Ann Parker (1) (1952–)

(2003)Inez has been left by her husband to run a saloon in silver rush town, Leadville, CO along with her partner Abe. An assayer is found dead in the alley behind the saloon and this leads Inez into a search for his killer and that leads to a counterfeiting ring that is run by another woman running a competing saloon down the street. Pretty good mystery set in the 1870s. (PW) Inez Stannert, the poker-playing, straight-talking, gun-toting owner of the Silver Queen Saloon and the heroine of Parker's excellent debut, set in wintry Leadville, Colo., during the 1879 silver boom. Inez is married, yet her husband disappeared six months earlier with nary a trace. Her partner at the saloon, Abe Jackson, happens to be a free black man, to the dismay of much of Leadville's uptight and prejudiced populace. When a frozen corpse turns up in the mucky alley behind the saloon, Inez and Abe, still reeling from the damage caused by a barroom brawl, are shocked to learn it's their friend, precious-metals assayer Joe Rose. Joe, it seems, had a gambling problem and a nasty secret. His death puts Inez and Abe at odds with a crooked lawman, an infamous madam, a spurned suitor and the mysterious stranger who rides into town as the new minister. Drawing on historic facts and figures of 1870s Colorado, Parker tells a gripping tale of love, greed and murder in the Old West, with a cast of convincing, larger-than-life characters, including a brief appearance from Bat Masterson himself. Inez is a woman well ahead of her time and a welcome addition to the genre, as is Parker, who has left enough loose ends to beckon readers to the next Leadville mystery.… (more)

The Secret In The Wall is the eighth book in the Silver Rush Mysteries series by Ann Parker.

I’ve read all the books in this beautiful series and have to say this is the best so far.

San Francisco 1882

Inez Stannert manages the D&S House of Music and Curiosities and will, from time to time, financially help female businesswomen. In this book, Inez goes into partnership with Moira Krause to let Krause purchase the building next to her’s so Krause can expand her boarding room business. After the papers are signed, Krause has one of her boarders take a sledgehammer to the shared wall between the two kitchens to combine both buildings.

When the bricks start to fall from the wall, a skeleton appears in the debris. Also found are some tattered remains of clothing and a bag of uncirculated double eagle gold coins. Inez’s challenge is to find out whose remains have been found and who will be able to claim the gold coins. Inez’s investigation will have her look into the original owner and his brother and whether they connected to the Civil War. Inez’s searching will take her to Alcatraz Island, where she will hope to find the final piece to the puzzle.

For me, the highlight of this book was the part of Inez’s ward, 12-year-old Antonia plays. Antonia is a younger image of Inez in that she is highly independent and curious. Antonia enjoys visiting the wharves and imagining the ships are crewed by pirates and wonder they might be off to the next.

When the body is found, Antonia meets Moira’s daughter Charlotte. The two feel that the original owners were probably pirates. Antonia enjoys sharing her pirate stories with Charlotte. When Charlotte finds a secret passage, she tells Antonia, and they plan that Charlotte needs help with her fractions and that Antonia should spend the night. They will work on the fractions, but they will also explore the hidden passage and soon find a secret room. Items they find there will help Inez with her investigation when she finally learns of the items.

This book tells a wonderful story and is well-written and plotted. There were enough red herrings that I kept guessing until the end of the book as to the killer's identity.
The characters are well-developed and believable. Many of the characters I would like to call my friend.

I will be looking forward to the next book in this exciting series.… (more)

I've followed Inez Stannert's path from the very first Silver Rush book, Silver Lies. It's a life that has been anything but ordinary and has had more than its share of surprises along the way. It's always a pleasure to see a favored series get stronger with each book, and I'm happy to say that The Secret in the Wall is the best Silver Rush mystery yet. I mean, who doesn't like a mystery that has a skeleton behind the wall, a bag of gold coins, secret passages, secret staircases, and secret rooms? And I haven't even mentioned Alcatraz yet!

Parker always does an excellent job of weaving historical facts into her mysteries, and this time she has the American Civil War and California's part in it to work with. It may be the 1880s, but The Secret in the Wall proves that the Civil War and all its conflict is bubbling away, barely beneath the surface.

What put the smile on my face and raised the enjoyment factor of reading this book tenfold was Inez's ward, teenage Antonia. The daughter of a murdered prostitute, Antonia was left to her own devices until taken in by Inez. Antonia chafes under any sort of authority, and the only reason why she puts up supervision from Inez is that she does respect the older woman. Inez is finding it difficult to keep Antonia on a solid path because she doesn't want to break the girl's amazing spirit. Inez had enough of that herself growing up in a wealthy family on the East Coast. Antonia seems to go out of her way to do the opposite of what she's told, and this only proves that Inez is trying to raise a fiercely independent younger copy of herself.

In The Secret in the Wall, Antonia makes a new friend, and since the new friend lives right next door to where the body in the wall was found, Antonia wants to have a lot of sleepovers at her new friend's house so they can sneak over to explore next-door's secret rooms and passageways. The young girls' investigations mirror Inez's with possibly grave consequences. It's amazing to me how Parker has created a character who exasperates me to no end yet still makes me laugh. Suffice it to say, when Antonia wasn't making me mentally rip my hair out, I was having the time of my life creeping around a derelict house with her in the wee hours of the morning.

And if you're in the mood for some fun in 1880s San Francisco, I strongly recommend joining Inez and Antonia in The Secret in the Wall.

(Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Net Galley)… (more)