BOOK SERIES

“It was one of those nights where the fog paints you right to the pavement. You know those nights; I know you do. Steel streetcar wheels squealing against the tracks up Market Street, raspy voices of taxi horns and faint sirens; streetlights on the bridge strung like of dull pearls bleeding through the mist—and the smell. If I told you I loved the smell, I think you would understand. I’ll never come clean of it,” the old man said with a touch of melancholy. “A mixture of old mudflats and dreams.”

mid-century newspaperman, Alfred Kleinen to Hugo

For San Franciscans, the fog provided more than a convenient metaphor; at times it was a security blanket for the lost and confused.

That morning, Hugo saw that the fog was never more needed as he ran up the steps into City Hall. The mayor was waiting and he wanted answers, but Hugo took a beat to catch his breath on the landing. Turning to look over the plaza, he listened to the spring winds rock the billowing tents of the homeless and sing in a high pitch whine though the chain link fence, setting the doors of the portable toilets flapping.

Reluctant to duck beneath the impressive gilded dome of the rotunda, Hugo realized that his hometown had been raided and he was at a loss as to what to do about it.

Hugo Sandoval Eco-Mystery Series

Episode 1: The ROTTING WHALE

Episode 2: The BLIND KEY

Episode 3: The SINGING LIGHTHOUSE

Subscribe to HUGO