The unlikely 1911 friendship between San Francisco Earthquake survivor Antonia Bonaventura-now the young deputy coroner of Prescott, Arizona-and a bi-racial saloon girl, Elsie Cork, propels this fast-moving story that starts with a Whiskey Row murder and ends with the two women's effort to stop the threatened assassination of Theodore Roosevelt on a high dam on the eve of Arizona statehood. Along the way, the two women collect a crew of helpers, including...