THE SECRET IN THE WALL

The year 1882 launches Inez Stannert—sleuth, card shark, musician, saloon owner, and helper of ambitious women—on another adventure.

Inez, who exchanged the stifling lifestyle of her wealthy East Coast family for a wild life in Leadville, Colorado, now runs a music store in San Francisco while using her extra cash to help women start their own businesses. Her latest venture, partnering with widow Moira Krause to purchase the house next door in order to expand her rooming house, proves a dangerous investment. A party to break through the walls of the attached houses is disrupted when a skeleton and a bag of gold are discovered in the wall. Antonia Gizzi, Inez’s 12-year-old ward who’s lately been obsessed with pirates, jumps to the conclusion that the gold is pirate treasure. While Inez works to retrieve the gold from the police, Moira wants to learn the victim’s identity so she can give him a proper burial. She hires private detective Wolter de Bruijn, whose path had crossed Inez’s back in Leadville. Antonia has befriended Moira’s daughter, Charlotte, and by chance they discover a secret passage in the old house that leads to a number of hidden rooms filled with fascinating relics that convince them pirates are indeed involved. Unfortunately, the people most keenly interested in the gold are not long-dead buccaneers but active, living men with dark secrets to hide. Inez and de Bruijn team up to solve several murders while protecting the girls, who are still concealing their discovery.

A convoluted mystery, based on true events and replete with rich period detail, that’s a delight to read.