The Secret-Keeper's Shipwreck: Mayhem in Gold Rush San Francisco by Jess Wells follows the story of Aidan O'Reilly, an Irish immigrant who poses as an undertaker to secretly bury the upper class's darkest secrets. He takes care of forged contracts, incriminating letters, and even the occasional murder victim inside his caskets. He's also secretly running guns out of his coffins and mausoleums. That all comes crashing down when vigilantes and the city's growing hunger for land start closing in on him. With help from Kate Cooper, Aidan changes his tactics and starts a ship-wrecking business by salvaging the harbor's abandoned schooners for profit. However, thieves soon threaten everything once again, but this time, their lives are in danger. This time, Kate and Aidan need to bury their own secrets if they want to survive. But can they? Will they even get the chance?

Author Jess Wells made sure readers experience the San Francisco Gold Rush. The narrative was so strong that I could feel the excitement and then the utter danger the characters felt. The author describes San Francisco with such vivid details that I could smell the mud and feel the chaos of the city from the very first page. Aidan is such an incredible protagonist. He is morally gray, resourceful, and quick on his feet. I loved how his undertaker disguise gives him a perfect front-row seat to all the city's secrets. Kate is an absolute powerhouse of a character. She is a firecracker and fiercely loyal to the people she feels are worthy. Her partnership with Aidan was fun and full of bickering that I thoroughly enjoyed. I also loved how the author incorporated research into the story perfectly. The opening scene about the mass relocation of San Francisco's dead was terrifying and heartbreaking at the same time. The pace was perfect to make readers feel like they were right there with Aidan as he cunningly made his way out of terrible situations. The Secret-Keeper's Shipwreck is an outstanding historical novel, and fans of the genre will love it!

Jess Wells’ novel, The Secret-Keeper's Shipwreck, is gripping, well-researched, and skillfully crafted historical fiction set in San Francisco in the Gold Rush days of the 19th century. The novel contains fictional characters as well as historical figures, events, and locations, which are used fictitiously. In 1850, Aidan O’Reilly is a young man from Ireland who owns a mausoleum in San Francisco. The mausoleum provides him with excellent cover and income from illegitimate activities, hiding secrets of the rich and well-known men of the city, including second wills, fraudulent contracts, jewelry, and caskets for secret burials. He also keeps guns for illegal sales to various groups. When the city passes an ordinance to stop any further burials, he builds a new mausoleum in Lawndale for his illegal activities and provides legal burial services for the city’s dead. He hires Kate Cooper as a bookkeeper, a young woman with a sharp mind for accounting. Together with Kate, Aidan finds opportunities to make money from a legal shipwreck business.

I particularly enjoyed Jess Wells’ The Secret-Keeper's Shipwreck for its main characters, Aidan and Kate, and the gritty worldbuilding of San Francisco. I liked how Aidan and Kate bring the history of San Francisco in the Gold Rush days vividly to life. I liked Aidan’s character for his resilience through all the ups and downs he faces, and the story gained great depth because it doesn’t shy away from the moral dilemmas that Aidan faces. His thoughts and emotions are skillfully interwoven into his illegal dealings and later as he tries to build legal businesses. One of the strongest points was how the fires kept changing the city’s political and social landscape. I liked the way the city’s own resilience and continued regrowth became an integral part of Aidan's and Kate’s own lives after each devastating Great Fire. With each new character, the crime, the action, and the suspense make the story even more dramatic. I loved the way Aidan and Kate manage to come up with ways to turn situations to their advantage, fighting their way through terrifying and disastrous losses in their businesses. I liked how the story continued to expand into water and land rights, showing yet again how San Francisco was developing as a city. What an amazing story. The ending is out of this world. I highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy stories of the West, California, and the Gold Rush.