Andrea Carter and the The San Francisco Smugglers

by: Susan K. Marlow

Published by: Kregel Publlications

Reviewed By Miriam H. Davis

Andrea Carter’s family lives in Fresno on a ranch. In February 1881 floods swarmed through town closing the local school. Andrea’s mother decides she should send Andrea to a girl’s finishing school in San Francisco and live with her cranky Aunt Rebecca– but Andrea’s aunt lied to her because she is now going to be living at the school as a boarding student.

The beauty of the 1880’s San Francisco is stunning.

Having grown up around horses and riding Western, Andrea immediately gets in trouble by going to the stables, visiting the horses and meeting the stable hand the first day of school while missing her classes. During her sojourn to the stables, she runs into Feng Chee, the Chinese man who operates the kitchen. After a chaotic first day, Andrea easily befriends her Jenny, new roommate from Tacoma in Washington Territory. Soon Jenny and Andrea are embroiled in a plot to save Lin Mei, the young Chinese girl who helps out at the boarding school under the inauspicious guidance of Feng Chee, who keeps her as a slave.

Slavery was abolished over sixteen years earlier and Andrea doesn’t understand how Lin Mei could be a slave. But when they discover her missing and find her underneath Andrea’s bed, Jenny and Andrea conspire to get Lin Mei to a shelter on the outskirts of Chinatown. During their great escape the Caucasian girls get into trouble, are caught and are given to sailors to sell them in China. “Do you know how much you two is worth? A couple o’ white girls in China?” said one of the white sailors to his compadre. All ends well though as Andrea, Jenny and Lin Mei end up together at Aunt Rebecca’s warm and loving house.

This was another great addition to Susan Marlow’s Andrea Carter series.

Armchair Interviews says: An excellent depiction of life in 1880’s San Francisco.

Author’s Web site: http://www.SusanKMarlow.com