The so-called Kate Morgan saga, which is both a famous ghost story and a true crime tale, is one of San Diego's most fascinating history episodes. Readers can enjoy her story either through the author's thriller Lethal Journey, which combines the best elements of his scholarly analysis and the rousing legend—or they can delve into the scholarly research itself, with over 120 footnotes (not an easy read, but rewarding, especially for San Diego history buffs)—in Dead Move: Kate Morgan and the Haunting Mystery of Coronado.

Lethal Journey is a fast, rousing tale, fiction but closely based on the true story. Dead Move: Kate Morgan and the Haunting Mystery of Coronado, on the other hand, is a painstaking and scholarly analysis with over 120 footnotes. In either case, readers will savor, for the first time ever, a workable and plausible solution to a very old cold case filled with myriad facts, tantalizing leads, mysterious clues, and baffling dead ends—all part of U.S. and San Diego-Coronado history.

On Thanksgiving Day 1892, the stunning mystery woman checked into the great resort under a false name. The U.S. National Landmark Hotel del Coronado's official book has called herthe Beautiful Stranger. Beautiful, poised, and well-dressed, she behaved like a great actress. Days later, she was found dead of a gunshot to the head on the beach stairs after a terrible night storm. Was it murder or suicide? Who was she really, and why was she staying at the hotel when she was practically broke? as investigators soon learned. Her story has been a San Diego legend for well over a century. …CONTINUED…