Gary Krist
New York Times Bestselling Author of The Mirage Factory
Just Published!
Previously Published
![Trespassers_at_the_Golden_Gate_06_20_24[40].jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/5a323a_775179b5eb4e4548a1f30fcca6f7b4ea~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_281,h_366,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Trespassers_at_the_Golden_Gate_06_20_24%5B40%5D.jpg)
Published in March of 2025
Trespassers at the Golden Gate
A True Account of Love, Murder, and Madness
in Gilded-Age San Francisco
The sensational true story of a woman who murdered her married lover in Gilded Age San Francisco, and the trial that epitomized the city's transformation from raucous frontier town into modern metropolis—from the New York Times bestselling author of Empire of Sin
First Reviews Are In
A "masterful work of true crime...with meticulous research and a novelist's flair for drama. This top-shelf blend of history and entertainment is as edifying as it is exciting."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
*
“A tale of mad love, murder, and the rough-and-tumble mores of early San Francisco...
A lively, richly detailed social history that ably brings together many narrative strands." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
*
“[The book] uses a love triangle gone wrong to tell a wider story about 19th-century San Francisco. . . . Krist has mined a rich vein of material…. Trespassers at the Golden Gate also folds in portraits of vibrant and less-famous characters roaming San Francisco during the city’s explosive periods of growth, bust and reinvention…. Krist helps us understand San Francisco’s evolution—a city described by one of its early residents as “‘an odd place . . . not created in the ordinary way, but hatched like chickens by artificial heat.’”
— The Wall Street Journal
Trespassers Book Tour
2025
Tuesday, March 11, at 6 pm—New York NY
The Mysterious Bookshop
in conversation with Abbott Kahler
Wednesday, March 12, at 7 pm—Washington DC
Politics and Prose Bookstore
in conversation with Margaret Talbot
Thursday, March 13, at 5 pm—Jackson MS
Lemuria Books
Friday, March 14, at 7 pm--San Francisco CA
Green Apple Books
Sunday, March 16, at 4 pm—Marin County CA
Book Passage Corte Madera
Monday, March 17, at 5:30 pm—San Francisco CA
Commonwealth Club
in conversation with George Hammond
Tuesday, March 18, at 5:30 pm—Sausalito CA
Sausalito Books
Wednesday, March 19, at 7 pm--Danville CA
Rakestraw Books
Saturday, April 26, at 4:15 pm—Montclair NJ
Montclair Literary Festival
in conversation with Abbott Kahler, Michael Wolraich,
and Joe Pompeo
Saturday, September 27, Time TK—Ellicott City MD
Ellicott City Book Festival
Saturday, November 1, Time TK—Baton Rouge LA
Louisiana Book Festival
Contact
For any media inquiries, please contact
Eric Simonoff
at William Morris Endeavor, New York
Contact the author at
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Notable Reviews
of The Mirage Factory
"[Krist] expertly weaves together the stories of Griffith, Mulholland and McPherson…Krist is a nimble scene-setter, and it’s the indelible details he offers that give The Mirage Factory its mesmerizing pull.…You’ll finish [the book] entertained, informed and satisfied, as well as ready for more."
Jennifer Szalai
THE NEW YORK TIMES
"Krist is a dream-weaver…exquisite pacing and seamless shifting between the characters allow their stories to connect….I’ve read dozens of histories of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, and none are as viscerally compelling or as clear in detailed descriptions of the complicated machinations as Krist’s account….Krist’s book is so good that, like the best movies, it ends up inverting the genre."
"[An] elegant and expansive study…Krist illuminates a compelling version of the city’s drawing-board years…The Mirage Factory tunnels to the roots of [L.A.’s] invention narratives, identifying the individual threads, and shows how they began to work in tandem to create a fantastic tapestry.”
Lynell George,
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
Joe Mathews
THE WASHINGTON POST
Bio
GARY KRIST has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Esquire, the Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. He is the bestselling author of the acclaimed narrative nonfiction books The Mirage Factory, Empire of Sin, City of Scoundrels, and The White Cascade.
He has also written five works of fiction. Krist has received the Stephen Crane Award, the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Public Scholar fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a Lowell Thomas Gold Medal for Travel Journalism, and other awards.