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$13.95
390 pages
ISBN-10: 0867196742
ISBN-13: 9780867196740
Publisher: Last Gasp
The day before the 1906 earthquake, the U.S. Army failed to pick up $130,000 in misstruck $20 gold pieces at the San Francisco Mint for return to Denver to be melted down. The coins' "S" mint marks (for San Francisco) had been accidentally double-struck: "SS." After the Big One, with fires threatening the Mint and armed gangs massing to attack, Mint Superintendent Herbert Walther sends the misstrikes to Army headquarters by wagon. The coins never arrive. Only two are ever found. They become the most storied coins in U.S. history. The others become the Lost Gold of San Francisco. Jump to 1989: Chester Worthington Gilchrist III, billionaire publisher of the San Francisco Foghorn newspaper, donates his priceless coin collection to the California Museum. It contains one of the two known 1906-SS gold pieces. Brash reporter Ed Rosenberg covers the story. Then the founder of the Museum turns up murdered. He has a long list of enemies -- but soon, the chief suspect is Gilchrist's son, Chet, just pardoned after 10 years as a fugitive charged with heroin trafficking. Ed chases the story all over the City by the Bay. More bodies drop, and Ed suspects a connection to the Lost Gold. Meanwhile, Ed locks horns with a rogue's gallery of San Francisco characters, including the bulldog owner of the alternative weekly, and the swashbuckling founder of a controversial magazine that mixes investigative reporting and naked women. For help, Ed turns to a rabbinical school dropout who shoots a mean game of pool, a young Chinese-American reporter with a black belt in karate, and an exotic woman with a talent for public relations -- who's even more talented in private. Soon Ed isn't just reporting the story. Someone is shooting at him. The Lost Gold of San Francisco is a gripping, intricately-plotted thrill ride vividly set during the fairy-tale autumn of the Bay Bridge World Series and the Loma Prieta earthquake. You'll love the action, the characters, the local color, and the historical detail.
"Vivid and compelling. You can smell the fear, feel the heat, and hear the bedlam of the 1906 earthquake... The Lost Gold isn't just a formula mystery. It's a love letter to a place that Castleman knows intimately and adores." -San Francisco Chronicle. "Michael Castleman views San Francisco with an eye for detail that Herb Caen would envy. If you're looking for a gripping, fun read, you’ll strike gold with The Lost Gold." -Jeffrey Klein, The Black Hole Affair. "Castleman is one helluva writer. The Lost Gold is an action-packed mystery with great descriptions, lively dialogue, and a historian's eye for detail at both ends of the twentieth century." -Brian Rouff, Dice Angel.
