The Strange Case of Baby H

This is the 18th book in the history mysteries series and takes place in 1906 in San Francisco, during and just after the terrible earthquake the city had at the time. The earthquake itself was bad but what was worse were the fires that raged through the city. At the time more buildings were built of wood and the fire-fighting capability of the city was zero since the water mains were broken during the earthquake.

Anyhow, Clara is the main figure of the story, a young girl whose parents run a boarding house. Their house is damaged but they are not hurt and they, their boarders and other survivors end up setting up on the ground outside the house. A baby is left at their doorstep and the mystery goes from there as it becomes obvious that the baby was a girl disguised as a boy, some people are out to get the baby back, and some very, very nasty men are also out to get their hands on the baby.

It's a good story both as far as the mystery of the baby goes and as far as how the conditions were in the city immediately following the earthquake. As always, there's a historical section with material relating to the main event of the time which, in this case, was the earthquake.


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