MyShelf.com
Reviewed
by Rachel
A. Hyde
Three
years after
Ann Parker's
debut novel Silver
Lies,
here is
the long-awaited
sequel.
No longer
just another
frontier
town, Leadville
is booming
and the
railroad
is coming.
Photographer
Susan Carothers
is out taking
photographs
of this
exciting
new innovation
when she
witnesses
what appears
to be a
murder.
But when
an explosion
buries her
and she
is taken
to hospital
her story
is dismissed
as delirium.
Her friend
saloon owner
Ines Stannert
is not so
sure - didn't
she hear
a general
mentioned,
and isn't
General
Grant himself
coming to
town to
celebrate
the railroad's
opening?
Maybe the
Civil War
is not so
long ago
after all...
I
grew up
in a family
that loved
westerns,
so reading
one is always
a treat.
Here is
a fascinating
glimpse
into the
heyday of
this mountain
city complete
with saloons,
cardsharps,
gunfights,
civil war
veterans
and the
dawn of
the railroad
age. The
West as
a frontier
is on the
verge of
becoming
history,
but it is
hard not
to be caught
up in the
excitement
of a time
when so
much was
new and
exciting.
It was this
that drew
my attention
and kept
the pages
turning
rather than
the story,
which moves
at a rather
desultory
pace more
akin to
a mule with
a heavy
wagon than
a speeding
stagecoach.
As with Silver
Lies,
this is
not really
a book that
needs its
400+ pages,
and tends
to sag rather
when there
is nothing
new and
old ground
is being
re-trodden
to no useful
purpose.
This aside,
the leading
characters
were well-drawn
and absorbing
in the first
book and
continue
to be so,
people with
long pasts
whatever
their age
and multi-faceted
personalities.
Maybe they
- and the
thrilling
city of
Leadville
- might
be reappearing
in another
(slightly
shorter)
book rather
sooner than
three years
hence.
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