Second Lives Author:Richard S. Wheeler Denver, Colorado, as wildly spectacular a place as the Gilded Age West ever produced, is the setting for Second Lives by master storyteller Richard S. Wheeler. — Into this Rocky Mountain crossroads own in the 1880s streamed all manner of men and women seeking their fortunes in Colorado's gold and silver mines--or at least a chance to make a new l... more »ife. One such emigrant is Lorenzo Carthage, a likeable adventurer whose dazzling mine ventures fail more often than they succeed. Another newcomer is Dixie Ball, an amazon of a woman who plummets from queen of Telluride to chambermaid in a Denver hotel--and whose fortunes, or lack of them, are tied to the man who she calls "Magnificent" Carthage. Others who seek second lives in Denver include a tubercular poet, and Irish saloonwoman who has known Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson, a failed lawyer, and wealthy woman enslaved by her marriage.« less
I find Richard Wheeler's historical novels very readable and entertaining. After finishing this book I missed the main characters and wondered what happened to them later. I also learned a lot of history of the area.