"Great mystery set in the Old West."

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 are reading when Inez, the main character, chips the ice from her pitcher on an icy cold morning.

Inez owns Silver Queen Saloon with her partner, Abe. She's had a very rough year - her husband left and never returned, plus she's sent her baby son to live with her sister while she sorts out her life. A life that gets much more complicated when Joe Rose, one of her best customers, is found dead behind her saloon, and she becomes involved in straightening out his affairs for his widow, Emma, and their small son.

Joe turns out to be involved in more schemes than Inez could ever have imagined, including counterfeiting and lying. This story includes components of the old west - houses of prostitution, gambling, silver mining (this is Leadville, after all) and religion. Yes, there's a church and a new reverend, whom Inez finds very interesting. Even Bat Masterson turns up. There are some surprises and twists to this plot, and many of the characters turn out not to be what you expect.

Don't ignore this debut novel because it's set in the old west. It's a really good mystery.

Reviewed by Lynnae Hornbarger
Courtesy Old Book Barn Gazette
Posted August 19, 2003

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....