In Railroad Schemes, Holland introduced us to one of the most compelling characters she has ever created:
Lily Viner, a
young girl raised in the harsh mining camps of Virginia City, rescued by the legendary “King” Callahan, a wild Irish outlaw, only to lose him in a battle with the railroad barons who controlled the Western frontier.
Now, in Lily Nevada, Cecelia Holland continues the dramatic tale of this beautiful, strong-willed woman who flees her dark and violent past to make a new life and name for herself in San Francisco at the dawn of the Gilded Age. It is a time of
great opportunity, and even greater peril; when fortunes are built, and lost, overnight; when ruthless tycoons amass great wealth, and growing labor unrest threatens to topple these newly minted empires.
Lily has become an actress and soon her great beauty and even greater skill hurtle her into the limelight. But tormented by her shattered past, Lily begins to live a strange double life. By day, she performs in velvet and lace before the fabulously wealthy rulers of San Francisco’s new aristocracy. But by night, dressed in men’s clothing, she roams the darkest corners of the city, searching for the mother who abandoned her. As embittered workers at last challenge the might of the railroad magnates, the city explodes in violence and turmoil. Alone in a world engulfed in flames, Lily comes face to face with a long-forgotten adversary who could destroy the new life she has won for herself.
“Engrossing and atmospheric . . . an intriguing look at a bygone age.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“Holland’s renditions of the desolately beautiful landscapes of the region, with its dusty frontier towns and vast stretches of dry wilderness, bring a sharply haunting physicality to her engaging story.” —The New York Times
