A Dying Note: A Silver Rush Mystery

Set in 1881, Parker’s exuberant sixth Silver Rush mystery (after 2016’s What Gold Buys) brims with fascinating period details, flamboyant characters, and surprising plot twists. Inez Stannert and her 12-year-old ward, Antonia Gizzi, have relocated from Leadville, Colo., to San Francisco, where the former saloon owner and silent partner of a high-end bordello is now managing the D & S House of Music and Curiosities, a haven for the city’s underemployed and underpaid musicians. When the body of a young man, his face brutally bludgeoned, is pulled from the Mission Creek canal, Inez fears it might be someone she knows. Before the plucky Inez can begin her investigation, she finds herself literally confronted by her shady past in the form of silver baron Harry Gallagher, who gives her one week to discover the murderer. Should she fail, he will expose her past associations and thus ruin her socially and financially. Parker leaves the reader longing to see what Inez will get up to next. (Apr.)