“Book clubs and libraries will find Silver Echoes a memorable, well-written, winning story that deserves top recommendation for its outstanding attention to psychological and social detail and its strong foundations in nonstop action and surprising discoveries.”
Midwest Review has joined the growing number of critics raving about Silver Echoes.
From Midwest Review, April 2025:
Silver Echoes is a ‘Gold Digger’ novel based on a true story. Rebecca Rosenberg juxtaposes characters and places between 1920s Chicago (where Rose Mary Echo Silver Dollar Tabor becomes embroiled in gangster activity) and 1932 Colorado (where Silver’s mother is trying to protect the family silver mine from predatory interests and takeovers while searching for her missing daughter).
These two lives and worlds clash in a vivid, powerful tale of survival and adversity that leads mother and daughter to search for solutions to impossible, dangerous situations.
Rosenberg captures a sense of immediacy through her employment of the first person, which presents Silver’s ambitions and perceptions in a vivid dance with danger:
Each rung sent a jolt of pain through my feet as I climbed. Below, Lake Rhoda shimmered, reflecting a dizzying upside-down world. Lordy, what have I gotten myself into? But then I picture it: the crowds roaring, the flashbulbs popping. My name in every headline. This crazy stunt will make me the talk of the town, the next big thing.
The fluctuating price of silver and the passage of time from 1916 influence the characters in different ways as Rosenberg builds a series of encounters between family, forces, and shifting political milieus. Her attention to injecting an atmosphere of the times into her work results in attracting rapt reader attention to the backdrops which affect mother and daughter:
Baby Doe was lost in the story of her own life, Carl Erickson’s words weaving a tapestry of memory and emotion that enveloped her completely. Fancy ballrooms, chandeliers sparkling like a prospector’s dream. President Arthur, laughing fit to bust. Actors, singers, highfalutin’ folks they’d hobnobbed with. Mark Twain, spinning his tales, Walt Whitman, reciting poetry. Even Sarah Bernhardt, dramatic as all get-out. Met artists too, Tiffany, Remington … their masterpieces hanging in our Denver palace.
Silver Dollar’s legacy may introduce thugs and danger into mother Baby Doe’s life, but that’s only one aspect of her daughter’s choices that she uncovers as she pursues Silver’s life and its connections to and reflections upon her own legacy.
Mining interests, shifting social milieus, and passion permeate a story filled with unforgettable moments:
Our lips met in a last desperate kiss, filled with longing and uncertainty. Our hearts pressed together, the photograph clutched between us, a frail promise in a world on the brink of war. As we pulled apart, the reality of his departure broke my heart into a thousand pieces.
A unique and powerful aspect is how Silver Dollar’s alter ego, Echo La Vode, wreaks havoc on her life, threatening her love for Carl, her show business career, and even her very life.
Libraries and readers interested in historical biographies that sizzle with “you are here” atmosphere, confrontations, psychological inspections, and love will delight in how Rosenberg expands upon the story introduced in her previous novel, Gold Digger: Baby Doe Tabor.
Newcomers need have no prior familiarity with the characters and setting of the first book in order to enter into Silver Dollar’s world, but will find (as will prior enthusiasts) that the two books together capture an extraordinary set of characters whose lives, psyches, and concerns entwine with the times. This creates an action-packed, thoroughly engrossing story that proves hard to put down.
Book clubs and libraries will find Silver Echoes a memorable, well-written, winning story that deserves top recommendation for its outstanding attention to psychological and social detail and its strong foundations in nonstop action and surprising discoveries.
Silver Echoes will be available May 20, 2025. Pre-order now.
GOLD DIGGER and SILVER ECHOES by historical novelist Rebecca Rosenberg are available now at Amazon
