From
Crime Watch
By
Dick Adler
Chicago
Tribune
"Silver
Lies," Ann
Parker's
first mystery
about a
smart and gutsy female bar owner
in the silver
boomtown of Leadville, Colo.,
in the late 1870s, was
one of my favorite books of 2003. "Iron
Ties," the
second in the series, is just
out, and it's full of
sharply etched characters set
firmly in history and
pulled along by a narrative engine
as powerful as any
of the locomotives getting ready
in 1880 to connect
Leadville to the outside world.
Inez
Stannert,
whose unreliable
husband
disappeared
in the first
book and
whose 8-year-old
son is now
back
East being looked after by her
sister, is having
trouble making a living from
the Silver Queen Saloon,
which she runs with black partner
Abe Jackson. Parker knows her
Leadville history, so a whiskey
barrel label that reads, " `Red
Dog--Strong enough to make a
dog go mad,' " must be the
real thing. Stannert enjoys her
own whiskey--"she let the
first taste slip between her
lips, intense, warm, and smooth,
right through the finish, with
a hint of cloves lingering on
her tongue"--and plays a
mean game of poker.
Two
competing
railroads
working
their way
toward
Leadville might help her business
problems. But
Stannert has other worries, including
an edgy romance with a handsome
clergyman and some leftover hatred
from the Civil War that might
get President Ulysses S. Grant
killed by a secret band of Confederate
veterans during his impending
visit.
Let's
hope we
don't have
to wait
another
three years
for the next entry in this exciting,
entertaining
series.
|
