The LostMineMurders
The Lost Mine Murders is the second book in the Klondike Era Mystery series, featuring gentleman turned adventurer John Lansdowne Granville and his fiancée (or is she?), the feisty Emily Turner. This book is the sequel to the critically acclaimed The Silk Train Murder. It takes place in Vancouver and Denver in 1900.
John Lansdowne Granville is a gentleman turned Klondiker turned detective who is determined to make a name and a place for himself in turn-of-the-century Vancouver. Emily Turner is the youngest daughter of a very proper Victorian businessman who has aspirations for a career of her own. In disgrace for helping Granville solve his last case, she has agreed to a mock-engagement with him, but only until she can complete the typewriting course she has set her heart on.
“The Lost Mine Murders” opens with Granville and Scott taking on a case that may cost their lives when an old prospector hires them to help him get gold out of a legendary lost mine.* Ironically, they only takes the case to fill time while they wait for news of Scott’s baby niece, sold by her unscrupulous father. Claim jumpers, murdering thugs and the perils of the Coast Mountains in winter almost spell disaster for them.
Meanwhile, Emily is struggling to master the new typewriting machines and chasing down rumors that someone is trying to kill Granville. Then she gets a telegram that Scott’s niece might be in a baby farm in Denver. She gets word to Granville, and they pool their information. With a sharpshooter on their tail, Granville and Scott head for Denver, while Emily stays in Vancouver and works to solve the mystery of the lost mine.
*The legend of Vancouver’s Lost Mine is well-documented and the story of Slumach, the Katzie Salish man who is said to have discovered the mine, is factual.
