From time to time we'll see novels with a numismatic theme. These can be good fun even if the numismatic details are off. If anyone reads this one, let us know what you think. Here's an article from the La Crosse Tribune of Wisconsin, where the novel is set.
-Editor
Sue Berg of rural Westby has a love for the beauty of the Driftless Area and a love of mystery novels. Those two loves have come together for her first detective mystery called Driftless Gold.
Released on April 22, the Jim Higgins Driftless Mystery novel is the first in a series of six. The series takes place in and around La Crosse, during the current time. The second book in the series will be released in December of this year.
According to the Driftless Gold synopsis on Berg’s website, Down a Drifless Road, : When a migrant worker is discovered partially buried in a shallow grave at a local gravel quarry, Lt. Jim Higgins is called to the scene. But things heat up when an antique gold coin in found in the dead man’s pocket. Lt. Jim Higgins begins to unravel a murder that will take him back into Wisconsin’s early history. During the investigation, Higgins meets a local archeological savant and treasure hunter who tells him a wild tale about a U.S. Army payroll that was stolen on the way to Fort Crawford in Prairie du Chien in 1866. The payroll has never been recovered. Is the coin on the dead man part of the stolen cache of valuable coins? Higgins hesitates to base his investigation on a wild tale, but he has nothing else to go on. In a race against time, Higgins struggles to identify the killer—and find the elusive gold treasure.
Berg said she tried to weave in Wisconsin history, It’s not necessarily true. In the 1990s, when Berg was pursuing her master’s degree she was in Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse when she happened across a story about a lost gold shipment.
It became a legend and that was the impetus for the book, she said. The legend from the 1860s is woven into this story.
Jim Higgins is with the Sheriff’s Office and has a crew of three young, green detectives, Berg said. Another character is a savant archeologist… He gets himself into a bad situation. It adds to the flavor
Berg said the second book is a standalone novel, but will have the same detective team. It will show how they change and how life changes.
To read the complete article, see:
Rural Westby author Sue Berg writes first detective mystery
(https://lacrossetribune.com/community/vernonbroadcaster/news/rural-westby-author-sue-berg-writes-first-detective-mystery/article_0105a3d8-709f-51ca-9510-3ce81ed0062c.html)
For more information, see:
https://downadriftlessroad.com/
Wayne Homren, Editor
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