When the body of Joe Rose, a precious-metals assayer, turns up trampled behind her saloon, Inez Stannert is asked by the victim's widow to help settle his affairs, a job that leads Inez into a web of skewed assays, counterfeit money, blackmail, and murder.

It is 1880 and the railroad is coming to town. Former President Ulysses S. Grant arrives along with the train to celebrate the event and look into possible investments. Inez is dealing with the problem of her missing husband while trying to maintain ownership of the saloon. She makes a backroom deal with the local madam, Frisco Flo, hoping to gain some money of her own. When the body of one of Flo?s girls turns up, mud starts flying, accompanied in...

Autumn 1880 in the Rocky Mountains brings frost, snow, and the return of Silver Queen Saloon owner Inez Stannert to Leadville, Colorado.In this silver rush boomtown, those who are hungry for material riches seek their fortunes in precious metals. Others, hungry for spiritual relief, seek to pierce the veil between life and death with the help of fortunetellers, mediums, and occultists. Deep in the twisted byways of Leadville's Stillborn Alley, soothsayer...

"San Francisco. Winter 1881-82. All pianist Inez Stannert wants for Christmas is for the struggling music store she owns in San Francisco to be a success. When diva Theia Carrington Drake asks Inez to be her accompanist for several high-profile personal appearances, Inez is thrilled. This is the chance she was waiting for-a way to make some extra money and bring her store into the limelight of the city's polite society to enhance her business. But...