People dressing up in bags, directing traffic, some kind of fashion

I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area from 94-97 and at that time the historically Italian North Beach didn't seem very Italian. At best, it was a strip of Italian restaurants and a few churches surrounded by an expanding Chinatown. Domenic Stansberry's Last Days of Il Duce is set in mid-80s San Francisco when North Beach was in its last gasps as a ethnic Italian neighborhood.

The main character Niccolo Abruzzi Jones represents the neighborhood. He was once a successful lawyer, but is now a bag man for a local Chinese power broker/gangster. His is only part Italian and has mostly given up any ties to things Italian. The only Italian elements left are the old people, many of whom long for the rigorous days of Il Duce. As it turns out, we later learn the older Chinese take the same view of the younger Chinese.

Nick's brother is killed and he wants to find out why. He also feels guilty that he can now have a relationship with his brother's ex-wife who has he loved since childhood. There are a few other complications as well, including the return of a man Nick suspects of having an affair with his mother.

The mystery itself isn't all that mysterious. The emphasis here is on doomed characters in a doomed community. San Francisco itself is portrayed not unlike the 1970s NYC of the Stones Shattered. Sex, drugs and violence appear to be the only activities of choice in Nick's town. So if you are looking for big surprises look elsewhere, but if you want some San Francisco noir, this would be a good choice.