Trespassers at the Golden Gate: A True Account of Love, Murder, and Madness in Gilded-Age San Francisco
In addition to court transcripts and newspaper accounts, Mr. Krist has mined a rich vein of material in the Crittenden family papers at the University of Michigan ... Also folds in portraits of vibrant and less-famous characters roaming San Francisco during the city’s explosive periods of growth, bust and reinvention.
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Dramatic ... Except for brief vignettes from the trial, Krist’s narrative does not return to the scene of the crime for more than 200 pages. This structure demands a fair amount of investment in people whose motives and morals are muddled, at best ... The author’s evenhandedness and scrupulous adherence to the documentary record are worthy qualities in a writer of nonfiction, but they need a little passionate partisanship to fight against the inertia of 'it depends.' We’re left wondering: What did this case mean for the city of San Francisco? And what might it mean for those reading about it today?
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Krist elucidates a thoroughly engaging slice of history.
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