Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
A Map to Murder by Michelle Chouinard Series: The Serial Killer's Guide to San Francisco #3
Published by Minotaur Books on September 22, 2026
Genres: Mystery, Thriller
Pages: 319
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
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True crime tour guide and serial killer aficionado Capri Sanzio knows how central the Summer of Love is to San Francisco’s identity—even if she’s always had conflicted feelings about it. She’s used to weaving feel-good hippie culture and music into her Haight-Ashbury true crime tales, centering her tours around what happens when a revolution looking to lift up the best ideals humanity has to offer clashes with the darkest souls hidden among humanity’s shadows. But what she’s not used to is a guest stepping out from those shadows to drop a murder investigation directly into her lap.
A woman has gone missing in San Francisco after trying to solve her aunt’s murder: a cold case from the Summer of Love. Capri sees herself in the missing woman—both were unable to find the answers they desperately wanted as kids—and sees her own daughter in the tour guest begging for her help. Unable to turn the case away, Capri finds herself following a trail of flower-power footprints turned deadly—straight to a killer who has her in their sights.
I have really been enjoying this The Serial Killer’s Guide to San Francisco Mysteries series. It has the right combination for me of solid mysteries, found family and family, and a bit of romance. Our main point of view and teller of the story is Capri. She is a divorced mother of a graduate student daughter, Morgan. At the time of her divorce, she had to develop a way to support them and came up with running a tour company about serial killers in San Francisco. It’s been successful. She is also doing a true crime type podcast, as well as writing a book about the famous murders solved in the first book.
Capri is a smart investigator. She has developed a relationship with Petito, the police detective from her first case. She seems to have a real feel and ability with cold cases. With both luck and skill, she tracks down people adjacent to the woman, Marilyn, murdered back in 1967 and her now missing niece, Jennifer. Capri finds the commune house Marilyn lived in sold drugs to finance their lives. She finds out about her roommate who went missing after she died, and that Marilyn wanted to write for an underground paper.
While she is working her regular tour job, and her best friend is having a marital crisis with her partner, and her daughter may be in trouble again with her dad being involved in her business, she works the cold case and has some nice moments with Petito. She also trains to use a firearm since her last case was very dangerous.
The storytelling alternates between Capri’s point of view and thoughts to Marilyn’s historical point of view and thoughts, weaving past with Capri finding out the information in the present. I enjoyed the colorful feel and characters of the Summer of Love on Haight-Ashbury. I won’t spoil the details or the suspenseful conclusions.
I read A Map to Murder. The previous books I read on audio, so I had the voices in my head as there doesn’t seem to be an audiobook at this time. I found so many things fun and interesting, including that Capri drives a Volt. I really hope we get more of these stories in either format.
About Michelle Chouinard
MICHELLE CHOUINARD is the author of The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco, and under M.M. Chouinard, the USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of nine previous mysteries. Michelle has a Ph.D in developmental psychology from Stanford University and was one of UC Merced’s founding faculty members. She enjoys caffeine in all forms, amateur genealogy, baking, and anything to do with Halloween or the zombie apocalypse.
I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 26-COYER
I love this combination of elements, plus the cold case murder probably gives the story a lighter feel. Wonderful review!
Thanks Tammy I really really like this series.
Interesting setting descriptions. It sounds like a series my niece would enjoy, too.
yes there are lots of cool bits of info about San Francisco. Thanks for visiting.
I listened to the last two as well, so I was surprised no audio was available. I wonder why? I really liked the audio version and missed experiencing the story that way. I hope we get more stories, too.
yes I hope it doesn’t mean they may drop the series because I absolutely love it. I look forward to each one. I hope audio is also available again.
This does sound like a fun series. My daughter read the first and hopes to keep up when she’s on break from college.
It’s very current with tours and podcasts but also the standard mystery case and a romance thread.
This series sounds so fun. lol
It is. I love that the main character runs murder mystery tours and does a podcast. And she drives a Volt!