Silver Lies

By Ann Parker

They all came to Leadville with the same purpose: Get in. Get rich. Get out.

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 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....

Silver Rush Mysteries:

Silver Lies (Book 1)

Iron Ties (Book 2)

Leaden Skies (Book 3)

Mercury's Rise (Book 4)

What Gold Buys (Book 5)

A Dying Note (Book 6)

Mortal Music (Book 7)

Praise for the Silver Rush Mysteries:

"Plenty of convincing action bodes well for a long and successful series."—Publishers Weekly STARRED review for Iron Ties

"Meticulously researched and full of rich period details…her characters will stay will you long after you've finished the last page. Highly recommended."—TASHA ALEXANDER, New York Times bestselling author for Mortal Music

"One of the most authentic and evocative historical series around. Long live Inez!"—RHYS BOWEN, New York Times bestselling author for What Gold Buys

Winner of the WILLA Literary Award for Historical Fiction

Colorado Gold Award for Best Mystery

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sourcebooks
• Release date: Nov 16, 2011
• ISBN: 9781615951482

Ann Parker

Ann Parker is the author of the award-winning Silver Rush historical mystery series set in 1880s, featuring saloon owner Inez Stannert. A science writer by day, Ann lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Women Writing the West.

Reviews for Silver Lies

[fmrox · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Inez Stannert, saloon owner, searches for murderer and cause for the death of her friend's husband who has been left destitute.This is such an excellent book. I listened to it. The narrator did an incredible job differentiating the characters. And, Parker writes an excellent tale circa late 1870's during the Silver Rush in small town Colorado. She does an elegant job of painting the bitter cold backdrop. The characters are so vividly described, I felt I had known them for a long time. I had a hard time tearing myself a way for this listen. The plot is fairly complicated with multiple twists and turns and you never know where it is going to turn up. I did have some suspicions, some of which were correct, some which were extremely off. I am so glad this is a series. I can't wait to get involved in the next tome. I already went ahead and purchased the next two in the series.

[jguidry-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was an enjoyable historical mystery that takes place during the Colorado silver rush in the late 19th century. The main character was very human and definitely not perfect. Parker created characters that were both likeable and unlikeable at the same time. I liked that immensely. The story started off slowly, but the action in the story did pick up and kept me intrigued. The ending made sense to the story. I will definitely continue the series to see where the author takes these characters.

[lchav52_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

SILVER LIES by Ann Parker is a tale of greed and murder, set against the very authentic backdrop of Leadville, CO, in 1879, in the midst of its silver rush. Joe Rose, assayer and pillar of the community, is found dead behind the Silver Queen saloon, trampled in what appears to be a tragic accident. Inez Stannert, partner in the Silver Queen, isn't so sure, finding as she begins to look into his death that Rose may not have been as upstanding as his reputation indicated. Determined to do what she can for Rose's widow and son, Inez uncovers forces at work that seek at all costs to shut her down.While set in a very real nineteenth century western town, Ms. Parker avoids all the Hollywood cliches of the modern western - no high-noon gunfights in the street, no white hats and black hats. Instead, she presents us with a setting that accurately conveys life in a silver boom-town, with all the forces - prospectors, assayers, investors, and those who seek their fortunes not from mining silver but mining the pockets of the miners. The plot is sufficiently intriguing to keep the reader guessing, and the characters are not one-dimensional cardboard cutouts. This is an excellent book for both the mystery fan and the aficionado of the genuine Old West. If it's on your to-read shelf, you're in for a treat; if it's not, you should put it there.

[patrickgarson_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Silver Lies is a very competent historical mystery that doesn't overplay its hand of modest charms. The result is a book that successfully kept me immersed and appreciative of the common pitfalls it avoids. Ines Stanton becomes embroiled in the investigation of man who died behind her saloon. With numerous unsavoury characters in the prospecting boom-town of Leadville, the suspect list is as long as it is baffling. Struggling to cope with an absent husband and a charismatic - if mysterious - new reverend, can Ines keep the saloon, and herself, alive?That summary sounds a lot more hackneyed than the novel actually is. Set ups like that tend to devolve into bad romance and even worse history, but I was so impressed that Parker avoided doing so, favouring instead a thorough approach to both history and writing. Her research on Leadville was obviously extensive, and it shows. The town feels 100% corporeal, with none of the staginess that can infect bad historical novels, and better yet, she's made an effort to ensure her characters possess contemporaneous morals, language etc. The writing itself shows a similar dedication. This is certainly not the most lyrical prose, but by the same token it is absolutely not indulgent, and the explication of Ines' feelings is done believably and without unnecessary melodrama. I'm always on the lookout for female sleuths - especially of the historical variety - as they still seem relatively rare compared to their male counterparts, and I felt like there is a real awareness of that running through Silver Lies, like a vein of silver. The book is hardly obssessed with "domestic" concerns, but Parker eschews the unrealistic myth of a robot-like (invariably male) detective living alone and unwanted, pursuing a criminal with a dogged insistence. Ines' attempts to grapple with her personal life, and the realities for women on a frontier are made clear and I found it both rewarding and interesting. Parker's resolute refusal to slide into a romance novel, whilst not denying the importance and role of men in women's lives at that time was also handled deftly. I downloaded Silver Lies from Poisoned Pen Press for free on my Kindle, however on conclusion I would have happily paid for it, and anticipate reading more of Parker's novels in this setting.