Shinonn Flannery was 18 years old when she donned her brother's castoff clothing and headed west to the California gold fields. She was seeking adventure, she told herself, never admitting her true reason for undertaking the arduous and sometimes dangerous journey - that she longed to set eyes once again upon the mysterious stranger who had come to her tiny prairie village five years before and ignited the young girl's dreams - the man who also shot and killed her father. CRIMSON PALACE is a story about the Reno, Nevada gambling casino Shinonn built for the gambling man who stole her heart. It is also about the lives of those who followed her, the heirs to the casino that sprang from a love too strong to die.