Silver Lies

From Publishers Weekly Meet 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. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. Review "Silver Lies is a tale of greed, lust and deception set in Leadville in its heyday, when men--and not a few women--stopped at nothing, not even murder, to strike it rich. Ann Parker gets is just right, and the result is a terrific debut novel." --Margaret Coel The dog days of summer have arrived, and Tai Randolph is feeling the heat. Running her uncle's gun shop is more demanding than she ever imagined. Her best friend Rico is competing for a national slam poetry title. And Atlanta is overrun with hundreds of fame-hungry performance poets clogging all the good bars. She's also got her brand-new relationship with corporate security agent Trey Seaver to deal with. SWAT-trained and rule-obsessed, Trey has a brain geared for statistics and flow charts, not romance. And while Tai finds him irresistibly fascinating, dating a human lie detector who can kill with his bare hands is a somewhat precarious endeavor. And then just when she thinks she might get a handle on things, one of Rico's fellow poets is murdered ... and Rico becomes the prime suspect. Tai pushes up her sleeves and comes to his defense with every trick in her book a little lying here, a little snooping there. Trey wants her off the case immediately. So does Rico. Every poet in Atlanta has a secret, it seems, and one of them is willing to kill to keep theirs quiet. But someone else wants her on the job, someone dropping anonymous clues and clandestine tip-offs her way. Someone with an agenda that's looking either positively heroic ... or downright deadly. Will Tai's relationship with Trey survive another foray into amateur sleuthing? And even more importantly, will she? The dog days of summer have arrived, and Tai Randolph is feeling the heat. Running her uncle's gun shop is more demanding than she imagined. Her best friend from childhood, Rico, is competing for a national slam poetry title worth a bundle. And Atlanta is overrun with fame-hungry performance poets clogging all the good bars. Tai is also handling her new relationship with corporate security agent Trey Seaver. SWAT-trained and rule-obsessed, his brain rewired by a devastating car crash, Trey is geared for statistics and flow charts, not romance. And while Tai finds him fascinating, dating a human lie detector who can kill with his bare hands is a precarious endeavor. Then one of Rico's fellow poets is murdered...and Rico becomes the prime suspect. Tai, springing to his defense with every trick in her book - a little lying here, some snooping there - quickly learns all the poets harbor secrets. And someone has an agenda that's either positively heroic or downright deadly.... He will take seventeen to the match - how many will he bring back? In Cibola football is a matter of life and death. Sir Tristram must reunite his Blood City teammates - Knights, Pirates and Westerners - to win the prestigious Seskie tournament against their oldest rivals. Behind the match is a bigger power play, a king's mission to bring down his greatest rival by persuasion, trickery or force. Needing a squad of soldiers as well as footballers, Sir Tristram must also find a place on tour and in his heart for the teenage child he has not addressed by name since infancy...