The Tule Marsh Murder

James Aloysius Piper, mostly known as Peter, is relentless when pursuing a story for his newspaper, the Herald. So when a woman's body is found burned beyond recognition in the marsh near El Cerrito, he is even more eager than the local authorities to uncover her identity and find out what happened to her. Helping to solve the case is clinical psychologist Dr. Cavanaugh, who uses cutting-edge forensic techniques to glean crucial information from a few strands of the woman's hair that escaped the flames.
After Cavanaugh's discoveries tie the corpse to Sheila O'Shay, the missing wife of millionaire Don Ellsworth, it's up to Peter Piper to use all of his craft and charm as a reporter to coax out any secrets the couple may have been hiding.

The Tule Marsh Murder was inspired by a real case that had captivated the San Francisco Bay Area public a few years earlier, and Dr. Cavanaugh is based on the pioneering forensic criminalist Edward Oscar Heinrich who became known as "America's Sherlock Holmes." Though Nancy Barr Mavity may not be remembered as vividly as her contemporaries, such as Mary Roberts Rinehart and Ellery Queen, her mystery novels were groundbreaking in their use of science in the detection of crime, with psychology and forensics frequently providing key clues to the solutions.

A legendary newspaper reporter and feature writer for the Oakland Tribune for more than a quarter of a century, Nancy Barr Mavity (1890–1959) also served as the literary editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. She wrote numerous newspaper and magazine articles on various subjects in addition to producing fiction and nonfiction books, most notably her series of mystery novels featuring crime reporter James Aloysius "Peter" Piper: The Tule Marsh Murder, The Body on the Floor, The Other Bullet, The Case of the Missing Sandals, The Man Who Didn't Mind Hanging, and The Fate of Jane McKenzie.

Randal S. Brandt is a librarian at the Bancroft Library, the primary special collections library at the University of California, Berkeley. He catalogs rare books and has been dubbed “UC Berkeley’s Crime Librarian” for his role as curator of the California Detective Fiction Collection.