 |
Meet
Inez Stannert,
the poker-playing,
straight-talking,
gun-toting
owner
of the
Silver
Queen
Saloon
and the
heroine
of Parker's
excellent
debut,
set in
wintry
Leadville,
Colo.,
during
the 1879
silver
boom.
Inez is
married,
yet her
husband
disappeared
six months
earlier
with nary
a trace.
Her partner
at the
saloon,
Abe Jackson,
happens
to be
a free
black
man, to
the dismay
of much
of Leadville's
uptight
and prejudiced
populace.
When a
frozen
corpse
turns
up in
the mucky
alley
behind
the saloon,
Inez and
Abe, still
reeling
from the
damage
caused
by a barroom
brawl,
are shocked
to learn
it's their
friend,
precious-metals
assayer
Joe Rose.
Joe, it
seems,
had a
gambling
problem
and a
nasty
secret.
His death
puts Inez
and Abe
at odds
with a
crooked
lawman,
an infamous
madam,
a spurned
suitor
and the
mysterious
stranger
who rides
into town
as the
new minister.
Drawing
on historic
facts
and figures
of 1870s
Colorado,
Parker
tells
a gripping
tale of
love,
greed
and murder
in the
Old West,
with a
cast of
convincing,
larger-than-life
characters,
including
a brief
appearance
from Bat
Masterson
himself.
Inez is
a woman
well ahead
of her
time and
a welcome
addition
to the
genre,
as is
Parker,
who has
left enough
loose
ends to
beckon
readers
to the
next Leadville
mystery.
(Sept.
1) |
