About the Book
Author: Liz Tolsma
Genre: Christian Historical/Suspense
Release date: May 2021
A Shadowy Figure Is Intent on Harming Denver’s Women
Book 11 in the True Colors series—Fiction Based on Strange-But True History
Denver of 1900 is still a dangerous place to be following the silver crash of 1893. And of out of the dark comes a shadow intent on harming women. Ambitious young Denver newspaper reporter Polly Blythe is searching for the big story that’s going to launch her career. On Friday evening, August 24, 1900, she gets her break when two women are cracked over the head within a two-minute walk of each other. But policeman Edwin Timmer thwarts Polly’s ideas of a serial criminal. . .until the shadowy figure strikes again. Will the reporter and the policeman team up to find the culprit before he strikes too close for comfort?
Click here to get your copy!
My Thoughts
The Silver Shadow is the 11th book in the True Colors series, historical stories based on true crime events from American history. It is the 4th of those books written by Liz Tolsma.
As always, I enjoyed Liz Tolsma's story and the interesting characters she brought to life in telling it. As this book was based on an almost forgotten piece of true crime history, most of the people and specific details came from the author's imagination. The story dealt with what were likely some very real issues of the day at the turn of the 20th century, particularly in terms of how the roles of women were viewed. The only negative that I would note is that those ideas seemed to be repetitive and slow moving at points, causing the pace to be a little stagnant at times. There was a good amount of suspense, though, in following the thoughts and actions of the villain.
All in all, I would recommend The Silver Shadow to fans of inspirational historical fiction. Thanks to Celebrate Lit for providing a copy of the book. I am happy to share my own thoughts in this review.
About the Author
More from Liz
One of the most popular questions I’ve gotten from many readers of the True Colors Crime series is how do I come up with the ideas for the books? For the first two, Becky Germany, acquisitions editor at Barbour Publishing, had the ideas. That made my life easy. I just had to fictionalize it, and I had a book. But when I was putting together the proposals for The Gold Digger and The Silver Shadow, it was up to me to find the true crimes I wanted to use.
I went online and scoured historical crime blogs and books for ideas. I wanted crimes that I could work easily with, that made for compelling stories. As I was doing this, my husband and two daughters and I were driving home from Georgia. We were somewhere in Indiana. Don’t ask me why I remember this when I can’t remember what I had for dinner last night, but I do.
And then on Google Books, I discovered a book about crimes the world had forgotten. The first one in there sounded so good. Not too grisly, something that no one would be able to guess the culprit very easily. It was perfect. Imagine my excitement when Becky told me they would be publishing The Silver Shadow.
Then I sat down to research it more. And I could hardly find anything! What? Where was all the information on this? There had to be more. That chapter in the one book couldn’t be all there was. He had to get his information from somewhere.
Eventually I did come across some articles from various Colorado newspapers with a few details. Not many at all. None from any of the Denver papers, even though that’s where the crimes were committed.
In the end, that’s all the information I discovered. In a way, it was freeing. I could write whatever I wanted, and no one would be the wiser. Even if they did some research and some digging, there wasn’t much to find. I was able to take the facts that I did have, combine that with what I found out about Denver in 1900, and put it together in a story. I tried to use historical details wherever I could, but of my four True Colors Crimes books, this is the most fictional of them all.
Blog Stops
Musings of a Sassy Bookish Mama, May 25
lakesidelivingsite, May 25
Reviewingbooksplusmore, May 25
For the Love of Literature, May 26
Bigreadersite, May 26
A Modern Day Fairy Tale, May 26
Texas Book-aholic, May 27
Genesis 5020, May 27
Christian Bookaholic, May 27
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, May 28
Vicky Sluiter, May 28
Happily Managing a Household of Boys, May 28
The Write Escape, May 29
Betti Mace, May 29
Inklings and notions, May 29
Southern Gal Loves to Read, May 30
For Him and My Family, May 30
Rebecca Tews, May 30
Older & Smarter?, May 31
deb’s Book Review, May 31
Blogging With Carol, May 31
Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, June 1
Abba’s Prayer Warrior Princess, June 1
Remembrancy, June 1
Locks, Hooks and Books, June 2
Pick a Good Book, June 2
Book Bites, Bee Stings, & Butterfly Kisses, June 2
Connie’s History Classroom, June 3
Godly Book Reviews, June 3
Mary Hake, June 3
Through the Fire Blogs, June 4
Melissa Wardwells Back Porch Reads, June 4
Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, June 4
KarenSueHadley, June 5
Amanda Tero, Blog, June 5
Tell Tale Book Reviews, June 5
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, June 6
Grace-Filled Writer, June 6
Pause for Tales, June 6
Little Homeschool on the Prairie, June 7
Blossoms and Blessings, June 7
Daysong Reflections, June 7
Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Liz is giving away the grand prize of a $25 Amazon gift card and copy of The Silver Shadow!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
https://promosimple.com/ps/10c96/the-silver-shadow-celebration-tour-giveaway
