1879 Leadville, CO. A mystery, murder, romance, poker faces, espionage and more. Picture a heroine reminiscent of Victoria and Audra Barkley. There were times where it dragged as a slow drawl, but then it would pick up again leaving you not knowing who to believe. The end is a bit rough for those with sensititve stomach.

Kirsten Potter does a great job of narrating!

I do not usually like western themed books. This one was interesting and at times breathtaking, the struggles of woman in the old west are raw here and I found my anger rising whenever the men were condescending to the ladies. It was clearly a difficult time and place for woman. This one was recommended by the library staff. A good read, another series I will not likely continue.

Good history

I really enjoyed this book. It brought the period of time to life and was an excellent murder mystery. I thought I had it figured out a couple of times and did get part of it. A lot of suspects and endearing story.

A good historical read about Colorado.

The author provides a vivid picture of a town on the cusp between wild-west adventure and gentrification, 19th Century style.

Inez, who has been abandoned by her husband and has sent her son to a healthy clime, maintains the saloon with a business partner. Her travails multiply with the request to wind up the business affairs of her best friend's husband following his death. Warnings to let matters drop abound, and Inez must decide who among the many town dwellers is trustworthy.

This was a pretty exciting read, with a heroine who is no angel. Inez runs a saloon in Leadville or Cloudy City, Colorado. The era is the silver rush, when tailing from the prior gold rush revealed large quantities of lead and silver. Her husband is missing and she has sent her son away to protect his health from the bad winters of the high mountains. She discovers that he used to be involved in passing false currency "conies" with Abe, the African American business partner who runs her saloon, the Silver Queen. But he left town and there has been a man in his absence, a local mine owner. And then Reverend Sands, who has appeared in town when it became apparent that conies were being circulated on Satate Street. Inez's involvement is predicated on the death of Joe Rose and the wellbeing of his widow and young son, Joey. Gradually she is able to unravel the associations of the boomtown and reveal the real criminals in the cash syndicate.
I don't know that Willa Cather would have approved of this novel, although it won a "Willa." I must say that it was ten times better in terms of writing than the last cozy mystery I reviewed, and I would continue to seek novels from this publishers over those of the previous author because either they chose authors of a higher caliber or have diligent editors. Wilola was interested in human relations, and this novel does take on this interest when the author describes the nature of a relationship based on ignorance of one's partner, when one fills in the glazed over portions with one's own hopes.
We are left hanging and I look forward to the next novel by this author.

A Historical Mystery High in the Colorado Rockies. It's the end of 1879 in Leadville, Colorado's "Cloud City" and Joe Rose is found dead outside of Inez Stannert's saloon. Thus begins the mystery, and many plot twists, turns and big surprises until the very end. Who killed Joe? Is Inez's husband dead or missing? Is the new minister really a minister? Is he a good guy or a bad guy? What does the surprise visit from Bat Masterson and his knowledge of the minister's past portend for the growing attraction between Inez and Reverend Sands? Is there some mystery in Emma Rose's past no one knows about? Is someone passing counterfeit currency? Who? To say more would give the whole story away, which I don't like to do.

Suffice it to say that this was a jolly good mystery that kept me guessing until the very end, and I especially enjoyed going on a trip through the Rockies and the mining towns of days gone by, although you can still find many of those towns still there and thriving on the tourist trade. Five stars, and I look forward to starting the sequel, Iron Ties.

I enjoyed this book,I liked the concept of late 19th century,rocky mountain silver boom town.The character Inez Stannert is a woman left by her husband in a difficult situation,The writer has given me the feeling that Inez was not a girl who grew up not to conform to lace and obedience.
This makes for a very strong woman indeed, Inez is willing to do what it takes to get at the truth of the murder of her friends husband.
This is the first book of 4 books in the silver rush mysteries I will be keeping my eye out for more
very enjoyable read............

This was a good combination of historical fiction and mystery.

I really, really enjoyed this book. Ms Parker has a very deft way of painting the background and local history of Leadville it's silver mine heyday! Her characters were definitely well created, despite being somewhat problematic for that era, but she handled that idiosyncrasy (for instance a white woman and black man being coowners of a saloon, but friends not lovers) quite well. I am looking forward to reading the next books in this series.

A more accurate rating would be 3.5 I think. I enjoyed the story, the characters, and the setting. The author wrote wonderful and creative descriptive phrases. Unfortunately once in a while those phrases didn't quite mesh right with the rest of the sentence, which jarred me out of the story for a moment to try to make things fit. But I would definitely be eager to see more from this author, especially if Inez was again featured.

I wasn't trying to analyze or study, but my gut feeling is that the POV was more stable than in many mysteries I've read. And except for those jarring moments, the author wrote beautifully and I had few red pen urges.

I wasn't crazy about this book. Lots of characters and twists in the plot. I know Leadville, the location of the book, so that part was of interest and the time period, late 1880s was interesting as well.