As I began reading Denver City Justice, I realized there was an earlier book with these characters. However, this book is excellent as a stand-alone. Perhaps I might have had a faster understanding of several characters and motives, but it”s not necessary.

J. v. L. Bell managed to write a delightful historical fiction cozy mystery. She includes strong females and touches on the plight of many individuals during this old west period, including Native Americans, widows, freed slaves, and unmarried women.

A few liberties in the factual timeline allow the cast of characters to interact with actual people and events. I don’t have a problem with this creative license, as it adds to the story.

For all the harsh realities portrayed in the story, I found humor sprinkled throughout the 280 pages. How can you go wrong with fainting goats!

I believe most readers will enjoy Denver City Justice for its factual representation of the Colorado Gold Strike as well as the great mystery.



Thank you to the author and NetGalley for providing me with the book. This review is my honest and unbiased opinion.

3.5 stars

Denver City Justice takes place in the historical western era during the latter half of the 1800s. The book opens in Idaho Springs, then a small mining community. Millie arrives in Colorado after answering a ‘Wife-wanted’ ad; her prior adventures in the west can be read in The Lucky Hat Mine.

The book opens with Millie’s marriage to Dom, but the happy celebrations turn sour after a wedding guest and local widow is found murdered. Everyone is shocked, but it soon becomes apparent that Widow Ferris had been blackmailing residents of Idaho Springs, and a list of murder suspects grows. However, when Millie’s new husband is arrested as chief suspect and taken away to Denver City, Millie is left scampering after him in a desperate rescue mission.

There was plenty of historical information included in this book, particularly elements relating to the white man’s migration west, suppression of the native American Indians, and the African American underground railroad campaign. I felt that some of these other stories took me away from the murder mystery, and, though interesting, did not always fit with the mood of the story; I would have enjoyed a smaller history lesson and more concentration on the main story theme. I did enjoy Millie’s fainting goats, they were fun and lifted the seriousness of several situations. The story was often told through colloquialism filled dialogue, which may particularly appeal to fans of Western style stories.

Overall, this book offered humour, history and humanity, and would perhaps suit those looking for a lighter read in this genre.

Although well-written and well described characters I never really got into this book about blackmail and murder in 1864 Colorado Territory. The setting is a frontier mining town with plenty of colourful characters, many of rather nasty disposition. The author didn't pull punches about life styles,horrific injustice, trials and tribulations of the times so it felt a bit at odds with the coyness of the "wedded bliss" frequently thought about by the heroine Millie. I thought that she had gone west as one of the letter brides but the description suggests that she and, now husband, Dom have featured in previous stories. P'raps I should have read them first. The author clearly has done a lot of research into life at those times and it almost felt as if the story was an adjunct to this rather than the focus. Thanks to NetGalley and Hansen Publishing Group LLC for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really good historical novel, I liked the characters and enjoyed going on the journey with them. There was something that I really enjoyed reading.