San Francisco is a storied place. Many of us have seen movies and television shows, read books about or visited this marvel of the California coast. One of the more enjoyable parts of reading a new book is learning about a unique setting, such as San Francisco.

In Susan McCormick's The Fog Ladies the reader will be introduced to a medical intern, Sarah James, who is lucky enough to live in a beautiful old building populated with a cast of characters all living in a rent-controlled, highly desirable environment.

One of the more refreshing aspects of this book is that the characters are all sharply defined. The characters are portrayed as people who have lived lives, are perhaps widowed or unmarried, and so on. It was good to read about mostly elderly people being involved in lives that defy stereotypes of the elderly.

In The Fog Ladies, there are stories within stories, and murder most foul abounds.

As a physician herself, McCormick has seen her fair share of society's disregard for the elderly, the underprivileged and the people often considered society's discards. Thus, when Sarah starts meeting some of the ladies and gentlemen living in the highly desired apartments, she dismisses the possibility that two accidental deaths in short order could be anything more than death due to the perils of old age.

Into this mix of deaths, there is the possibility that the handyman is stealing from the building's inhabitants. And for added spice, two of the elderly ladies decide to take on a project to help a young mother with a baby, with a big, perpetually angry, boyfriend.

Along the way, Sarah makes new friends, settles into a life where her confidence grows as a physician, becomes a "Fog Lady" and becomes intrigued by the possibility that the deaths of her friends were not accidental.

This book was a delight to read, and I look forward to more books featuring an intriguing cast of characters as portrayed by Susan McCormick.