The Golden Gate: A Novel

On March 15, 1944, District Attorney (DA) Diarmuid Doogan questions Mrs. Genevieve Bainbridge, a 62-year-old subpoenaed witness, stating that one of her three granddaughters is a murderer. Doogan threatens to prosecute all three granddaughters as co-conspirators unless Mrs. Bainbridge identifies the actual culprit. Despite understanding the ultimatum, Mrs. Bainbridge refuses to name any granddaughter, remaining silent to protect her family.

The novel flashes back to a January afternoon in 1930, when six-year-old Isabella Stafford, Mrs. Bainbridge’s granddaughter, plays hide-and-seek with her older sister, Iris, during their regular Sunday visits to Berkeley, California’s luxurious Claremont Hotel. While their mother, Sadie Bainbridge-Stafford, plays tennis with her friend, Mrs. Tillie von Urban, Isabella and Iris keep each other company. Isabella hides in an armoire but emerges after realizing that she has been alone for too long. She searches the hotel for Iris, eventually hearing a woman’s scream from the hotel’s kitchen area.

Following hotel staff, Isabella discovers Iris’s body atop a pile of laundry in the basement. Her sister’s neck appears twisted with a thin, red laceration, and her body resembles a broken doll.