The Secret in the Wall - (Silver Rush Mysteries) by Ann Parker (Paperback)

About the Book

"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 Wolter Roeland de Bruijn set out to uncover the truth behind the killings."--

Book Synopsis

2023 Spur Award Winner * Historical Novel Society Editor's Pick

"Appealing characters match satisfying puzzles. Historical fans will be delighted." --Publishers Weekly

Sometimes you can't keep your gown out of the gutter...

Inez Stannert has reinvented herself--again. Fleeing the comfort and wealth of her East Coast upbringing, she became a saloon owner and card sharp in the rough silver boomtown of Leadville, Colorado, always favoring the unconventional path--a difficult road for a woman in the late 1800s.

Then the teenaged daughter of a local prostitute is orphaned by her mother's murder, and Inez steps up to raise the troubled girl as her own. Inez works hard to keep a respectable, loving home for Antonia, carefully crafting their new life in San Francisco. But risk is a seductive friend, difficult to resist. When a skeleton tumbles from the wall of her latest business investment, the police only seem interested in the bag of Civil War-era gold coins that fell out with it. With her trusty derringer tucked in the folds of her gown, Inez uses her street smarts and sheer will to unearth a secret that someone has already killed to keep buried. The more she digs, the muddier and more dangerous things become.

She enlists the help of Walter de Brujin, a local private investigator with whom she shares some history. Though she wants to trust him, she fears that his knowledge of her past, along with her growing attraction to him, may well blow her veneer of respectability to bits--that is, if her dogged pursuit of the truth doesn't kill her first.

Review Quotes

"Agatha finalist Parker's intricate eighth Silver Rush mystery (after 2020's Mortal Music) finds onetime Colorado saloon owner Inez Stannert and her 12-year-old ward, Antonia Gizzi, settled comfortably in 1882 San Francisco...Appealing characters match satisfying puzzles. Historical fans will be delighted." -- Publishers Weekly

"Intricately plotted and intriguingly cast, this richly detailed historical mystery captivates and will leave you wishing for more. Parker's smart, fiercely independent sleuth is pure delight." -- Audrey Blake, USA Today bestselling author

"The year 1882 launches Inez Stannert--sleuth, card shark, musician, saloon owner, and helper of ambitious women--on another adventure...a mystery based on true events and replete with rich period detail, that's a delight to read." -- Kirkus Reviews