Sooner than Gold

By J.R. Lindermuth

It?s the summer of 1898. The nation, just coming out of an economic slump, has been at war with Spain since April. Sylvester Tilghman, sheriff of Arahpot, Jordan County, Pennsylvania, and his friend, Dr. Hiram Mariner are called to Reliance Colliery, which is owned by Nathan Zimmerman, the new burgess of Arahpot. Five miners have been trapped overnight by a cave-in. When rescuers broke through, Willis Petry was discovered dead and Claude Kessler was standing over him with a knife in hand. Tilghman is informed there was bad blood between the two men. Kessler swears he didn?t kill Petry. Examination reveals the victim wasn?t stabbed. He ingested ground glass, which is found in remnants of sandwiches in his lunch pail. But Mariner determines cause of death was spice cake laced with cowbane, a poisonous plant. Petry had married a widow with two children, a surly teen and a mute child. Suspicion, naturally, falls on the widow. The stepdaughter confesses she put the glass in the sandwich because she didn?t like the man?s treatment of her mother (there?s another, darker reason for her act). But both deny putting any spice cake in Petry?s lunch. Petry is a man with a checkered past. Tilghman learns he had been a pimp previously and was currently operating a gambling den on the side. Kessler declines to explain the bad blood between him and Petry. He admits to gambling with Petry, but has always come out on the winning side. Syl?s life is further complicated when a band of German gypsies, known in Pennsylvania as Chi-kaners, arrive and seek his help. Contrary to the myth of gypsies stealing children, they claim one of their young women was stolen by a goryo (non-gypsy). His name? Willis Petry. Add in threats to Syl?s job by the manipulations of McLean Ruppenthal, the former burgess; a run in with a female horse thief; the murder of a local barber; scary predictions by a gypsy fortuneteller; the shooting of Deputy Cyrus Gutshall after he successfully competes in a July 4 foot-race, and a cross country chase after the villain steals Doc?s new motorcar. There?s plenty of good eating, church-going and socializing along the way. And, before all is over, Sylvester may come closer to his goal of finally marrying longtime girlfriend Lydia Longlow.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1610090837
• ISBN13: 9781610090834
• Release Date: April 2013
• Publisher: Wild Oaks ~ Stories of the Old West
• Length: 190 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.5" x 6.0"