Synopses & Reviews
John Lansdowne Granville, gentleman adventurer, having tried and failed to find a fortune in the Klondike, takes a job guarding the silk trains, along with his friend and fellow gold-seeker Sam Scott. On Granville’s first day on the job, he and Scott foil a sabotage attempt. On the second day, they discover the body of gangster Clive Jackson. No sooner have they reported the dead man to the police than Scott is arrested for the murder. Granville quickly discovers that the police have no other suspects; Scott had several altercations with the dead man and owed him money. And Scott? He isn’t talking, not even to Granville.
Granville is determined to get Scott out of jail, but neither the police nor Scott is co-operating. He must somehow uncover a killer in a frontier town where he knows no one. The trail to find Jackson’s killer leads him to glamorous fan dancers, crime bosses, an enemy from Klondike days, a former Oxford schoolmate, an ambitious young reporter, and a pair of Dupont Street prostitutes. Granville must sort out silk trains, smuggling rings, opium dealers, power struggles, blackmail, and betrayal in time to trap a killer and save his friend?
Synopsis
At the turn of the last century, sleek steam liners carried a fortune in silk from the Orient to Vancouver. The costly material, insured by the day, was rushed to New York in specially designed silk trains, which became the target of every crook across the continent. Finding a body on the railroad docks sends John Lansdowne Grenville racing to uncover a killer in a frontier town where he knows no one. Having failed to strike it rich in the Klondike, Grenville has taken a job guarding the silk trains, along with his friend and fellow gold-hunter Sam Scott. When Grenville and Scott come across the body of a gangster on the wharf one snowy morning, Scott is quickly arrested for murder. Grenville is determined to clear his friend, and his hunt for the real killer takes him to the seedy side of the city; to burlesque halls, gambling joints and down along Dupont Street two blocks of brothels and opium dens along the reeking mudflats. Can Grenville sort out silk trains, smuggling rings, opium dealers, houses of ill repute, power struggles, blackmail and betrayal in time to trap a killer and save his friend?
About the Author
Sharon Rowse lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. She has a degree in history with an emphasis on the development of the North American West, and has a particular interest in the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896-99. Sharon has always loved mysteries and writing and is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Crime Writers of Canada. This is her first novel and the start of a series featuring John Lansdowne Granville. Visit her website at www.sharonrowse.com.