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Historical fiction at its finest acts as a time machine that transports us to a place of unfamiliar sensibilities. This may be rendered as a simple recitation of names and dates or as a fully fleshed out depiction of life and times. In her books Ann Parker manages to carry us to 1880′s Colorado with a tactile sensuousness that pervades her prose and seamlessly sets us in the slipstream of her story. It is this ability to physically place us in the midst of her characters lives that makes reading her a joy as well as a journey.
In this her fourth book depicting both Leadville, Colorado and the life of Inez Stannert, Parker once again brings us an entelechial world in prose. As in all her books the mise-en-scene is brilliant. She evokes for us colors, smells, the very dust in the air, with a convincing realism. For those readers who have followed Inez’s story since “Silver Lies”(her first book), you know her as a head-strong independent woman, ahead of her time, beset with all manner of personal problems. She is the part owner of a saloon, the Silver Queen, in Leadville with an absentee husband, a black man for a partner, and a child she had to send East to her sister for health reasons. These story threads come crashing into each other as Inez heads to Manitou Springs with her photographer friend Susan to reunite with her sister, her son, and other unexpected family problems. The trip is clouded by an inexplicable death on the stagecoach ride South. Once she arrives Inez must cope with upheaval, a grieving widow, medical quackery, and the underbelly of spa tourism rife with fraud.
Combining elements of the Western, the Cozy, and Holmesian Victorian dialogue Parker presents us with a wholly captivating picture of the times. The accepted sexism of the era colors all of Inez’s problems and their solutions. These four novels are wonderfully researched, full of unique details, and the characters are delineated in a very life-like manner.
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As a huge admirer of the “Deadwood” television series, I found Parker’s novels to be just as original in their depiction of a similar time and place. Whereas “Deadwood” was violent and in your face, Parker’s books are more carefully constructed and closer to the pace of the times. In “Deadwood” the characters often spoke in faux-Shakespearian fanciful rants. Parker’s dialogue hews much truer to the times and imparts a sense of how constricted verbal exchange was, especially between the sexes, under Victorian mores.
I find it odd that the British can adapt the Victorian era to television so beautifully (witness the success of “Downton Abbey”), but we in America can’t seem to do the same. I believe these novels would translate to a television series as well as anything the BBC does. Until that happens we have Ann Parker’s novels to delve into and be carried back in time to when the frontier was ending and the new realities of growth and urbanization were speeding toward us.
Poisoned Pen Press has done itself proud in publishing these novels. Ann Parker will soon be starting the next chapter in Inez Stannert’s adventure so this is a good time to catch up on life in Leadville.
STEVE SHADOW SCHWARTZ
For further reading I suggest the first three books in the series which contain fascinating afterwards detailing the research involved. The titles are:
SILVER LIES
IRON TIES
LEADEN SKIES
Click here to order them from The Poisoned Pen.
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