At the turn of the last century, sleek 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.
Hungry and broke, gentleman/adventurer John Lansdowne Granville takes a job guarding silk trains, along with his friend and fellow gold-hunter Sam Scott. When they stumble on a gangster’s corpse, Scott is arrested for murder.
Granville’s hunt for the real killer takes him to the seedy side of Vancouver; to burlesque halls, gambling joints and down along Dupont Street -- two blocks of brothels and opium dens along the reeking mudflats. He finds allies in Emily Turner, the emancipated daughter of a very Victorian father and in young would-be train robber Trent Davis.
Can Granville survive the dark side of the city and find the answers he needs in time to save his friend…
“…an impressive debut…lots of colorful historical detail...”—Booklist (starred review)
“Rowse knows her characters – how they think, how they act and interact. … The chemistry between Turner and Granville is potent and charming, focused more on investigation than romance, but with enough hints of a lasting partnership for future installments. It’s just another of the many unexpected pleasures that make Rowse one of Canada’s newest mystery writers to watch..” —Quill & Quire (starred review)
“Talk about a big, bubbling stewpot of a book!… delicious… Rowse, a first-time novelist, has delivered a wild ride through a colorful, relatively unknown period in North American history, and she's populated it with a host of unforgettable characters. Her protagonist, the Honorable Granville, makes an appealing leading man, and his lady love, the liberated Emily Turner, provides the perfect romantic coda to this rip-roaring adventure."—Mystery Scene Magazine
"The Silk Train Murder" was nominated for an Arthur Ellis award for Best First Novel.
About the Author:
Sharon Rowse is a Vancouver–based writer who has always loved reading, in every genre and every format. In the absence of a good book (which doesn’t happen often now that we have e-books!) she’s been known to read the back of the cereal boxes. Fulfilling a lifelong dream, Sharon is now writing two mystery series; the Klondike Era Mysteries and the Barbara O'Grady Mysteries.