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"Strong mid-nineteenth century western thriller"
Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted August 10, 2003

Leadville, Colorado is booming in 1879 as people arrive hoping to get rich by finding the silver mother lode. Inez Stennert is becoming rich as the owner of the Silver Queen Saloon but her personal life is very unsettled because her wandering man walked out one day and never Read more...

"Great mystery set in the Old West."
Reviewed by Lynnae Hornbarger
Courtesy Old Book Barn Gazette
Posted August 19, 2003

Parker has done her research, and it shows in the way she tells this tale set in 1879 Leadville, Colorado. She's definitely a wordsmith - you feel the cold hit you when the door opens, you trudge through the wind and snow, and you appreciate the nice room where you Read more...

Summary

As 1879 draws to a close, this Rocky Mountain boomtown has infected the world with silver fever. It's not much different than the dot-com mania or the corporate scams that heat up over a century later. Unfortunately for Joe Rose, a precious-metals assayer, death stakes its own claim. Joe's body is found trampled into the muck behind Inez Stannert's saloon. Inez already had much more to deal with than pouring shots of Taos Lightning and cleaning up a corpse. A lady educated on the East Coast, she has a past that doesn't bear close scrutiny, including her elopement with a gambling man who has recently disappeared. Most townsfolk, including Inez's business partner, Abe Jackson, dismiss Joe's death as an accident. Death, after all, is no stranger in Leadville. But Inez wonders: Why was this loving husband and father carrying a brass token good for "one free screw" at the exclusive parlor house of Denver madam Mattie Silks? When Joe's widow Emma asks Inez to settle Joe's affairs, almost against her will, Inez uncovers skewed assays, bogus greenbacks, and blackmail. Lies and secrets run deep in Colorado, secrets more likely to lead to a hanging than to today's congressional hearings or country-club prisons for the crooked and the greedy. Then again, maybe Joe's murder was purely personal....