Gilded Mountain by Kate Manning

 

When the Pelletier family comes to Moonstone, Colorado, it is with high hopes.  They have come so Jack, the father, can work in the marble mines as he is a skilled explosive worker.  But things do not work out.  It turns out that the mine work is full of danger, work that isn't paid for, required overtime and other things.  The Padgetts who own the mine, are extremely wealthy but they gained that wealth exploiting workers and they don't plan to change anytime soon.

Sylvie is the oldest girl.  She does whatever she can to help out, taking what load she can from her mother and working odd jobs when she can.  She gets a job working on the local newspaper and then one summer, a dream job.  She will be working and living at the Padgett estate, being a secretary and companion to Padgett's second wife.  While there, she meets Jasper, the Padgett son and heir and they begin a relationship.

But Moonstone is about to explode and Sylvie is there for all of it.  A union organizer comes and sets up a union and soon the workers are on strike and living in tents in the frigid Colorado winter.  The mine owners and bosses bring in the Pinkertons, not as detectives but as enforcers and bullies.  Even Mother Jones comes to talk with the union men, and Sylvie meets her.  But things explode and soon Moonstone isn't a safe place to be.

This book is written on true events and uses some true historical figures like Mother Jones, the Pinkertons and King Leopold of Belgium.  But the story belongs to Sylvie and the miners and the book's sympathies are with them.  Sylvie is a brave individual and the twists and turns of her life make interesting reading.  This book is recommended for readers of historical fiction.