The Golden Gate

Yale Law School professor Chua’s (Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) fiction debut takes listeners to 1944 San Francisco. Prominent politician Walter Wilkinson has been brutally murdered in the exclusive Claremont Hotel, and detective Al Sullivan is put on the case. Sullivan follows several leads, one of which links the murder to the death of the seven-year-old daughter of the wealthy Bainbridge family a decade earlier. As he investigates, Sullivan navigates seas of racial prejudice, social unrest, and an unrestrained political machine. All eyes are on him—even Madame Chiang Kai-shek takes an interest in the case. Sullivan’s inquiries take him from the glittering hotel to Chinatown meeting halls and Japanese kitchens. The Bainbridge family falls under suspicion, but multiple generations of intrigue and a determined family matriarch mask the truth. Narrators Robb Moreira, Suzanne Toren, and Tim Campbell breathe life into this complex story. Together, they provide a compelling reading of Sullivan’s background and character while detailing historical facts, personages, and mores of the time.