Gold Dust
Gold Dust by Reavis Z. Wortham, published by Sourcebooks, Incorporated in September 2018, is a 384-page work of fiction that intertwines elements of mystery, crime, and historical narrative. Set in the late 1960s in the rural northeast Texas community of Center Springs, the story begins with two government agents who arrive under the guise of testing weather patterns. Their true mission involves a mysterious substance called Gold Dust, coinciding with a young girl’s discovery of an ancient gold coin, which ignites a unique gold rush in the area.
Readers will find a gripping tale that explores the repercussions of government experimentation and the ensuing chaos in Center Springs. The narrative follows fourteen-year-old Pepper Parker and her cousin Top as they navigate a web of cattle rustlers, murderers, and a family curse that complicates their lives. As Constable Ned Parker seeks justice in Washington, D.C., the story delves into themes of rural crime and the impact of hidden agendas, creating a vivid portrayal of a small town caught in a larger conflict.
Official synopsis Publisher
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.
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