Welcome to my stop on the Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour for The Filbert Steps (The Telegraph Hill Mysteries) by Lila Blake. Stop by each blog on the tour for interviews, guest posts, spotlights, reviews and more! Get a focaccia recipe on my stop!
The Filbert Steps (The Telegraph Hill Mysteries) by Lila Blake
The Filbert Steps (The Telegraph Hill Mysteries)
Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – California
Publisher : Sutro House Press
Publication date : August 31, 2026
Print length : 301 pages
Digital
A body on the steps. A neighborhood that saw nothing.
Vivian Salvatore came back to Telegraph Hill with a cat, a divorce settlement, and a book she cannot seem to write.
At fifty-two, newly single and trying to rebuild her life, she has settled into the rhythms of San Francisco’s most beautiful staircase: coffee at the corner café, morning walks on the Filbert Steps, old neighbors on three corners, and the comforting illusion that everyone knows everyone.
Then, on a bright October morning, Vivian finds one of the city’s most ambitious developers dead on the third landing.
The police are ready to call it a fall. But Vivian spent twenty-seven years reading teenagers’ faces for a living, and she knows when a story does not fit. A coat buttoned wrong. A cigarette ground out where it should not be. Storefronts quietly sold to a post-office box in Delaware. And a neighborhood full of people who had reason to want one man gone.
As Vivian begins asking questions, she discovers that Telegraph Hill has been keeping secrets for years — about money, loyalty, grief, and who really gets to call a place home.
The Filbert Steps introduces Vivian Salvatore, a sharp-eyed, warm-hearted sleuth who notices everything and forgives almost as much.
Perfect for readers who love older women sleuths, atmospheric San Francisco mysteries, neighborhood secrets, found community, and fair-play cozy mysteries with literary depth.
Vivian’s Home Focaccia, Inspired by North Beach’s Liguria Bakery
Food is part of the neighborhood clock in The Filbert Steps. Before most of North Beach is awake, bread has already been delivered, espresso machines are warming, and shopkeepers are preparing for customers who will arrive at the same hour they always do.
Focaccia appears throughout Vivian Salvatore’s mornings: warm from the bakery, served beside coffee, carried to Sunday dinner, or split for a prosciutto-and-provolone sandwich. It is less a special occasion food than proof that the day has started properly.
The real Liguria Bakery has been at Stockton and Filbert since 1911 and is famous for selling out early. The recipe below is not Liguria’s recipe. It is Vivian’s home approximation, the version she has developed after years of eating the original and accepting that a home oven cannot reproduce a century-old brick oven. It is simple, olive-oil-rich, and best eaten warm.
Ingredients
For the dough
- 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
- 1 1/4 cups warm water (about 105°F)
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons good olive oil, plus more for the pan
For the top
- 1/4 cup good olive oil
- Flaky sea salt
- Fresh rosemary leaves, optional
Method
- In a large bowl, stir the yeast into the warm water with a pinch of sugar. Wait 10 minutes. The water should foam at the top. If it does not foam, the yeast is no longer active; start again with fresh yeast.
- Add the flour, salt, and 2 tablespoons olive oil. Stir with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together.
- Turn the dough onto a floured counter and knead for about 8 minutes, until it is smooth, elastic, and still slightly sticky.
- Place the dough in a clean, oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise on the counter for about 2 hours, or until doubled.
- Punch down the dough and turn it onto a well-oiled 13 x 18-inch half-sheet pan. Press it toward the edges with your fingers. When the dough springs back, let it rest for 5 minutes, then press again. Repeat until it lies flat across the pan.
- Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let it rise a second time for 45 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 450°F.
- Dimple the risen dough all over with your fingertips, pressing firmly enough to make pockets without breaking through to the pan. Pour the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil over the surface. Sprinkle generously with flaky sea salt and add rosemary, if using.
- Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, until the top is golden and the bottom feels crisp when you lift a corner.
- Cool on the pan for 5 minutes. Cut into squares and eat warm.
Vivian’s note: The bakery version is denser, with a crust she cannot duplicate. In the novel, a baker tells her the secret is the brick oven: the bricks have been there a hundred years and know what they are doing.
The Filbert Steps is the first book in the Telegraph Hill Mysteries by Lila Blake. It releases August 31, 2026, from Sutro House Press. Learn more at lilablake.com.
About Lila Blake
Lila Blake writes San Francisco neighborhood mysteries about foggy stairways, old houses, found family, and the secrets people keep when a place begins to change. Her Telegraph Hill Mysteries begin with The Filbert Steps, a literary cozy mystery featuring Vivian Salvatore, a fifty-two-year-old former teacher rebuilding her life after divorce. Lila is published by Sutro House Press, an independent fiction imprint based in San Francisco.
Links:
Website: lilablake.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/71129242.Lila_Blake
Purchase Link: Amazon
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The Filbert Steps TOUR PARTICIPANTS
August 24 – Guatemala Paula Loves to Read – SPOTLIGHT
August 24 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
August 24 – Books1987 – SPOTLIGHT
August 25 – Christy’s Cozy Corners – RECIPE
August 25 – @bibliophile_foodie – REVIEW
August 25 – Sapphyria’s Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
August 26 – Storybook Lady – REVIEW, AUTHOR GUEST POST
August 26 – Sarandipity’s – AUTHOR INTERVIEW
August 27 – Jody’s Bookish Haven – SPOTLIGHT
August 27 – Romance Novel Giveaways – AUTHOR GUEST POST
August 28 – Books, Ramblings, and Tea – SPOTLIGHT
August 28 – Elizabeth McKenna – Author – SPOTLIGHT
August 28 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – SPOTLIGHT
August 29 – Ruff Drafts – CHARACTER GUEST POST
August 29 – StoreyBook Reviews – SPOTLIGHT
August 29 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT
August 30 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW, AUTHOR INTERVIEW
August 30 – Book Hookup – REVIEW
August 31 – Sarah Can’t Stop Reading Books – REVIEW
August 31 – Sarcastically Yours, Jen – SPOTLIGHT
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