The
Mystery
Gazette
In July 1880 as former President
Ulysses S. Grant arrives at the
mining town Leadville on a five
day visit, Colorado, Silver Queen
Saloon co-owner Inez Stannert is
divorcing her missing husband while
having an affair with Reverend
Sands. Being an astute businesswoman,
Inez conceals her partnership with
Madam Frisco Flo in a brothel.
When
Lizzie the
prostitute
is murdered,
Inez becomes
worried over
her investment.
Used to fixing
problems before
they become
catastrophic
like she is
doing with
her marital
status, Inez
investigates
the homicide.
She quickly
learns of
another silent
partner but
not who. She
draws the
ire of the
town’s
power brokers
from mine
owners, to
politicians
to the reporters.
However, that
anti-Inez
fervor expands
when prostitutes
and moms become
irate with
her inquiry.
However, the
only one she
fears alienating
is Hatchet
the tax collector
so as long
as she avoids
him, she will
keep digging.
LEADEN
SKIES is a
fabulous post
Reconstruction
Era frontier
thriller that
brings to
life a Colorado
mining town
at a time
when change
is occurring
with the Union
troops having
just left
the south
and women’s
suffrage losing
momentum yet
still being
pushed in
the Rockies.
Inez is terrific
as she holds
the story
line together
with her inquiry
that alienates
the entire
town of Leadville
who want no
skeletons
rattled while
Grant is there.
Although the
whodunit takes
a back seat
to one woman’s
struggle to
remain economically
independent
in the late
nineteenth
century, Ann
Parker writes
a wonderful
Americana
tale.
-
Harriet Klausner
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