BookLoons
Reviewed
by Mary
Ann Smyth
Leadville,
Colorado.
Fifteen
years after
the hostilities
between
the States
ceased.
The Civil
War may
have ended
but emotions
still ran
high. As
railroads
struggled
to bring
goods 10,000
feet up
into the
mountains,
Leadville
grew, either
bringing
a good living
to those
who ventured
there or
blowing
their dreams
to smithereens
when their
hopes of
finding
the mother
lode of
silver drowned
in alcohol
or exploded
in a gunfight.
Ann
Parker's
first book, Silver
Lies,
won many
awards including
the Willa
Cather Award
for Historical
Fiction.
This second, Iron
Ties,
depicts
Leadville
as it was
in the late
1800s. Parker
very neatly
sets the
reader down
in the -
either dusty
or muddy
- streets
of that
legendary
town. One
can feel
the bustle
of daily
life, but
especially
the energy
and emotions
that create
a tense
atmosphere
inside the
Silver Queen
Saloon that
Inez Stannert
holds in
joint partnership
with Abe
Jackson.
The fact
that Abe
is a black
man does
not sit
well with
the rough
and tumble
crowd who
frequent
the Silver
Queen. But
that means
nothing
to Inez
who values
Abe over
their customers.
Inez,
whose husband
has left
her and
whose child
is living
with her
sister,
becomes
inveigled
in a plot
to kill
a general.
She spends
her time
trying to
discover
just what
the plot
is or to
stop it
altogether.
The action
unfortunately
runs a little
slow in
places,
and the
story becomes
convoluted
so that
I occasionally
lost track
of a character.
The characterizations,
however,
are quite
good and
add considerably
to the plot,
while the
historical
background
is extensive
and extremely
interesting.
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