Best of the West 2019 - 2nd Place in 20th- to 21st-Century Western
Mystery Fiction by TrueWest Magazine
Wortham's writing style is easygoing, relying on natural-sounding
dialogue and vivid descriptions to give us the feeling that this story
could well have taken place. --Booklist
As the 1960s draw to a close, the rural northeast Texas community of
Center Springs is visited by two nondescript government men in dark
suits and shades. They say their assignment is to test weather currents
and patterns, but that's a lie. Their delivery of a mysterious
microscopic payload called Gold Dust from a hired crop duster coincides
with fourteen-year-old Pepper Parker's discovery of an ancient gold coin
in her dad's possession. Her adolescent trick played on a greedy adult
results in the only gold rush in north Texas history. Add in modern-day
cattle-rustlers and murderers, and Center Springs is once again the
bull's-eye in a deadly target.
The biological agent deemed benign by the CIA has unexpected
repercussions, putting Pepper's near-twin cousin, Top, at death's door.
The boy's crisis sends their grandfather, Constable Ned Parker, to
Washington D.C. to exact personal justice, joined by a man Ned left
behind in Mexico and had presumed dead. The CIA agents who operate on
the dark side of the U.S. government find they're no match for men who
know they're right and won't stop. Especially two old country boys
raised on shotguns.
But there's more. Lots more. Top Parker thought only he had what had
become known as a Poisoned Gift, but Ned suffers his own form of a
family curse he must deploy. Plus, there are many trails to follow as
the lawmen desperately work to put an end to murder and government
experimentation that extends from their tiny Texas town to Austin and,
ultimately, to Washington, D.C. Traitors, cattle-rustlers, murderers,
rural crime families, grave robbers, CIA turncoats, and gold-hungry
prospectors pursue agendas that all, in a sense, revolve around the
center of this small vortex called Center Springs.
Gold Dust seems to be fiction, but the truth is, it has already
happened.
