The Strange Files of Fremont Jones

Set in San Francisco in the early 20th century, The Strange Files of Fremont Jones is about a modern woman who abandons her wealthy Boston home to seek her own life. She has vowed never to marry, so when her father and his new wife are on their honeymoon, she leaves for San Francisco and starts a typing business. Things are going well, and she becomes involved with her new friends: a young lawyer named Justin Cameron, her curious landlady, Mrs O'Leary, and a mysterious neighbor, Michael Archer. Opening up her new Typewriter Service Fremont Jones quickly becomes involved in a mystery when she is approached by a Chinese man who is later found dead. Soon afterward she discovers her office has been burgled and his file stolen. Fremont knows show more his family needs the information in the letter, which has disappeared, and she is determined to get to the bottom of it all. Along the way, she becomes a private detective, falls in love, and gets in one scrape after another.

I thought this was a promising start to a good series. The time period and the characters are all very colorful. You almost feel the San Francisco of that time. The plot and mystery have some twists and turns that made it very interesting. Ms. Day passed away in 2013 and I noticed there are five more in the Fremont Jones series. I would definitely pick one up to find out what happens to Fremont in the future. show less

Set in the early 1900's in San Francisco, this tells the story of Freemont (nee Caroline) Jones who moves from Boston to be a Typewriter in San Francisco, trying to find a place in the world outside the constraints placed on women in her time. She lands a strange job transcribing what the author, Edgar Allan Partridge, describes as stories but seem to be very wierd and very disturbing, are there echoes of truth in the stories or are they just fiction? Also what does dashing lawyer Justin Cameron want from her?

Interesting, a bit predictable but I enjoyed the ride.

Opening Sentence: ‘…know what people say about me: I am willful an opinionated, shockingly eccentric in my manner of dress (this is because I will not wear a corset), altogether a trial to my father…’

The Strange Files of Fremont Jones is set in San Francisco in 1905. Caroline Fremont Jones is a thoroughly modern miss whose father has no real idea how to control her or make her confirm to society’s expectations of how women should act. She has now finished her college education and is at a bit of a loss on what to do next. Her father married a woman that Caroline dislikes and her new stepmother believes that marriage is all that a woman requires and has just the nephew in mind for Caroline. While her father and his bride are on show more their honeymoon Caroline runs away to San Francisco, changes her name to Fremont Jones, finds herself lodgings with a widow called Mrs O’Leary, settles in and sets up her own a typing business.

Fremont’s fellow boarding house guest is the enigmatic Michael Archer, who Mrs O’Leary is convinced is a spy. The plot is based around the three of Fremont’s customers and Michael. The first is a rather nice young lawyer called Justin Cameron who quickly becomes her boyfriend. Justin is followed by a rather creepy author, Edgar Allan Partridge, who wants his handwritten manuscript typed out. As Fremont types out his macabre stories we get to ‘read’ them as well, and when he doesn’t turn up to collect the finished manuscript, Fremont follows hints in the stories to try and track him down. The third major client to make up Fremont’s ‘strange files’ is an elderly Chinese man called Li Wong – who dictates his last will and testimony. A week later he has been murdered and Fremont’s office is broken into.

This is a wonderful start to a new (for me) series – a mystery complete with strong female character, lots of thrills and adventure. There is humour, death, romance, twists, turns and realistic characters. All this is accompanied by vivid descriptions of San Francisco that just conjure up a sense of place and time.

I have the next book in the series on order. show less

This, the first in the Fremont Jones series, is a historical mystery set in San Francisco previous to the great earthquake of 1906.

Fremont Jones is an independent young woman from Boston, who, in order to escape her intrefering step-mother, establlishes her own typing business in far-away San Francisco.

When handsome lawyer Justin Cameron hires her, he causes her pulse to quicken and her head to whirl, creating a confusing mix of emotions.

Eccentric writer Edgar Allen Partridge hires her to type a manuscript of stories as eerie as those written by his namesake, Edgar Allen Poe. After proclaiming the stories to be true, he vanishes without returning to collect his finished work.

A third client is found murdered after hiring Fremont to type show more a sensitive document. The man's family turn to her seeking answers.

Her search for E. A. Partridge and for the answers she hopes to find for the murdered man's family lead her to San Francisco's seedy, dangerous underworld, Will it also be there that she will find the answers to her own heart's dilemma?

This was a fairly good mystery. I liked the main character, and the setting and plot were interesting. However interesting the plot was, though, it felt like it was too busy with too many threads. I found that rather distracting. For what it's worth, I also dislike the title. It sounds too much like a juvenile book to me, which it certainly is not. show less

LOVED this book and can't wait to read the next in the series. Set in 1905, the year before the earthquake, Fremont Jones leaves her Boston upbringing to become an independent businesswoman in SF. She's a delightful mix of new woman and naive 20-something. At one point she ventures into nighttime Chinatown, at another a Poe-like mansion. Nothing but fun for the reader. Is a fellow boarder a spy? Will her lawyer boyfriend be her lover or her enemy? And what of her 'aubergine cape'?
BTW--for parents of young readers who might want to know--explicit sex scene, surprising for the time period.

Caroline Fremont Jones leaves her father's house in Boston when he goes off on his honeymoon with his new wife who has plans to marry off Caroline to her nephew. Having graduated from Wellesley College and not interested in being a society matron, Caroline moves to San Francisco in March 1905 and sets up a typewriting service and drop the Caroline, becoming Fremont Jones. Her typing jobs bring an assortment of characters from a young lawyer unable to afford a secretary, to a skeletal figure writing gothic stories, to a Chinaman writing a business contract. She interacts with each of them in interesting ways. She has a character in Mrs. O'Leary, her landlady and a mysterious neighbor who Mrs. O'Leary thinks is a spy. When one client is show more murdered and one disappears, Fremont is drawn into finding out their stories. I liked this heroine and look forward to more of her adventures. show less

When her father marries a woman who she dislikes Caroline Jones brings forward her plans to live an unconventional life. Determined not to marry because of the way it diminishes the role of the woman, she moves from Boston to San Francisco, changes her name to a gender-neutral Fremont and sets up a business as a typist. And it is that business, plus a fascination with Sherlock Holmes, that introduces Fremont to the role of amateur deduction as she becomes involved in investigating several mysteries that her clients seem to be caught up in. One customer leaves a series of gothic horror stories which he claims to be true for her to type and then disappears, while another is killed shortly after Fremont types a curious document for him.

I show more enjoyed the depiction of San Francisco in the early 1900′s as a place for adventurers and dreamers and the overall inclusion of period details was well done too. The picture painted of a town at a time of change and flux included things like the adoption of new technologies such as the telephone and electricity and it was very engaging.

For me the rest of the book was not as successful. The blurb on my copy suggested it would be suitable for fans of Elizabeth Peters whose character, Amelia Peabody, does share some traits with Fremont Jones. However I found the writing here more stiff and lacking the underlying sense of humour that Peters conveys with her similarly strident and forward-thinking protagonist. There was also too much focus on a fairly implausible romance between Fremont and her first client for my tastes. The use of the first person narrative and Day’s penchant for exclamation points at the end of innocuous sentences contributed to the impression the entire tale was being told by a breathless teenager seeing intrigue where none exists. In all then the book was a bit more of a melodramatic suspense than I enjoy reading but there are plenty of readers who would disagree, including those who awarded the novel a Macavity award for best first novel in 1996. show less