Ann Parker is an acclaimed American author, best known for her Silver Rush historical mystery series. She has earned degrees in Physics and English Literature from the University of California, Berkeley, and has had a diverse career that includes working as a science writer and corporate writer. Parker's ancestors have a rich history in Colorado, with relatives who worked in Leadville as a blacksmith, at the Herald Democrat newspaper, as a Colorado School of Mines professor, and on the Colorado railroads.
Parker's Silver Rush historical mystery series is set in the early 1880s and primarily takes place in the silver boomtown of Leadville, Colorado. The series features Inez Stannert, a Silver Queen Saloon owner with a mysterious past, a complicated present, and an uncertain future. The first book in the series, Silver Lies, won the Willa Literary Award for Historical Fiction and the Colorado Gold Award, and was a finalist for several other awards. The second book, Iron Ties, won the Colorado Book Award for Popular Fiction, and the third book, Leaden Skies, was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. The fourth book, Mercury's Rise, won the Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award, and the fifth book, What Gold Buys, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. The series has been praised for its strong female protagonist, intricate plot, lively characters, and vividly realized historical landscape. The next three books in the series take Inez and her young ward, Antonia Gizzi, to San Francisco.