Ann Parker

Saloon owner Inez Stannert has relocated to the former boomtown, San Francisco, where she invests in a music store. The body of a young musician washes up in the filthy Mission Creek canal, and Inez finds herself involved in the investigation.

In the sequel to Silver Lies, Inez Stannert struggles to deal with her shaky partnership in Leadville's Silver Queen saloon, a missing husband, and a child still back East. President Ulysses S. Grant prepares to make an appearance to celebrate the coming of the railroad, but old enemies, general lawlessness, and ruthless competitors could ruin everything.

"San Francisco music store owner Inez Stannert agrees to provide financial assistance to boardinghouse proprietor Moira Krause. When the common wall of the abandoned house adjoining Moira's is breached to expand her business, the corpse of a murdered man tumbles out, along with a worn canvas bag holding a fortune in gold coins. Then the locksmith who made the house's unbreakable locks is brutally slain, and the keys vanish. Inez and private detective...

"Autumn, 1880, in the Rocky Mountains brings frost, snow, and the return of Inez Stannert to Leadville, Colorado, where she is one of three partners in the Silver Queen Saloon. Her undisputed reign is going to be challenged by her roving husband, Mark, who returns with her. The third owner, African-American Abe Jackson, is defiitely worried about harnessing this volatile pair to the business, especially as Mark seems bent on wooing back his wife."...

In celebration of their 20th anniversary, Poisoned Pen Press commissioned original short stories from thirty-five of its authors, past and present.