What Gold Buys: A Silver Rush Mystery

In Parker’s emotionally and historically convincing fifth Silver Rush mystery (after 2011’s Mercury’s Rise), saloon keeper Inez Stannert is reunited with her unfaithful husband, Mark, in Leadville, a silver-mining Colorado boomtown, in October 1880. She barely has time to check on their business, the Silver Queen Saloon, before discovering a dead body in a shanty in Leadville’s red-light district. The victim is fortune-teller Drina Grizzi, whose predictions have led to many conflicts. The corpse vanishes within hours, perhaps stolen by “resurrection men” hunting bodies to sell for dissection. As more murders follow, Inez attempts to untangle the crimes with the help of Drina’s feisty 12-year-old daughter, Antonia, with whom she forms an enduring bond. She must also sort out her feelings for Mark and the lover who still has her heart, Rev. Justice Sands. Parker wraps up the mystery deftly but leaves Inez’s future sufficiently unresolved so that readers will eagerly await the next installment. (Sept.)