The Filbert Steps

A body on the steps. A neighborhood that saw nothing.

Vivian Salvatore came back to Telegraph Hill with a cat, a divorce, and a book she can't seem to write. At fifty-two, she's learning how to begin again.

Then she finds one of the city's most ambitious developers dead on the third landing.

The police call it a fall. But after twenty-seven years of reading teenagers' faces, Vivian knows when a story doesn't fit. A wrongly buttoned coat. A misplaced cigarette. Storefronts quietly sold to a Delaware post-office box.

Her questions uncover secrets about money, loyalty, grief, and who really gets to call a place home.

A warm, atmospheric San Francisco mystery with a sharp-eyed midlife sleuth and a neighborhood worth coming back to.

Perfect for fans of:

- Intelligent cozy mysteries

- Amateur sleuths

- Strong older female protagonists

- Found family and neighborhood stories

- Atmospheric mysteries set in real places

Book One in The Telegraph Hill Mysteries.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Sutro House Press
Published: 08/31/2026
ISBN: 9798951746009
Pages: 308
Weight: 0.79lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.69d