Joan M Drury: The Other Side of Silence
David Duncan: Worse Than Murder (originally: The Bramble Bush)
Theo Durrant [Durrant is the combined talents of Terry Adler, Anthony Boucher, Eunice Mays Boyd, Florence Austern Faulkner, Allen Hymson, Cary Lucas, Dane Lyon, Lenore Glen Offord, Virginia Rath, Virginia Shattuck, Darwin L. Teilhet and William Worley]: The Marble Forest
K R Dwyer [Dean Koontz]: Shattered
George Dyer: The Catalyst Club
George Dyer: The People Ask Death
George Dyer: The Five Fragments
Mignon G Eberhart: Casa Madrone
James Ellroy: Silent Terror
Guy Emery: Front for Murder
Tim Farrington: The California Book Of The Dead
Phillip Finch: F2F
Robert Finnegan: The Bandaged Nude
Robert Finnegan: Many a Monster
Jack Finney: House of Numbers
Jay Flynn: McHugh series
Leslie Ford: Siren in the Night
Jack Foxx (Bill Pronzini): Freebooty
James N Frey: Odyssey Gallagher series
Mickey Friedman: Paper Phoenix
Geoffrey Gamble: Breakfast with a Cereal Killer
Ernest K. Gann: Of Good and Evil
Erle Stanley Gardner: The Case of the Substitute Face; Murder Up My Sleeve
Philip Garlington: Aces and Eights
Myra Gay: Little Jade Lady
Paul Gillette: The Chinese Godfather
Bernard Girard: Cool Jade
Glen David Gold: Carter Beats The Devil
Gene Goldsmith: Layout for a Corpse
David Goodis: Dark Passage
Joe Gores: Daniel Kearney series
Joe Gores: 32 Cadillacs
Joe Gores: Hammett
Paula Gosling: Fair Game
Linda Grant: Catherine Sayler series
Steven Greenleaf: John Marshall Tanner series
Leonard Gross: Strangers at the Gate
James Gunn: Deadlier than the Male
Oakley M. Hall: Ambrose Bierce and the Queen of Spades
Dashiell Hammett: Most of his novels, including The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, Red Harvest, The Thin Man
Stuart Harrison: Better Than This
Dane Hartman: Massacre at Russian River
Dane Hartman: The Mexico Kill
Blair Hoffman: Murder for the Prosecution
Rupert Holmes: The Musician’s Daughter
David Hunt: The Magician’s Tale
David Hunt: Trick of Light
Florence Hurd: The House on Russian Hill
Jonnie Jacobs: Kali O’Brien series; Kate Austin series
Breni James: Night of the Kill
Breni James: The Shake-Up
Frank Kane: The Lineup
Jerry Kennealy: Nick Polo series
Garry D Kilworth: Angel
Laurie King: A Grave Talent
Andrew Klavan: Damnation Street
Clifford Knight: Death and Little Brother
Henry Kuttner: Michael Gray series
John J Lamb: The Clockwork Teddy
Gus Lee: No Physical Evidence
Fred Leebron: Out West
John Lescroart: Dismas Hardy series
Donna Levin: California Street
Clayre and Michael Lipman: House of Evil
Margaret Lucke: A Relative Stranger
Richard A. Lupoff: The Classic Car Killer
Richard A. Lupoff: The Cover Girl Killer
Jack Lynch: Pieces of Death
Dana Lyon: House on Telegraph Hill
John D MacDonald: The Quick Red Fox
Ross MacDonald: The Underground Man
Alice MacGowan: The Seventh Passenger
Alice MacGowan: The Million Dollar Suitcase
Alice MacGowan and Perry Newberry: Shaken Down
Alice MacGowan and Perry Newberry: The Mystery Woman
Jane MacLean: Deadfall
Malcolm MacPherson: Deadlock
Jaye Maiman: I Left My Heart
George Mair: The Jade Cat
Tim Maleeny: Beating The Babushka
Robert Mallory: Radcliff: San Francisco Vendetta
Derek Marlowe: Somebody’s Sister
John S Martel: The Alternate
John S Martel: Billy Strobe
John S Martel: Conflicts of Interest
Lia Matera: Willa Jansson series
Charles Mathes: The Girl Who Remembered Snow
Mabel Maney: The Case of the Not-So-Nice Nurse
Nancy Barr Mavity: The Man Who Didn’t Mind Hanging
A.E. Maxwell: Just Another Day in Paradise
B J Maylon: The Corpse with Knee Action
David McDaniel: The Dagger Affair
Joseph D. McNamara: Code 211 Blue
Joseph D. McNamara: The First Directive
Melisa C Michaels: Through the Eyes of the Dead
John Mersereau: Murder Loves Company
John Miller & Tim Smith (eds.): San Francisco Thrillers (short mysteries set in San Francisco)
John A Miller: Claude McCutcheon series
Paula Minton: Fog Hides the Fury
Susan Morrow: Murder May Follow
Marcia Muller: Sharon McCone series
Michael Nava: The Little Death
Hugh Lawrence Nelson: Steve Johnson series
Jim Nisbet: Lethal Injection
Jim Nisbet: Prelude to a Scream
Jim Nisbet: The Gourmet
Lenore Glen Offord: Todd McKinnon, Bill and Coco Hasting series
Howard L. Oleck: A Singular Fury
Carol Anne O’Marie: Sister Mary Helen series
Orland Outland: Doan McChandler and Binky Van de Kamp series
Stuart Palmer & Flora, Fletcher: Hildegarde Withers Makes the Scene
Owen Park: The Chinatown Connection
Robert B Parker: A Catskill Eagle
James Patterson: 1st to Die
James Patterson: 2nd Chance
Richard North Patterson: Eyes of a Child
John A Peak: Mortal Judgments
John A Peak: Spare Change
Howard Pease: Foghorns
Howard Pease: The Mystery of Telegraph Hill
Howard Pease: Thunderbolt House
Joanne Pence: Angie Amalfi series
Don Pendleton: California Hit
Thomas Perry: Death Benefits
Clyde Phillips: Fall from Grace
Robert L. Pike: Reardon
Elizabeth Pincus: Nell Fury series
Peter Plate: Angels of Catastrophe
Peter Plate: Police and Thieves
Peter Plate: Snitch Factory
Kin Platt: The Pushbutton Butterfly
James Polster: Brown
Jerry Allen Potter: A Talent for Dying
Jerry Allen Potter: If I Should Die Before I Wake
Bill Pronzini: Most of his novels, particularly those featuring the Nameless detective (see Thrilling Detective)
Queen, Ellery: A Room to Die in
Patrick Quentin: Puzzle for Puppets
Thom Racina: Kojak in San Francisco
Milton Raison: The Gay Mortician
Virginia Rath: Michael Dundas series, including An Excellent Night for Murder, The Dark Cavalier, A Dirge For Her
Joe Rayter: The Victim was Important
Howard Rigsby: Kill and Tell
Howard Rigsby: Murder for the Holidays
Phillip Rock: Dirty Harry
V J Santiago: San Francisco: Kill or Be Killed
Schermerhorn. James: Night of the Cat
Jenny Scholten: Day Stripper
Jenny Scholten: Slay Me Tender
Sidney Sheldon: Nothing Lasts Forever
David Sherridane: The Heart of a Gangster
Sheldon Siegel: Incriminating Evidence
Sheldon Siegel: Special Circumstances
George Sims: Hunters Point
Julie Smith: Death Turns a Trick
Julie Smith: Huckleberry Fiend
Julie Smith: The Sourdough Wars
Jack Spicer: The Tower of Babel
Domenic Stansberry: The Last Days of Il Duce
Kay Cleaver Strahan: Death Traps
Lawrence Swaim: The Killing
Jean Taylor: The Last of Her Lies
Samuel W Taylor: The Grinning Gizmo
Samuel W Taylor: The Man With My Face
Darwin Teilhet and Hildegarde Tolman: Baron Franz Maximilian Karagoz and von Kaz series
Lee Thayer: No Holiday for Death
Ross Thomas: Backup Men
Jim Thompson: Ironside
Lloyd S. Thompson: Death Stops the Show
David Thoreau: City at Bay
Ronald Tierney: The Paladino/Lang series
Elise Title: Romeo
Robert Upton: Amos McGuffin series
Mel Valley: Magnum Force
Jack Vance: The View from Chickweed’s Window
Walter Walker: The Appearance of Impropriety
Walter Walker: Rules of the Knife Fight
Walter Walker: The Two Dude Defense
Marilyn Wallace: A Case of Loyalties
Mike Weiss: Ben Henry series
Jerry Weissman: The Zodiac Killer
Gloria White: Charged with Guilt
Carter Wick: The Faceless Man
Collin Wilcox: The Black Door
Collin Wilcox: Lt. Frank Hastings Series
Charles Willeford: High Priest of California
Charles Willeford: Pick-Up
Charles Willeford: Wild Wives
Charles Willeford: Miami Blues
Brad Williams and J. W. Ehrlich: A Conflict of Interest
Brad Williams and J. W. Ehrlich: A Matter of Confidence
Mary WingsShe Came To The Castro
Mary Wings: She Came in Drag
Cornell Woolrich: Rendezvous in Black
William Worley: My Dead Wife
Chelsea Quinn Yarbro: Charlie Moon series
Laurence Yep: Child of the Owl
Laurence Yep: The Mark Twain Murders
Fred Zackel: Cinderella After Midnight
Fred Zackel: Cocaine and Blue Eyes
Bruce Zimmerman: Blood Under the Bridge

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The world-wide literary novel from early 20th Century onwards

Novels set in San Francisco and the Bay Area

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